Felix Klein: Defending Decency

Wise in Heart is a series about special personalities who contributed to the development and sustainability of humanistic efforts in the modern world. Part I of the series can be read here. 

A Bad-Dream Reality

There is no doubt that people whose job is to fight anti-Semitism in a society today are extremely busy, and on 24/7 alert.  There is also a sad fact that today this job is both demanding and busy in practically all countries, anywhere. 

It has to do with an objective stream of time, of course, in an inverse proportion when the time passing from the moment of horrific events dilutes people’s abilities to be vigilant towards the ugliness of racism and Jew-hatred. 

With the time over three generations passed after the opened gates of the concentration camps and the horrifying photos in Life and other international magazines which served as an imminent antidote to the public anti-Semitism, the acuteness of good, bad and acceptable is vaned dramatically. We are living as if in an absurd dream in which the things which we believed firmly are the past due to the crimes committed for the sake of sheer inhumanity, are making their way back, and are becoming the new normal. 

Who would have thought yet a decade ago that regularly and often appearing noisy and populated disgusting neo-Nazi demonstrations with swastika in Florida could become a routine there? Who would believe yet recently that regular mortal assaults of the synagogues, often during the Shabbat and Jewish holidays services in the US, France, Germany, UK and other countries would become a new ‘standard’ feature in security briefs? Who would thought not long time ago that heavily equipped policemen and totally blocked accesses to the places of Jewish life, as it is done in France, Italy and many other countries would become a norm and actually a positive sign that people are protected, but still, this protection looks in its enforced way as a clear sign of a permanently existing imminent danger. 

Who could imagine yet a few years back that not a marginal on his own TikTok, but a leading in pools candidate for the US presidential race would dare – and be very happy and self-assured in his daring – would tell the whole country a big news about ‘Jews owning almost everything’, and beam off his big discovery? 

This is not to speak about many parties in Europe with the same , barely veiled – until the certain moment – racist and anti-Semitic attitude,  which illustrate the present public, societal phenomena quite graphically. Those parties, practically at least one in many European countries,  has made it to the national parliaments, are thriving there, getting to the governments, with higher chances to do so in forthcoming elections in several more European countries next year, this setting up a dangerous precedents at many levels, and infusing unprecedented, poisonous atmosphere in the societies of several European countries. Which does tell about the stubbornness of human nature perhaps more than anything else. We never learn. 

Making Things Happen

To have the job which monitors and fights anti-Semitism is 24/7 and challenging. To have it in a large country with sixteen federal lands with quite powerful, self-sufficient and often autonomous governing, is challenging to a sixteenth degree. To monitor and fight anti-Semitism in Germany is also pre-set in the perception of many in the light of all the weight of the evil of Nazism. It is a super-challenging and supercharged job. Still, the man who does it is always calm, collected, easy to smile, and he officially named his position starting from the healing part of it: Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life and Fight Against Anti-Semitism. 

I have noticed something deeply re-assuring in one of Dr Klein’s comments regarding a seriously scandalous and widely publicised anti-Semitic episode that happened, not quite expectedly, with the participation of the Lufthansa company’s employees earlier this year. Federal Commissioner Dr Klein discussing the case with his European and American colleagues at one of the important high-level conferences in the Spring 2023, describing the horror the case caused among the Lufthansa top officials who were simply terrified on the possible consequences, mentioned calmly: “ I did not intent to frighten them, to escalate their fear, or project it. My purpose in this outrageous case was crystal clear: to prevent any of its slightest possible repetition ever. I wanted them to understand, to cooperate, to do it willingly, and consciously. One does not reach this kind of lasting result acting on a conflicting end of a story, or pressuring it. It would be counterproductive. And we have no luxury to be counter-productive in anything we do, quite to the contrary’.  

At that moment, I thought that I would like to speak with this man in depth, and to know more about his personal code for success in such a job as he is carrying on.  I knew by then that a disgusting Lufthansa episode was handled very promptly and exceptionally successfully. Dr Klein’s no-fuss approach proved to be efficient. 

Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the fight against anti-Semitism Dr Felix Klein in his office at the Ministry for Interior in Berlin. August 2023. (C) Inna Rogatchi.

When that conversation happened in Dr Felix Klein’s very pretty office in Berlin some months later, we could not have enough of it. I do not remember when speaking politics, I have been doing it all my long professional life, and quite internationally so, was so interested in a conversation. 

Continuing Family Legacy

I always believed, and still do, in a family as a nucleus of life, and as the primary origin of what is good and strong in us. And I am always happy to see yet another proof of this simple belief. This happened also in our conversation with Dr Felix Klein, when Felix thoughts went to his grandfather who was a special man at the quasi-challenging time and circumstances, indeed. 

The experts on the freedom of speech – and its tragic  metamorphoses – in Germany of the 1930s, know the history of Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, DAZ, well. It was a decent, qualified and popular newspaper – and the role and meaning of newspapers a hundred years back was simply colossal – until one morning in May 1933 when the newspaper was shut down, temporarily though,  following personal order of Hitler who was enraged by the editorial of the DAZ on the Germany’s policy and intentions for Austria. The editorial called Brother Struggle was authored by the very well-known in Berlin and Germany journalist, the editor-in-chief of DAZ Fritz Klein, the current Germany envoy’s on the fight against anti-Semitism  grandfather. Today such order and what followed it is regarded as an indisputable reward. 90 years ago, it brought a lot of trouble and direct threat to Fritz Klein the editor, and it marked the drama of his and his family’s life for ever since. 

Yet before, in 1930, the same well-known and well-connected in Berlin of the roaring 1920s senior journalist did firmly decline a very dubious honour to become the press chief of the Reich when he was personally invited to the position by the pre-Hitler Chancellor Bruning. It was easy to see that honour as highly dubious after WWII, but back in 1930, it was not that obvious at all. Still, Fritz Klein, being not only a masterly journalist, but simply a deeply decent man from the family of several generations of protestant pastors in Transylvania, knew the difference between black and white as it was. 

Well-known and influential journalist Dr Fritz Klein. Archival photo. Courtesy (C) Klein Family Archive. With kind permission.

After Hitler’s personalised wrath against him caused by his editorials in the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, and inevitably following hostile attitude from both Goebbels and Goering, Fritz Klein was fired from his position of the editor-in-chief of DAZ in 1933. But the pastors’ son and grandson was stubborn. His grandson Felix almost a century later tells me with a quiet smile on his face about the way which his grandfather found in the clouded Berlin in 1933 to continue his journalistic mission and his refusal to be silenced by the Nazi brutes. 

‘The thing is that very restrictive Nazi’s regulations of the press imposed in 1933, addressed newspapers, meaning daily press. But grandfather and his colleagues realised that there was a legal loop helpful for them. Those regulations did not address anything weekly. So they founded, privately and with their own money, a weekly publication , Deutsche Zukunft, German Future. That magazine was published on Wednesdays, and it was perceived in the society at the time as the more or less quiet opposition to the growing and growling Nazi regime. It happened until the grandfather’s odd death just three years after”,  – Felix Klein tells.

Front-page of one of the Deutche Zukunft Weekly. Archival material.

His grandfather’s suspicious – and very timely for the Nazi bosses – death during military reserve exercise in one of the officers training camps in May 1936 when he reportedly fell off the horse and died on the spot without any witnesses, still disturbs the Klein family in generations, understandably. Germany’s current Special Envoy on the fight against anti-Semitism speaks about his grandfather who died 87 years ago in the way as if Fritz Klein is just in a next room.  Very calmly, but at the same time with a firm sustainability and tangible presence. This is what living legacy is about, I am thinking while listening to Felix and seeing  the photos of his grandfather’s historical editorials at the pivotal moment when Germany was turning to its worst. 

In his own career as a graduated international law lawyer and very experienced diplomat with a 30-years distinguished career behind him, previously working in Cameroon, Italy and Bonn, Felix Klein was offered his current job five years ago, in spring 2018.  The position was then newly created by Chancellor Merkel’s government. Back in 2009, the Federal Foreign Office created the post of a Special Representative for Relations with Jewish Organisations, a position Felix Klein assumed in 2014 in his diplomatic career.

