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Home > Publications > Ethnic Cleansing in Germany A Symposium
Ethnic Cleansing in Germany: A Symposium
On the same day, the Lower House of the Bundestag (the Federal Parliament) passed a bill authorizing the immediate summary deportation of any of the millions of foreigners, particularly third-world
foreigners in Germany, if they participate in demonstrations viewed by the police as “confrontational” or “potentially violent.”
This happens without any due-process hearings and comes at a time when the
hundreds of thousands of Bosnian and Kurdish war refugees are seeking asylum. Turkish and other guest workers, Romani (Gypsy), Sinti (German Gypsy) and others are finally beginning to stand up and demonstrate against the brutality and
violence they have suffered at the hands of the police, skinheads, and others. And this follows by only a few weeks other legislation enacted by the Bundestag, which allows for jail without hearing for up to seven days for anyone who participates in any demonstration that may be considered “confrontational.” Of course, just bringing out some skinheads can make any
demonstration confrontational. This is part of a national campaign by Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s party and his line of “Deutschland ist kein Einwanderungsland”—“Germany is not a country for immigrants.” Deportations based on mere
suspicion, not on conviction, have now appeared for the first time in Germany. This situation resembles the old hooliganism laws in the former Soviet Union, which allowed for arrests for any perceived “anti-state” activity. And it certainly underscores an end to government efforts to integrate foreigners into German society.
And again, only days ago, the Los Angeles Times published a very long report on the investigation and case regarding the firebombing of an asylum refugee shelter in Lübeck, Germany, that killed 10 and injured some 40 others. The firebombing was timed to take place on the same day as Israeli President Ezer Weizman was in Germany to commemorate the Holocaust. And Lübeck is a relatively small town where the synagogue, which had been burned down in the 1938 Kristallnacht,
had recently been rebuilt. It was shortly thereafter firebombed last year, just before a Passover Seder was to occur for the first time since the Holocaust.
The press also recently announced a plan for major political parties to limit the quota of any more non-German Jews to immigrate to Germany. Ignatz Bubus, the leader of the Jewish community, was to meet and to talk about the quotas. This was, however, just too reminiscent of Polish Jews having to negotiate in the ghettos with Poland’s German occupiers.
And all of this comes at the time when the German state announced plans to step up expulsions of the thousands of Bosnian war refugees, ripping apart families, even in the middle of the night. Children who would be allowed to stay in Germany have been born to parents who must leave the country—being sent back to areas where they are still subject to great persecution. Persons of Turkish, Kurdish, Islamic, Jewish, Romani and other minorities have been the target of hundreds of documented racist attacks—including physical violence, vandalism and defamation. That fact has been fully documented by Amnesty International and Human Rights Office.
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