German Holocaust Survivor Gets Death Threat Referencing AfD Election Win

Munich police are investigating a death threat targeting Charlotte Knobloch, the prominent Jewish community leader and Holocaust survivor, after graffiti referencing the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, appeared on a park bench.

A woman discovered the message on Thursday and alerted authorities, according to dpa. Knobloch, an outspoken advocate for banning the AfD, subsequently canceled a planned appearance at a book launch taking place roughly 2 miles from the location where the threat was found, the German news agency said.

The incident comes days after the AfD secured 43.8% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt’s state election. The party won 39 seats in the regional parliament, leaving it just short of the numbers needed to govern alone without a coalition partner.

German media outlets did not publish the precise wording of the threat. Reports said it mentioned Knobloch and the AfD and included a Star of David.

Responding to a JNS inquiry, Stephan Protschka, chairman of the AfD’s Bavaria chapter, said: “I condemn the death threat against Charlotte Knobloch unequivocally and without reservation. Political disagreements or election results can never justify threats, intimidation, or violence against a person. This applies, of course, especially if such a threat is motivated by antisemitism.”

Protschka added: “We take very seriously the fact that the graffiti explicitly referenced the AfD’s election success in Saxony-Anhalt. At the same time, the relevant authorities are investigating the perpetrator(s) and the background of the act. The results of this investigation should be awaited before any further conclusions are drawn.”

Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, also denounced the threat in a post on X, linking it to broader fears among German Jews amid rising antisemitic violence, harassment and intimidation. His remarks suggested that the AfD’s growing influence is among the concerns confronting the community.

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“That a 93-year-old Holocaust survivor must witness Jews being beaten on the street, boycotted at universities and in the cultural sector, and the AfD growing stronger with its dangerous ideology, must be unbearable for her and for every Jew in Germany,” Prosor wrote.

Ludwig Spaenle, the Bavarian state government’s commissioner for Jewish life and against antisemitism, said the threat “crossed every line of decency.” In comments to dpa, he said: “To threaten a person who, after the Shoah, opened a door to this country’s return to the civilized world with her family in Munich and Germany, is more than just breaking a taboo.” He said he hoped those responsible would be identified swiftly and prosecuted.

Knobloch publicly criticized the AfD during a 2019 Holocaust remembrance ceremony at the Bavarian State Parliament. Her speech drew widespread attention because such commemorations traditionally avoid partisan politics. “The so-called Alternative for Germany bases its policy on hatred and exclusion,” she said at the time.

AfD seeks to limit immigration to Germany and has had supporters and leaders who downplayed the Holocaust.

Knobloch is widely credited with leading a Jewish revival in Munich, where she was born. She spearheaded the establishment in 2006 of a $51 million Jewish community center and synagogue. She began focusing on that project after leading the communal effort to absorb thousands of Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

In 1942, when she was 10, Knobloch’s father, Fritz Neuland, arranged for her to go into hiding in a small town with the family of a Catholic woman. Rumors circulated that Knobloch was the illegitimate daughter of that woman, Kreszentia Hummel. She did not deny the rumors, which helped shield both guest and host from being reported to Nazi authorities.

Knobloch’s mother abandoned her and her father when Knobloch was very young. Knobloch and her father, who also survived the Holocaust, returned to Munich after the war. There were almost no Jews in a city whose Jewish population had numbered 10,000 in 1933.