Felix tells me that five years ago, the proposal and prospect of this job sounded ‘very logical and positive’ to him. “It was just the natural turn of my career. I was really happy about it, because I knew then, as I know now, that there were so many things to be done. Due to my work at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, I was linked to the German chapter of the IHRA, International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, the organisation which is essential in our present life in many countries world-wide, and also on its own, as the body which cares and implements necessary real actions with regard of keeping our societies morally healthy”. 

Even prior to his duties as the  Federal Government Commissioner  for Jewish Life and the fight against Anti-Semitism, Felix Klein participated in a crucially important diplomatic memo on the essential importance of active Holocaust remembrance that the German government and its Foreign Ministry thought as necessary to create and to send to German Embassies in every country where the Shoah had happened, as the Federal Government official guidelines to pursue the policy of active commemorating on. He was also active at the principally important IHRA Plenary Session in Bucharest in 2016 where the legal structure and main policy points of the IHRA international coordinated policy were elaborated and accepted. 

 ‘Fight Against Anti-Semitism Does Not Need To Be Politicised’

One important and often overseen point Felix emphasised when we discussed the load of work, tasks and duties for the Federal Government Commissioner on the fight against anti-Semitism. 

“ I do not have any political background. I firmly believe that the fight against anti-Semitism does not need to be politicised in any way”, – Dr Klein underlines. And I think: it is so obvious. And it is so often misinterpreted. One just needs to be a decent person to pursue the right moral course, isn’t it? How simple. And what a heavy price for this simplicity was and is paid, both historically and currently as well.  This is exactly the case when simple does not mean simplified, but requires clarity, firmness and determination. 

We can speak with Dr Klein for hours – and we did – and still, there are so many things to discuss, questions to ask, aspects to look at. I have been working on the Holocaust and post-Holocaust for over three decades, and previously and in parallel with it the theme of anti-Semitism always there, in a historical perspective, at its current, in various ways: ideas, attitudes, actions, counter-actions, no actions, you name it. Naturally, I was interested to know what the job that Felix holds and actively pursues for over five years includes, what he does, and how it all is going. 

As a part of his very versatile reply, Mr Federal Commissioner produces a rather tiny brochure of just 45 pages called National Strategy Against Anti-Semitism and for Jewish Life. The program was adopted in November 2022. ‘It took us three years to produce this thin brochure – tells Felix. – We worked hard in order to make it as laconic as possible. For this kind of a national strategic document and policy to work, they should be tiny, don’t you agree?”  I am. 

What comes close to me from this well thought of and very clearly formulated policy document, is not only ‘German responsibility for the Shoah and its aftermath’ position which opens the document, and thus policy, not only ‘the perspectives of those affected’ which is thoughtful and just, not only the creation of new structures – yes, in this case, the more, the better, but the absolutely necessary approach and understanding of necessity of ‘Culture of remembrance, historical awareness and commemoration’ as a path of social life, additionally to essentially important and expected realm of education. 

Dr Klein ( on the left) at the presentation of the RIAS report on anti-Semitism incidents in Germany. June 2023. Photo: Leonard Kaminski. Courtesy : Special Envoy on the fight against antisemitism Office, Federal Government of Germany. With kind permission.

During many years, in my capacity of a senior adviser to the members of the European Parliament I tried and pursued the agenda of universal, pan-European acceptance of a unified policy of exactly this, the Culture of Remembrance. It was not a smooth or easy ride, I have to admit, and we have heard many barely veiled excuses for not accepting this in an universal form of decent education for children all over Europe, starting from ‘different views among various governments in different parts of Europe’ and finishing with such interesting formulation as ‘possibly negative attitude of parents if their children would be educated on those horrible, horrible things mandatory’. Those are the quotes. My colleagues and I never gave up, due to the cause, but seeing a national strategy document of a federal government that points at Culture of Remembrance as one of five major directions of the national-wide multi-vectored works towards public decency in the country with over 83 million population makes me deeply satisfied. 

