German security chief worried over antisemitic crime

Thomas Haldenwang, head of the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, attends a press conference with the German Interior Minister on the Constitution Protection Report 2021 in Berlin, on June 7, 2022. (John MACDOUGALL / AFP)
Thomas Haldenwang, head of the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, attends a press conference with the German Interior Minister on the Constitution Protection Report 2021 in Berlin, on June 7, 2022. (John MACDOUGALL / AFP)

The head of Germany’s domestic security agency says he is worried by a rise in antisemitic offences in response to the Israel-Hamas conflict, comparing it to the “worst times in German history.”

The outbreak of the conflict has seen an increase in antisemitic violence, Thomas Haldenwang, the head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), tells magazine Spiegel.

Antisemitic crime figures had long been very high, but the recent rise is a “turning point,” Haldenwang says.

“I fear that this new wave of antisemitism will continue to occupy us for a long time,” he says.

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