The burial near Berlin of a neo-Nazi in the grave of a Jewish musicologist, Max Friedländer, sparked an uproar in the German capital and prompted the filing of a complaint by the commissioner for anti-Semitism. The urn containing the neo-Nazi’s ashes was buried on October 9 in the musicologist’s former grave, located in the Protestant cemetery in Stahnsdorf, south of the German capital.
Despite the presence of the tombstone of the musicologist, who died in 1934, the Protestant religious authorities responsible for the management of the cemetery have given their consent for this burial, in the presence of many neo-Nazis, several of whom have already been convicted by the courts, according to media reports. Germans. During the funeral, a black veil concealed the tombstone, in front of which had been placed the photo of the deceased and many funeral wreaths, some decorated with an iron cross.
“Trouble of the Peace of the Dead”
Faced with the outcry, the bishop of the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg, Christian Stäblein, admitted that “the burial of a denialist in the grave of Max Friedländer was a terrible mistake and a shocking event in the light of our history. “. “We must immediately see what we can do” to reverse this situation, he added. The local Evangelical Church had, however, initially given its consent to the burial, on the pretext that “everyone has the right to a final resting place”.
The Berlin commissioner for the fight against anti-Semitism, Samuel Salzborn, announced the filing of a complaint for this “disturbance of the peace of the dead” and a “denigration of the memory of the deceased”. “The intention here is obvious: the right-wing extremists have deliberately chosen a Jewish tomb in order to disturb the peace of the dead by burying a denialist there,” he lambasted, calling for the rapid removal of the neo’s ballot box. Nazi.