The Best Medicine is a Preventive One

As one can expect, the work of the Federal Government Commissioner on the fight against anti-Semitism in Germany includes monitoring in all sixteen lands, coordination of all and any government actions on various directions of the spectrum of work, implementation of many accepted by the government decisions on various related topics, a giant and permanent effort on education, and vast international cooperation. Because of the weight of his country in the EU, and its history-prescribed stand, Dr Klein is deeply involved in many international initiatives and cooperation both inside and outside Europe. Each of those directions of work is a full-time job of its own. And still, Felix and his 5-member team manages well. 

Being specialist in family law, Dr Klein pays serious attention to his close cooperation with the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, elaborating and running the Live Democracy program together. I have also noticed that the current Germany Ministry for Family Affairs is visibly active in many worthy initiatives, programs and events fostering Jewish life in Germany.  I cannot agree more on such a necessity.

Dr Felix Klein at the World Jewish Congress’ Executive Board meeting with the King Felipe of Spain. March 2023. Courtesy: WJC. With kind permission.

Knowing and being aware with details of police monitoring of anti-Semitism not only in Germany but Europe-wise, and realising what a heavy burden such a work is, I asked Dr Klein on what he finds as interesting and perhaps not so obvious paths in his daily work.  Felix was quick to answer: “Perhaps, new forms of it. For example, we are paying special attention to the historically adequate preparedness of journalists.  For example, just as we finish our day-marathon of talking, I’ll be delivering a speech at the Journalist school here in Berlin. We, and I personally, are working with our journalism students all the time, on a permanent basis. I am regularly meeting also with already working journalists and TV editors. We do have eradicate the cliches which are appearing from time to time in our media, as in many other national media, unfortunately, or tasteless jokes like ‘Eternal Netanyahu’ instead of ‘Eternal Jew’, as it was the case which had a place here some while ago and to which we have reacted immediately, strongly and efficiently. But my belief is that the purpose of our work is to create the atmosphere of normality in the society in which such idiotic cliches would not just come to any journalist’s head, regardless of what he or she personally thinks of that or another political figure. There should be decency in behaviour, subconscious decency that leads and defines a personality’s behaviour and his or her professional life. 

We are working on a special program of comparative studies in all journalism schools in Germany, and we know that a) it is prerequisite to objectivity and professionalism of future journalists, and b) it is needed badly as professional journalists based not only their reputation and name but also their knowledge and understanding, the pillars which are defining the process of them elaborating their own opinion precisely on what can be learned and verified in the course of a comparative studies. We believe that we have to contribute to that formative experience of the  future professionals who will form or influence the public opinion very soon”.  Exactly the point. I was also thinking that in this very mission to pay a lot of attention to the just and historically grounded formation of the future German journalists, Felix Klein  clearly is carrying on his grandfather’s legacy of brave and decent journalism no matter what. 

I cannot leave the question about what has amazed or surprised the German Federal Commissioner on the fight against anti-Semitism the most in the course of his five years on and counting work. And Felix Klein’s answer took me by surprise. 

‘The level of subconscious anti-Semitism” – he stated laconically.  I look at Dr Klein as a first-grade pupil as a teacher in the beginning of a new school year. To explain, Felix shows me materials of his office’s monitoring various text-books all over sixteen German states. I cannot say that there are many of those puzzling things, but even one is enough in the 2020s. Most of those unbelievable-but-true prejudices which Special Envoy office finds regularly in some text-books all over Germany are ignorant, highly limited believes which has found its way to the pages of the books for schools today as if jumping from the 18th or 19th century, not even the 20th one, actually, definitely not the 20th because this part is guarded and self-guarded heavily in Germany, for a known reasons. But I really wondered, as much as Felix Klein is, how on earth it is possible today. Who are those teachers, those people who are inserting such idiotic prejudices in the text-books today? How are they allowed to teach children anything? I am glad that there is a special federal government office in Germany today which is affiliated to the Ministry of Interior, due to the large part of the police work involved in the matters that takes care of it. I know that it will be fixed, soon and efficiently. I saw Felix and his team in action for a while by now. But I just cannot get to the button of my simple question: who authorises such a text-books? 

