After new criticism of anti-Semitism against the Documenta, politicians are demanding that all works exhibited at the Weltkunstschau in Kassel be appraised.

Representatives of Jewish institutions reacted with outrage to the new finds.

The head of the Anne Frank educational institution, Meron Mendel, is, in his own words, "stunned".

"While our educational team at the information stand on Friedrichsplatz is explaining anti-Semitic imagery, the worst anti-Semitic caricatures are being discovered again, which the artistic director of the Documenta and Ms. Schormann had apparently been pointed out to by a visitor weeks ago," said Mendel.

"I'm honestly stunned that I, as a consultant to the Documenta at the time, was not informed about this and that instead, on the basis of a legal opinion, the decision was made to leave the problematic works with clearly anti-Semitic imagery in the exhibition."

Stop federal funding

Mendel is not satisfied with how the Documenta dealt with this further case of anti-Semitism: "The fact that the artistic direction now only wants to contextualize the work instead of waiting for the advice of the new panel of experts, which will start work tomorrow, does not show that Ruangrupa has expert opinions on anti-Semitism really seriously and respects it.” He appealed to the artistic directors to take the paintings out of the exhibition and discuss them with the new panel of experts.

According to the Research and Information Center for Antisemitism Hessen (RIAS Hessen) and the Values ​​Initiative - Jewish-German Positions, visitors to the exhibition had noticed and reported corresponding depictions in the Museum Fridericianum.

These are representations in a brochure that was published in Algiers in 1988.

The drawings by the Syrian artist Burhan Karkoutly contained in it partly showed anti-Semitic stereotypes and the country of Palestine, provided with classifications that denied the legitimacy of the State of Israel.

"Despite numerous warnings and references, anti-Semitic works were not prevented from being published at the documenta," said FDP foreign policy officer Frank Müller-Rosentritt.

He called for the federal funds to be stopped as long as there was no comprehensive check for anti-Semitic content.

The Documenta rejects such an approach.

The President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, raised allegations against the new Documenta management.

"Either nobody at the Documenta is able to recognize anti-Semitism, or nobody is willing to prevent it," Schuster told the "Bild".

The head of the Central Council criticized the fact that the new head of Documenta was reluctant to use scientific support.

Helge Lindh, cultural policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, reminds the depiction "inevitably of typical Nazi caricatures".

Lindh told the "Welt" that he called for "a comprehensive inspection and assessment of the entire inventory of works of art for anti-Semitic motifs by external German and international experts".

Anti-Semitism is "not taken seriously by the Documenta management, maybe even tolerated," criticized Marlene Schönberger, who is responsible for combating anti-Semitism in the Greens parliamentary group, in the newspaper.

The deputy leader of the Union parliamentary group, Dorothee Bär, said: "Wanting to hide inhuman anti-Semitism under the label of artistic freedom is unacceptable."

The Documenta rejected the allegations.

The historical archive material was temporarily removed from the exhibition around three weeks ago in order to examine it more closely.

"According to the investigation, while there is a clear reference to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there is no depiction of Jews 'as such,'" the statement said.

The work was classified as not relevant under criminal law and was therefore taken back into the exhibition.

Now you will make a "contextualization in the exhibition," said the Documenta spokeswoman Henriette Sölter.

There will still be no comprehensive examination of the works shown: "There will be no screening of the exhibition for any anti-Semitic motifs."