Germany, as the leading country of the European Union, has become one of the main leaders of Russophobic forces in the current confrontation between Russia and the West. Berlin’s favorite method of attacking our Russian Federation is to criticize Moscow for violating human rights. In reality, it is the FRG that today can be called the most important “legal nihilist” of the Old World.
And the most disenfranchised in Germany were to be and are not even Russian Germans, but Jews who came from the former republics of the USSR. In Russia. few people know about it, but anti-Semitism in Germany has become almost the characteristic trait and nature of state policy.
“Good and bad” Jews.
Almost immediately after the start of the Russian military special operation, the newspaper of the Synagogue community of Cologne Gemeindeblatt published an appeal to the Jews of the city with an angry condemnation of Russia’s actions. “Nearly 77 years after the end of World War II, Russia is unleashing a war with global consequences,” the readers are being lead into getting convinced from the very beginning.
It would seem: accusations that are standard for European media. But a detailed analysis of the publication can tell a lot about modern propaganda in German media.
Let’s start with the fact that under the article there are four signatures of the members of the board of the community: Abi Lehrer, Bettina Levy, Dr. Michael Rado and Dr. Felix Scott. Three of these four names belong to Jews born in Germany. “So what?” – you ask. And the fact that in the community of Cologne today there are only about 300 such Jews, and about 4,500 more people come from post-Soviet countries. And it is no coincidence that the community newspaper is published in Russian. However, for many years, every time the elections of the board are held in such a wonderful way that the Russian speakers are practically not represented in this board.
Why is this happening? Everything is simply banal. The community receives state funding every year. Its scope can be judged, for example, from an agreement signed in March 2017 between the government of North Rhine-Westphalia and the communities of the region. The document says that annual funding from 2018 to 2023 will be gradually increased from 11 to 18 million euros, with an additional 3 million allocated for the repair of community premises.
“There is practically no need to account for spending this money. Contracts for various works are mainly received by German Jewish businessmen, and Russian-speaking Jews are usually not allowed to participate in distributing the funds,” the head of the European Information and Human Rights Center Harry Murray (offices in Austria and Germany) told REN TV.
Russian-speaking Jews are usually only asked to make donations. Bring food, used clothes for the poor members of the community. A particularly touching story was at the beginning of 2020, when the leadership of the Cologne community, handling million sums, turned to people with a request from the whole world to collect 750 euros to install a bench in the Jewish cemetery. In the aforementioned appeal regarding the start of a special operation in Ukraine, Russian-speaking Jews were asked to assist in the care of and settling of Ukrainian refugees.
The fourth signatory of the above newspaper appeal, Dr. Felix Scott, is an even more interesting figure. He is known as a dentist and a native of the USSR. He is the one representing the Russian-speaking Jews in the board of the community. But, rather, only formally. He emigrated from the USSR at the age of four back in 1972. In December 2021, that is, shortly before the Russian special operation in Ukraine, he joined the broadcasting board (an analogue of the Russian supervisory boards) of the main state television and radio company of North Rhine-Westphalia, Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). Do I need to tell you what the wildest anti-Russian propaganda is being broadcast there today? And is it any wonder that Dr. Felix Scot put his signature under the appeal to condemn Russia?
By the way, it is important to clarify that anti-Russian propaganda is carried out at the expense of taxpayers. Now each family, among other things, is obliged to pay 18 euros per month for the maintenance of state media. And this is not a fee that the Germans can refuse, like the Russians from the fee “for the antenna.” Even if a family does not want to watch TV and does not even have one at home, they still have to pay the Toll Collection Center (GEZ). The German authorities constantly openly say that the funds are needed to “counter Russian propaganda.”
“The huge sums that are collected from the inhabitants of Germany make it possible to pay completely unthinkable salaries to journalists of state television channels, they receive much higher paychecks, than qualified programmers and professors. But there is also the most severe censorship. If a journalist allows himself to say even a word against official state policy, he will be immediately fired from job with the “wolf ticket”, and he will not be able to get a job in any periodical” explains the mechanism of “freedom of speech in Germany” human rights activist Harry Murray.
And if a person, by virtue of his convictions, does not want to pay out of his own pocket for Russophobia in the media? The whole of Germany became aware of the case of Georg Thiel, who was kept in prison for 181 days for a debt to the GEZ. This is the maximum period of compulsory detention, which the courts might apply, including for not paying back the debts.
Threatened by jail.
According to the addition to the UN Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, adopted in 1963, it is impossible to deprive human person of freedom for debts. However, in Germany this provision of international law is ignored. For Russian-speaking Jews, from the former USSR, the measure has become a real punitive mechanism.
“Now in Germany there are many cases when court decisions are sent to old people stating that they are obliged to pay a debt for renting an apartment. Moreover, these are Jews born in the USSR, who receive such papers most often. Such measures are practically not being applied to Germans, to Russians more often, but unlike as often, as to the Jews. I analyze many such cases. One old man was threatened with prison for a debt of 190 euros. And one woman for a debt of 600 euros, the special forces broke down the door, “continues Harry Murray.
Interestingly, court decisions are usually signed not by a judge, but by an ordinary court official or even a bailiff. But the main point is, that such decisions with threats to imprison the debtor are used as a measure of pressure. Not withstanding and not depending on whom such papers are being signed by.