The second time my eyes went wider than in Stanley Kubrick’s film with the corresponding name when I heard from Dr Klein the result  of the recent pool amongst the medical students: “ Can you imagine that one third of the students in our medical universities did not know who Dr Mengele was?” -the Federal Commissioner  did share his serious concern with me. I could not. Was just sitting there gaping. 

‘We were quite impressed, too. That’s why we worked with our federal Ministry for Health and changed the examination regulations: In future, our forthcoming doctors will face eight specific questions  about the role of the medical sector between 1933 and 1945 as part of the subject “history of medicine”. It seems to be quite necessary” – Felix Klein says. And I am quietly thanking Heavens that the person who leads this work in Germany both cares and sees things as they are. 

There is no doubt that the best medicine, in principle, is a preventive one, and Felix Klein implements this healthy and mostly efficient approach in his and his office’s work. They are focused on prevention which possibly is the only winning tactic in this field of life and work. 

Dr Klein visiting the Albert Einstein Secondary School in Ravensburg. July 2019. Photo: Andres Gerster-Holm. Courtesy: Office of the Special Envoy of the fight against Anti-Semitism and for Jewish Life in Germany. With kind permission.

And of course, education. The more I live and work, the more I see on a daily basis that we do need more and more education to apply to every corner of our societies. Perhaps, with the total spread of social media and every possible feature of it even more so, precisely because it has become so easy, so quick and absolutely uncontrollable to spread just anything at any given moment. 

‘So the focus  – and resources – are on permanent monitoring of an information space and on the simultaneous strengthened educational efforts, – says Dr Klein, adding – ‘even, one might say, education vigilance’.  In the case of the huge federal state of Germany, it means a special committee that the Office of the Federal Commissioner for Jewish Life  decided to call in, consisting of antisemitism commissioners of every federal state of Germany, and a colleague from one federal state co-chairing the committee. This much needed and quite functional body gives guidance to all directions of education with regard to Anti-Semitism, Holocaust and post-Holocaust history, and all related issues.

“ Have you prioritised the objectives in your work, and have these priorities been changed? – I asked Felix Klein. ‘ Of course, we thought about it, you could not work efficiently without focusing and prioritising. Currently, I can mention three pillars of our work: Education, with special attention to both teachers and text-books, police work and monitoring which is a lot, and the judiciary aspect which is highly important because it sets the situation in the right context and in the right way.This often overlooked in many countries aspect of our work focuses on legal decision making and legal decision, on cases when antisemitic or racist crimes have  not been punished, or where unacceptable decisions have been taken by courts or prosecuting offices. There are too many cases with a clearly antisemitic or racist motivation but which are treated in some courts rather as property assaults, not as hate crimes.  That shows that further training is needed for the judiciary to raise the necessary awareness.”

I was interested to know what are the highest concerns for the man who is leading such an uneasy line of work, the work which consists of a tapestry of ever changing but always presented various and many concerns, one can say. Felix replied without hesitation: “ Conspiracy theories and their popularity today. Not only the theories themselves which are many and mushrooming. But the fact of its already wide and still increasing  popularity. We know that social media and their speed adds to the process, but my concern is actually people’s willingness to fall for this sheer nonsense at the time when the knowledge is so easily accessible. This paradox really bothers me. I observe the increasing spread of what one can justifiably call  a mental return to the Middle Ages, and the eagerness, and the easiness with which people of all parts of society, including well educated people are jumping to believe it and to spread it further on. Not only does it affect society in the dark way, but it creates the pre-conditions for further escalation of the darkest prejudice , which one would believe, we all pass over, paying such a high price for that.” 

