German, Israeli ministers commemorate Holocaust ahead of Berlin talks

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar was in Berlin on Thursday for talks with his German counterpart Johann Wadephul, amid high international pressure on Israel over the humanitarian situation in the embattled Gaza Strip.

On the first stop of his visit, Saar joined Wadephul at the Holocaust memorial in the centre of the German capital, which commemorates the six million Jews killed by the Nazi regime across Europe.

"The fight against anti-Semitism, standing up for Jewish life in Germany and the commitment to the security and peaceful future of the state of Israel is and will remain our obligation," Wadephul said as he laid a wreath at the memorial in central Berlin with Saar.

The memorial "reminds us Germans to remember the victims, to honour the survivors and to learn the lessons from the crimes against humanity of the Shoah," said the German minister.

For his part, Saar said that 80 years after the end of the Holocaust, "the lessons seem to have been forgotten."

"In Germany, there's an anti-Semitic incident once every hour," said Saar, referring to a report published by a monitor on Wednesday.

Wadephul said he was "deeply" ashamed that the number of anti-Semitic offences in Germany has reached a new high, that Jewish residents no longer feel safe in the country and that they are advising their children not to speak Hebrew on the street.

"And that is why the federal government will oppose all forms of anti-Semitism with clarity, rigour and consistency," he added.

Second meeting in a month

Wadephul met Saar in Israel on May 11 during his first official visit after taking office.

The ministers are expected to discuss Israel's military campaign in Gaza and the catastrophic situation facing the civilian population in talks later on Thursday.

The meeting comes after Wadephul on Wednesday pledged further German arms deliveries to Israel during an address to parliament.

Wadephul had caused concern within the German government for earlier comments to a newspaper in which he said arms deliveries to Israel were dependent on a legal review of Israel's military conduct in the Gaza Strip.

'Jewish people are afraid'

During the visit to the Holocaust memorial, the Israeli minister stressed the importance of paying attention to the recent rise in anti-Semitic crimes in Germany and across Europe.

"Anti-Semitism is raging today unchecked in the world and especially on European soil," he claimed, adding that one anti-Semitic incident was recorded in Germany every hour, with 8,600 recorded in 2024.

The minister was apparently citing figures released by Germany's Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS), which documented 8,637 anti-Semitic incidents in the country in 2024, a rise of 77% year-over-year.

However, the independent organization has been criticized by the German-Israeli journalist Itay Mashiach on behalf of the Diaspora Alliance, an organization that fights anti-Semitism, of "opaque methods," accusing it of overemphasizing "Israel-related anti-Semitism."

"Today in Europe, today in Germany, Jewish people are afraid," Saar continued. "They don't feel safe in public."

"Ancient hatred has been transformed into a modern plan of action to deprive (...) the Jewish people's right to its own nation state," Saar said.

"To remove the right of Israel, the most attacked and threatened country in the world, to defend itself. And to put the Jewish people once again under the threat of elimination by enemies who are openly calling and acting to eliminate."

Calls have been growing including among Israel's European allies to slap an embargo on weapons exports to the country over the devastating humanitarian situation in Gaza.