Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of the modern nation of Germany, the successor state to Nazi Germany, which perpetrated the Holocaust during World War II.
Germany
The Latest
-
Opinion A German tabloid called me antisemitic. It cost me my job. Now, it’s my turn to speak
This piece originally appeared in German in Berliner Zeitung. English translation by Léon Dische Becker. A psychologist recently introduced me to the concept of “learned helplessness.” It describes what I’ve experienced in the past few weeks: moments of pure panic that left me frozen in the moment, unable to breathe. I was living in fear…
-
News A journalist exposed Nazis — then lost her dream job over Israel
Journalist Nemi El-Hassan brought cameras inside a neo-Nazi concert in 2017, exposing the gathering to millions of Germans as she challenged the organizers over merchandise that extolled Hitler and ties to the far-right Alternative for Germany party. “El-Hassan is a confident, hijab-wearing Muslim woman, even when at a right-wing rock concert in Themar surrounded by…
-
Opinion Angela Merkel is on her way out. What’s next for Germany’s Jews and Israel?
Germany’s Jews had a strong ally in Angela Merkel, who confronted antisemitism head on throughout her 16 years leading the nation, and most recently during the May fighting between Israel and Hamas, when she condemned anti-Israel and antisemitic protests. This week’s federal elections have ushered in a new era for Germany. But it could take…
-
News Germany’s far-right political party, the AfD, is dominating Facebook this election
Earlier this month, Germany’s far-right nationalist political party Alternative für Deutschland, or the AfD, posted on Facebook. Widespread support for Sharia law among Muslims in Afghanistan, the group claimed, illustrated the danger “wenn sich Massen von Afghanen auf den Weg nach Deutschland und Europa machen” (“when masses of Afghans make their way to Germany and…
-
Opinion Reparations helped Germany atone for its past. They can help America, too
When I visited Berlin a number of years ago, I was surprised by the number of plaques embedded in the city’s streets that contain the name of Jews sent to their death by the Nazi regime. I was equally impressed by the myriad neighborhood memorials that many visitors might easily miss: a wall at a…
-
Film & TV An Oscar winner gives new life to a classic story of exile
When Caroline Link reread “When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit,” decades after she first read it for school, she underlined a passage where Swiss boys throw gravel at the young Jewish protagonist. She couldn’t wait to direct that scene. It’s a curious, if not quite startling moment in the chapter book, a 1971 semi-autobiographical novel of…
-
Culture Jewish music in Germany after the Holocaust
Read this article in Yiddish. Tina Frühauf Transcending Dystopia: Music, Mobility, and the Jewish Community in Germany, 1945-1989 Oxford University Press, 2021, 644 pp. Immediately after World War II, the German rabbi Leo Baeck, who had survived the war in the concentration camp Terezin, declared: “The history of German Jews has ended once and for…
-
Culture 2 generations of Germans look to the past and future of the country’s Jews
Semon Shabaev and Anja Baron were born in two different Germanys. Baron, 55, grew up in a Berlin with no visible Jewish life; filling that absence was a profound sense of guilt. Shabaev, who turns 21 in April, is a member of a thriving Jewish community and part of a generation committed to thinking beyond…
Explore
Most Popular
In Case You Missed It
-
News A congregational rabbi said there were no innocents in Gaza. The blowback was fierce.
-
Fast Forward Most American Jews say they rarely or never pray, new poll finds
-
Culture How a cross-dressing Gene Hackman heralded a new age of Jewish assimilation in Hollywood
-
News Why the ADL is encouraging Jews to invest in Tesla
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