 Counter-balancing the Evil with Good 

Every now and then, while discussing various aspects of his wide portfolio, Felix returns to the more cheerful part of it, an array of motivating, pleasant tasks which counter-balancing the tough part of his work. Combining the both portfolios, against anti-Semitism and for Jewish life is a norm in Europe, and only getting closer to it and seeing in more detail what these envoys do and how they live fulfilling their demanding duties, one can see how correct the idea of combining it actually is. Even psychologically so, and starting from it. 

I was not only glad to hear many facts about thriving Jewish and Jewish culture life in Germany today from the country’s Federal Commissioner on the matter, but also to learn about the principal shift in this life from the wide public point of view. 

“We are observing a steady and also steadily growing interest towards Jewish culture and Jewish heritage from a wide public. It looks as if this is a generational shift of attitude. Twenty years ago it was not possible, it was different. Now, we are seeing this principal and principally important, mattering change in front of our eyes. For instance, there is a very popular  Jewish song contest called “Jewrovision”.  During our initiative in 2021 and 2022 when we celebrated the existence of 1700 years of Jewish life in Germany, the interest of the German public was overwhelming.

Dr Klein speaking at the opening of the Dreyfus Affair exhibition at the French Embassy in Berlin. January 2023. Courtesy: The French Embassy in Berlin. With kind permission.

Sukkot festivals of Jewish culture were overbooked. Today, exhibitions, concerts, and cultural events draw a wide audience of non-Jewish public. To contribute in this way to better, wider, more authentic knowledge of the  Jewish heritage of general public in Germany is a great task, but when we are seeing with which growing interest public here is eager to come, to see, to learn and to know, it really makes the more tough part of our job easier” – explains Dr Klein. 

This view is also supported by many in various Jewish communities in Germany. 

“ Previously, for so many years and decades, Jewish communities here ( in Germany) were living very much inside themselves. But now, many representatives of various communities are telling us that the general public is growingly interested in Jewish culture and traditions.  It is a great message to the communities, of course, and the tendency is important. We are glad about it and are doing our best to contribute to this interest” – said the Federal Commissioner for Jewish life in Germany. 

Dr Klein visiting the Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture. Leipzig. June 2023. Courtesy: Simon Dubnow Institute. With kind permission.

Very recently, at the European Day of Jewish culture celebrated around the first weekend of September, Dr Klein presided over the ceremony of the new state award in Germany, for the Promoting Jewish Life which was initiated in 2022. This new state prize is awarded to volunteers, and there is a very good rationale in this, both gratifying those who are involved in such revitalising work, and also stimulating those who might join the effort. 

At the ceremony of the second state German award for Promoting Jewish Life, Felix Klein was joined by the Federal German Minister for the  Family Affairs Lisa Paus and the President of the German Central Council of Jews Dr Joseph Shuster. Among the laureates was the well-known LIMMUD organisation which contributes to the wide awareness of Jewish heritage and culture in many countries. Its  German chapter has been awarded this year by the state recognition. 

Dr Klein ( on the left) at the state ceremony of the Federal Prize for the Promoting Jewish Life in Germany, together with the President of the German Central Council of Jews in Germany Dr Joseph Shuster and the Federal Minister for Family Affairs Dr Lisa Paus. Photo: Thomas Koehler. With kind permission.

There is no doubt that the other part of the Federal Government Commissioner’s portfolio, the one for fostering Jewish life, is a win-win for everyone. It supports and stimulates Jewish community all over Germany, it provides serious and positive public service for the wide population of a big country, and it also supports and contributes to good in general. A blessed and engaging work, shortly.

But what made a special impression on me in this part of our conversations with Dr Felix Klein is the way of his own perception of this part of his large portfolio. Felix is beaming when speaking about festivals, events, concerts, programs. He is not simply satisfied with the subject and results of his and his team’s efforts on the certain direction of their work. He just loves it – and the degree of personal involvement of the very senior federal official speaks volumes to me. 

What is yet better, Dr Klein contributes personally to the fostering of Jewish life and its revival too, and he does it in a truly special way.  The way which one can call a mission. The story about the Felix Klein mission is the following part of the essay. 

August – September 2023

Berlin