"Berlin to seek EU-wide criminalization of Holocaust denial"

"Jews in Germany feel threatened to such an extent that almost half have thought about emigration, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said, demanding a harsher response to anti-Semitism, not only in his country but across the EU as well...

Maas slammed anti-Semitism as 'an absolute nightmare' and 'a terrible disgrace 75 years after the liberation of Auschwitz,' arguing that it is a Europe-wide problem that requires the efforts of all EU members in order to be solved.

According to the minister, the measures Germany plans to champion during its presidencies of the Council of the European Union and of the Council of Europe, both of which it will assume later this year, will include the creation of a European network of anti-Semitism commissioners and a crackdown on online hate crime and disinformation.

He also specifically mentioned that Berlin plans to 'ensure that all EU member states finally make it a crime to deny the Holocaust' and will help set up a Global Task Force Against Holocaust Denial...

Chancellor Angela Merkel herself said literally every single Jewish facility in Germany needed police protection. The problem has been traditionally blamed on Germany’s troubled Nazi past and linked to right-wing extremists, prompting the security services to step up their fight against the far-right over the past year."