Jews Boo Kohl During Speech on Postwar Germany
West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl was booed and interrupted by young Jews today as he made a gesture of national atonement for the Nazi pogrom that launched the murder of millions of Jews.
“Chancellor, you are lying,” one protester shouted from an upper balcony at a Frankfurt synagogue when Kohl praised the postwar integration of Jews in West Germany.
Kohl was speaking at a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Kristallnacht (Crystal Night) in one of the synagogues destroyed on the night of Nov. 9, 1938.
The protesters, who accuse Kohl of glossing over Nazi atrocities, interrupted him twice. As he finished, his speech was met with both boos and applause.
The young Jews bitterly recalled Kohl’s 1985 ceremonial visit with President Reagan to a military cemetery in the town of Bitburg, which contains the graves of Nazi SS troops.
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