Germany, Protesters and the Yellow Star
How should we view the worrying rise of protesters using symbols of the Holocaust to legitimise their cause?
During the Covid pandemic, as those opposed to lockdowns and vaccinations organised large protests, several German cities reacted with alarm. Some protesters had taken to wearing a yellow star – the symbol first forced upon Jews by the Nazis in September 1941 – as a sign of their own perceived victimhood. Deemed a trivialisation of the Holocaust and a threat to public order, Munich banned the symbol in May 2020, prompting Felix Klein, the Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight against Antisemitism, to insist on further bans. Frankfurt followed suit in March 2022.
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