Germany: justice opposes the removal of an anti-Semitic bas-relief present on a church

The relief on the Church of Wittenberg in eastern Germany dates from the 13th century and this anti-Semitic representation with a sow, a symbol of impurity for Jews, was quite common in the Middle Ages.

REUTERS - Annegret Hilse

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

Can Germany in 2022 accept the appearance of anti-Semitic symbols on buildings?

Justice has already decided twice by rejecting the request of a Jewish plaintiff against an anti-Semitic relief on a church, the parish having affixed a plaque distancing itself from the sculpture.

This Tuesday, the German Court of Cassation ruled.

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With our correspondent in Berlin

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A sow nurses two men under her belly, two Jews.

A third, a rabbi, lifts the animal's tail and inspects its anus.

The relief on the Church of Wittenberg in eastern Germany dates from the 13th century.

This anti-

representation with a sow, a symbol of impurity for Jews, was quite common in the Middle Ages and several dozen other examples of anti-Semitic symbols exist across Germany.

The plaintiff, a converted Jew, demands that this relief be removed from the facade of the Church of Wittenberg and put on display in a museum.

His complaint in the first two instances was dismissed.

The highest German court has just confirmed these decisions.

Admittedly, the competent judge confirmed the anti-Semitic nature of the relief, which no one calls into question, but the Court of Cassation considered that the plaque filed in 1988 by the Evangelical Church and which distances itself from the message of the relief did not allow to demand that it be removed.

The president of the central council of the Jews of Germany had estimated that a more explanatory plaque would be sufficient.

Do memory work on the past

The representative for anti-Semitism of the Protestant Church felt that the institution should, through a deep questioning, work to remember its past.

It is in this same church of Wittenberg that the father of the reform Martin Luther, author of anti-Semitic theses was active for a time.

The author of the complaint does not want to give up and says he is ready to continue his fight before the European Court of Human Rights.

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