November 11, 2019, 4:18 AM
Thousands of counter protesters formed a human chain around Bielefeld’s synagogue
Nearly 15,000 people took to the streets of Bielefeld, Germany on Saturday as a display of solidarity and strength against a neo-Nazi demonstration that was held on the 81st anniversary of Kristallnacht.
Germany’s right wing party organized the 230 neo-Nazis who march through the city as they called for the release of 91-year-old Ursula Haverbeck, who is currently serving her fourth prison sentence for holocaust denial.
Thousands of counter protesters formed a human chain around Bielefeld’s synagogue, and held a vigil there as well.
The demonstration was organized by Bielefeld’s Alliance Against the Right, and counter protesters criticized German city officials for grant neo-nazis permission to carry out their march.
The president of the state parliament North Rhine-Westphalia, Andrew Kuper, says that counter protesters recognized the anniversary marked a day in which “our entire nation remembers the crimes of the Nazis, shocked and ashamed” according to The Jerusalem Post.
“That’s why we are standing on the side of our fellow Jewish citizens — and not on the side of those who think perhaps that the crimes of the Nazis are a ‘speck of bird shit’ or who would completely deny them.”
His comment refers to a recent remark by co-leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Alexander Gauland, who brushed off Hitler’s rule over Nazi Germany as “bird shit in 1,000 years of successful German history.”
Nazi thugs murdered at least 90 Jews in the events of Kristallnacht, torched 1,400 synagogues across Germany and Austria and destroyed Jewish-owned shops and businesses.
At least 30,000 Jews were rounded up by Nazis and sent to concentration camps and were forced pay “compensation” for the damage caused to property.