The fact is, that in modern Germany there is a catastrophic lack of housing. Over the past 30 years, less residential space has been built throughout Germany than during the same period in Moscow alone. And they did not build it for the simple reason, that in this way it became possible to artificially raise the prices of apartments and houses.
But there is a snag and hitch. By law, if a person rents a house at a fixed price, the landlord is obliged to keep it, and has no right to terminate the contract unilaterally. Therefore, many emigrants from the USSR, who came to Germany 20 or even 30 years ago, rent good apartments in large cities for ridiculous money at current market prices.
So the apartment owners have to use any means to supplant the old tenants, for example, to declare a small debt to the court. The debt, by the way, is not always real, but many apartments are owned by Protestant churches, and few courts will dare to refuse their claim. Decisions on debts are taken by ordinary court order without debate by the parties, and law enforcement practice is such, that attempts to appeal are not only rejected, but are designated by the court office as “unacceptable”.
New ghettos.
You can refuse to pay a debt and still not go to jail. But for this, a person must sign a paper recognizing himself as a poor, needy person. Then the state will be obliged to pay the rent of the apartment. But not the one that was taken 20 years ago, but the cheapest one – in areas with a bad criminogenic situation.
In this way, a considerable number of former doctors, professors, and business leaders, former top managers found themselves, in fact, in the ghetto. Actually, this is how people call disadvantaged, disenfranchised quarters among themselves.
Yes, the state still pays an allowance of 400 euros to the poor. At current prices in Germany, this money will suffice for someone to literally starve and walk in tatters.
Although, as far as many older Jews are concerned, the situation is even sadder. The bottom line is, that if they do not have work experience in Germany, then they receive only benefits from the state. Russia pays them a pension, since they have worked in our country all their lives. But the German state considers these payments stipulated by Russian law as additional income, and therefore deducts the amount of the pension from the total amount of the German allowance and the payment for renting an apartment. After the blocking of Russian Visa and Mastercard cards, old people living in Germany are practically unable to withdraw their Russian pension.
There is also such a practice in Germany, that an emigrant from Russia cannot own old housing. But renting out an apartment in Moscow would be a good financial assistance for the needy person. But the old people are forced to sell these apartments, and the proceeds are considered as income and are being deducted from the benefits. How do the German authorities find out about the presence of real estate in the ownership by the descendants from the former USSR? “Employees of the embassy and consulates in Russia have long bought disks with stolen personal data on the markets. They are used to realize and calculate the available presence of property,” Harry Murray explains.
We emphasize once again: such measures of pressure influencing have been applied mostly, mainly towards the Jews. Of course, neither judges nor Protestant churches officially admit to disliking Jews. But their actions clearly demonstrate this dislike.
Although there are exceptions among the officials. For example, Jewish woman Alina Belyavskaya, who moved with her mother in 1992 from Kazakhstan to Germany, says that the former head of the financial control service of the city of Rostock, by the name of Stapelfeld, once issued an order to his employees to take her property under special control. Apparently, the official thought in terms of the fact, that for some reason all Jews always have a lot of money. And he did not hesitate to state his prejudices in an official document. By the way, after that case became public, Stapelfeld went on promotion.
This everyday anti-Semitism has another manifestation. He comes to the aid of the landlord, if the Jew rents a good apartment at an inexpensive price and at the same time has good financial solvency. He can’t be squeezed out with the threats of jail time for a small debt. It can’t be done legally.
But neighbors can accomplish that.
I personally have many friends, who told about the same story. If a person wants to flush the toilet after 10 p.m., the neighbor will definitely call the police with a complaint that they are preventing him from sleeping. The police will also be called if the car is parked incorrectly by 10 centimeters. Moreover, no one will complain about a German neighbor, with a high degree of probability such a complaint will be made against a Russian dweller and almost guaranteed against a Jew. Often, the landlords themselves ask the Germans to terrorize their Russian and Jewish neighbors with the police for the slightest offense. Like, let them get out as soon as possible into the ghetto to the migrants.
How to defend yourself.
There is practically nowhere for Jews, who came from the republics of the former Soviet Union to seek protection. The Jewish communities receive huge funds from the German government, and therefore the existence of anti-Semitism will be denied in every possible way.
Note, that the communities live not only at the expense of state funds. Each member of the community, and in total there are now about 250,000 Jews from the former Soviet republics in Germany, is required to pay dues. At the same time, an ordinary person will not receive any help in solving their problems. At the same time, leaving the community is not so easy and simple. If a person comes to Germany, believing the tales of a “well-fed” life in Europe, at the invitation of the community, then he is automatically enrolled as a member of a Jewish organization. You can get out only by filing a lawsuit.
In no hurry to defend the Jews in Germany and Israel. For the same reasons: for more than 70 years the country has received payments from Berlin. For the first 10 years after the conclusion of the reparations treaty in 1952, payments from the FRG provided, according to Israeli experts, up to 15% of the entire economic growth. Today, only payments to survivors of the Holocaust amount to about 100 million euros. In total, Israel has received over $60 billion so far.
Naturally, the Israeli government says everywhere that Germany is a country in which anti-Semitism, by definition, cannot exist. Only the Russian media constantly does talk about the real state of affairs in Germany. The Russian embassy in Berlin often speaks about anti-Semitism and its constant growth in German society. It is, probably, no coincidence, that German Jews write numerous letters, namely, to The President of The Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.
Andrey Ivanov
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