• On the social networks Telegram, Twitter and Facebook, publications evoke the Nazi grandparents of certain members of the government, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

  • After checking the genealogy of the members cited, these revelations are unquestionably false.

  • They appeared in retaliation for statements by Olaf Scholz, describing as "ridiculous" Vladimir Putin's accusations of an alleged "genocide" perpetrated against civilians in the pro-Russian Ukrainian territories of Donbass.

According to viral photo montages, Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor and two of his ministers, Christian Lindner and Karl Lauterbach, respectively finance minister and health minister, are grandchildren of Nazis.

This information has been circulating for some time on Telegram, Twitter and Facebook with a photomontage

(photo)

associating each political figure with a photo of his ancestor, in black and white.

Indeed, Olaf Scholz's grandfather would have been Fritz von Scholz, a high-ranking officer in the Waffen-SS.

That of Christian Lindner would be called Gerhard Lindner, an officer of the German army, and as for the grandfather of Karl Lauterbach, it would be Hartmann Lauterbacher, a senior official in the Hitler Youth.

On this montage even appears the former President of the European Council, the Polish Donald Tusk, whose grandfather, Josef Tusk would have been a member of the Reichsführer SS security service.

FAKE OFF

These dubious and slanderous genealogies have since been denied by German government spokespersons who called them “totally absurd” and “stupid”.

According to the German press agency DPA, Fritz von Scholz, whose photo is associated with that of Olaf Scholz, is an Austro-Hungarian officer who joined the SS in 1933 and who had no descendants.

Olaf Scholz cannot therefore be his grandson.

In reality, his grandparents were railway officials in Hamburg, according to the Munziger Biographical Archive.

Regarding the genealogy of the Minister of the Economy, Christian Lindner, a publication on Telegram states that his grandfather would be Gerhard Lindner, an SS officer who died in a small town in the far north-east of Germany.

In fact, Christian Lindner's grandparents, according to DW.

com (Deutsche welle), are from Wuppertal in western Germany and were bakers.

Moreover, Christian Lindner recounts in his autobiography having spent a lot of time there as a child.

For Karl Lauterbach, the Minister of Health, it is even easier to invalidate this revelation.

Simply because his so-called grandfather, Hartmann Lauterbacher, does not have the same last name (which ends in "er").

This leader of the Hitler Youth, therefore, has no relationship with the current politician.

Libels concocted by Putin's "cook"

This fake news was fed by Evgueni Prigojine, a Russian oligarch, nicknamed Putin's "cook".

He is closely linked to the Russian president and holds a key position in Kremlin-organized disinformation.

He is notably the founder of the Internet Research Agency, an organization that disseminates propaganda on the Web and is already involved in numerous destabilization campaigns.

In 2016, the United States had already indicted his agency, described as a troll factory for its infiltration in the elections.

His agency faced sanctions in 2018.

A former crook, having spent nine years in prison in the 1980s, upon his release from prison, Evgueni Prigojine launched into high-end catering.

Putin regularly asks him to organize his private parties as well as dinners with visiting leaders.

In 2001, he was also at the helm of the organization of the banquet bringing together Putin and President Jacques Chirac.

That's why this oligarch was nicknamed Putin's cook.

Revenge, a dish best served cold

To understand the genesis of the motivations of this defamatory montage, we must go back to February 19.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz had called Russian President Vladimir Putin's accusations of "genocide" perpetrated by the Ukrainian military against pro-Russian civilians in breakaway Ukrainian territories "ridiculous", German media T-Online reported.

“He argues that in the Donbass there is a form of genocide, which is really to be very clear on this point, ridiculous, but it is his story”, declared in Munich Olaf Scholz.

The US State Department had already condemned the use of the term “genocide” against civilians in these Russian-speaking territories in eastern Ukraine.

This argument had served as a pretext for Putin to justify the outbreak of war in Ukraine.

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