Where is the safest place for Jews worldwide? Anti-Semitic attacks with startling parallels to the 1930s are rocking Europe and the United States. Prominent American commentators are whitewashing and even glorifying the Holocaust. One country appears to be the Jews’ last defender in an otherwise anti-Semitic world. Ironically, it is the country that started the Holocaust: Germany.

Undoing Historical Injustice

Germany has granted citizenship to survivors and descendants of Nazi persecution since 1949. But bureaucratic hurdles made it difficult for people to qualify. In 2021, the German government simplified the process. Applicants only needed to provide proof that Nazi Germany persecuted their ancestors.

The number of people taking advantage of this is small, but it is multiplying. In 2016, the German Consulate General in New York received 350 applications. In 2024, it received 1,500. Israel National News estimates as many as 350,000 American-Jews could qualify for German or Austrian citizenship.

Applicants have blamed the deteriorating political environment in other countries. Joe Sacks, a science teacher from Washington, D.C., told npr that safety for Jews in foreign countries “always seemed very, very tenuous.” But he acknowledged it felt strange to be looking for refuge from Germany. “It’s a pretty weird thing,” he said. “You click ‘Yes, I’m Jewish’ on the German form and send it to the German government. It’s wild.”

Why are so many people seeking this status?

Fighting Modern Injustice

It’s not only Holocaust victims. Germany is also assisting victims of Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas invaded Israel and murdered 1,200 people. Applying for citizenship in any country is normally a lengthy and bureaucratic process. But in the weeks following the massacre, Germany fast-tracked applications for qualifying hostages and supported their families. The Times of Israel broke the story on August 6:

The Yaakov boys [Yagil and Or, two hostage brothers] were among an unknown number of hostages and their relatives who were quietly granted German citizenship in the weeks after the attack—part of a little-publicized but intensive effort by Berlin to assist Israelis with proven citizenship claims.

Coordinated largely through the German Embassy in Tel Aviv, the process took place almost entirely under the radar, with no public announcements or political fanfare. For those involved, it was one of the few tangible lifelines amid the uncertainty and grief.

Yagil and Or were only teenagers when kidnapped on October 7. Their family applied for citizenship on their behalf while they were in captivity. When Hamas released them during a November 2023 ceasefire, “they had German passports waiting for them,” their uncle told the Times. “The humanity of the German Embassy,” he continued, “it wasn’t expected.”

“So many people in Israel are descendants of Holocaust survivors or victims who were born in what used to be the German Reich,” German Ambassador to Israel Stefan Seibert told the Times. He continued: “The kibbutzim in the Gaza border area were largely Ashkenazi—very ‘Yekke’ [slang for German-speaking Jews]. That’s why so many of the hostages had German roots.”

Germany is not only making it easier for threatened Jews to immigrate. Jews already in Germany don’t want to leave. Germany’s Jewish community has 118,000 people. In 2023, 170 German-Jews immigrated to Israel. In 2024, it was 146. Contrast that with France, which has Europe’s largest Jewish community at about 500,000. France has had a notable problem with anti-Semitism for years now. Israel received over 7,000 applications for citizenship from French-Jews in 2024 alone—up from 1,200 in 2023. Statistics suggest over a third of French-Jews are considering immigrating to Israel.

Preserving Historical Memory

This past April was the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald Concentration Camp. Buchenwald today is a memorial and museum. A woman visited the memorial on the anniversary wearing a kaffiyeh, a traditional Arab headdress often worn by pro-Palestinian protesters. Staff refused to give her entrance, so she took the memorial to court.

On August 20, the Higher Administrative Court of Thuringia ruled that Buchenwald could deny the woman entry, emphasizing the woman planned “sending a political message against what she saw as [Buchenwald’s] one-sided support for the policies of the Israeli government.”

A leaked internal memorial document described the kaffiyeh as “closely associated with efforts to destroy the State of Israel.” Memorial director Jens-Christian Wagner later commented that some of the document’s wording was “mistaken.” He clarified that “when it is used together with other symbols … to relativize Nazi crimes, then we would ask people to remove those symbols.”

Last year, the late Pope Francis unveiled a Nativity display where the manger was decorated with a kaffiyeh. The implication was that Israel was slaughtering Gazan children as Herod tried to kill Christ. Even the pope rallied behind the kaffiyeh as a symbol of Israeli “genocide.” But the administration of one of Germany’s most notorious concentration camp memorials refused to follow suit, and the German court system agreed.

These examples may seem like small steps. But taken together, they make Germany look like the lone major Western country that has learned the lessons of the past. Germany looks like the only country that is determined not to repeat historical sins. Germany looks like the one Western country Jews can trust.

Bible prophecy says the Jews will trust Germany intimately. This will lead to catastrophe.

Enacting Betrayal

The Jewish prophet Isaiah composed his eponymous book of the Bible approximately 2,700 years ago. But the prophecies he recorded weren’t meant only for the ancient world. Isaiah 30:8 shows the prophecy is for the far future: “Now go, write it before them on a tablet, And note it on a scroll, That it may be for time to come, Forever and ever” (New King James Version). Passages like Isaiah 2 meanwhile date to after the return of the Messiah, a yet future event.

One pertinent prophecy is Isaiah 10:5-7: “O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.”

Assyria was an ancient empire based in what is today Iraq. Assyria was a major enemy of the ancient Jewish kingdom. But the descendants of ancient Assyria migrated into what is today Germany. The modern Assyrians are the German people. Our free booklet Germany and the Holy Roman Empire elaborates.

Germany launched the Holocaust of the previous century. Bible prophecy says it will launch another Holocaust this century.

A related prophecy in Daniel 11 refers to Germany as the “king of the north” and describes it launching a massive invasion of the Middle East (verse 40). Verse 41 states: “He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown ….”

“They ‘enter’ into the glorious land, or the Holy Land,” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry writes in The King of the South. “The Hebrew indicates this is a peaceful entry—not forced. The Jews appear to invite them in as peacekeepers. After war explodes in the Middle East, there will probably be a thunderous call for a peacekeeper in Jerusalem. The king of the north will no doubt take the job. But it leads to a great double cross ….”

Why does the State of Israel trust Germany to defend it from chaos? Could it be because Germany appears to be the only powerful, trustworthy country? But as Isaiah, Daniel and many other biblical writers state, this is leading to the Jews’ greatest trial. Germany is about to repeat its history.

“The Jews say, ‘Never again!’” Mr. Flurry writes in The Key of David. “Sadly, we have to tell them they are dead wrong. It is going to happen again, and it’s going to make the Holocaust look like a dress rehearsal. The Jews suffered horribly in World War ii. That history is a stark warning of what is about to come upon them!”

The Bible’s prophecies are sobering. But they also contain much hope. Daniel’s prophecy continues to Daniel 12:1, which describes “a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time ….” But it is at that time, the verse continues, that “your people, everyone who is found written in the Book [of Life], will be rescued” (Amplified Bible). God promises to put a stop to all these events. And He promises protection to those who turn to Him beforehand.

The prophecies of the terrible times ahead are certain. The onus is on people to act before it is too late.

To learn more, read “Are Germany and Israel Truly Friends?” in our August issue.