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Michael Kuenne

Cornelia Seibeld Criticized for Holocaust Speech

Cornelia Seibeld - Photo: Sandro Halank, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Cornelia Seibeld - Photo: Sandro Halank, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

A speech intended to honor Holocaust victims recently ignited political controversy in Germany. On January 27, Cornelia Seibeld, President of the Berlin House of Representatives (CDU), addressed the assembly to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Instead of focusing solely on historical remembrance, she emphasized what she sees as a failure of Berlin’s academic institutions to address antisemitism on their campuses adequately.

Seibeld’s remarks, particularly her criticism of universities in Berlin, including the Free University (FU), Technical University (TU), and Alice Salomon University, sparked strong reactions from members of the SPD, Green Party, and the Left. Recent media reports indicate that SPD politician Matthias Schulz described Seibeld’s comments as “inappropriate” for the occasion. Laura Neugebauer from the Green Party called them “cheap and undignified.” SPD member Maja Lasić even left the plenary hall in protest.

Critics of Seibeld argue that Holocaust remembrance ceremonies should focus exclusively on historical reflection and that addressing contemporary political issues during such events is inappropriate. However, others, including leaders of Berlin’s Jewish community, view her intervention as necessary and timely.

Sigmount Königsberg, Antisemitism Commissioner for the Jewish Community of Berlin, defended Seibeld’s remarks, asserting that Holocaust memorial speeches should reflect on the past while also confronting present-day antisemitism.

“Universities were not safe for Jews before 1933; that they are not now is extraordinarily disturbing,” he said. Königsberg spoke of a growing number of antisemitic incidents on campuses in Germany, particularly in the wake of October 7, and castigated university administrations for doing too little to safeguard their Jewish students.

Recent reports bear Königsberg out. In the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attack, antisemitic incidents in the city rose sharply, according to the Research and Information Center on Antisemitism Berlin, known as RIAS. Jewish students complained of increased hostility, threats, and harassment.

The backlash against Seibeld’s speech highlights a larger issue in Germany: a growing divide over how to address antisemitism. While the German government officially maintains a strong stance against antisemitism, reactions from certain political factions indicate discomfort in addressing antisemitism from sources beyond far-right extremism.

The opposition from the SPD and Green Party to Seibeld’s speech underscores this tension, as criticism of antisemitic incidents on university campuses has often faced accusations of politicization.

About the Author
Michael Kuenne works as a journalist on antisemitism, extremism, and rising threats to Jewish life. His reporting continually sheds light on the dangers that come from within radical ideologies and institutional complicity, and where Western democracies have failed in confronting the new rise of Jew-hatred with the due urgency it does call for. With hard-hitting commentary and muckraking reporting, Kuenne exposed how the antisemitic narratives shape policymaking, dictate public discourse, and fuel hate toward Israel. His writings have appeared in a number of international media outlets, including The Times of Israel Blogs. Kuenne has become a voice heard for blunt advocacy in regard to Israel's right to self-defense, critiquing ill-conceived humanitarian policies serving only to empower terror, while demanding a moral clarity which seems beyond most Western leaders. With a deep commitment to historical truth, he has covered the resurgence of Holocaust distortion in political rhetoric, the dangerous normalization of antisemitic conspiracies in mainstream culture, and false equivalencies drawn between Israel's actions and the crimes of its enemies. His reporting dismantles sanitized language that whitens the record of extremism and insists on calling out antisemitism-whether from the far right, the far left, or Islamist movements, without fear or hesitation.
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