On the 90th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's assumption of power on January 30, 1933, the International Auschwitz Committee called for a resolute defense of democracy.
"Democracy and the republic urgently need citizens who value and protect them, and they need a well-fortified state that, with all its institutions, keeps an eye on the enemies of democracy and defends the republic," said the Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, Christoph Heubner, on Monday.
Heubner warned that it would be dangerous and destructive for democracy if right-wing extremist attitudes and behavior were to be found in institutions such as the police and the military.
"All of this is the lesson that January 30, 2023 is imposing on us not only in Germany but throughout Europe."
January 30, 1933 was the beginning of the end for the Jewish survivors of the German concentration and extermination camps.
"They experienced how freedom and the republic were shredded in a few weeks, and they experienced how their familiar neighbors turned into people whose hatred they were exposed to," says Heubner.
Only a small minority of Germans resisted the development and were themselves persecuted for it.
January 30, 1933 remains written in the calendar of democracy with a large exclamation mark.