Anne Frank center compares Jews fleeing Nazis to Islamic State terrorists

Colonel Richard Kemp, who was a former Commander of Operation Fingal in Afghanistan, wrote on Twitter: “A terrible insult by @BS_AnneFrank. They should delete this disgraceful tweet.”

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
Photos are seen inside the Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 21, 2018. (photo credit: REUTERS/EVA PLEVIER)
Photos are seen inside the Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 21, 2018.
(photo credit: REUTERS/EVA PLEVIER)
The Anne Frank Educational Center in the German city of Frankfurt is under intense fire for comparing Jews during the Holocaust with Islamic State terrorists in a series of tweets on Wednesday.
The center appeared to object to a German government plan to strip German Islamic State fighters of their citizenship. The educational center wrote that “protests formed against the plan,” in connection with a reference to the Third Reich.
“In fact, the Nazis made generous use of the means of expatriation. In several waves, a total of over 39,000 people were expatriated - especially Jews. As of November 1941, they automatically lost their citizenship when they the crossed the borders of the Reich regardless of whether ‘voluntarily’ emigrated or deported,” the center wrote on Twitter.
The tweet continued, “Their assets were confiscated. Among other things, Albert Einstein was affected on the grounds that he had ‘violated the duty of loyalty to the Reich and the people."'
When asked about its tweets by The Jerusalem Post on Saturday, the Anne Frank Educational Center’s Twitter feed wrote: “No, we did not compare or equate Jewish holocaust victims to IS terrorists. And we made that very clear after some misinterpreted our tweet in that way. In no way did we defend jihadists. This is simply not true.”
According to the website of the center, “The Anne Frank Educational Center is a place where both young people and adults can learn about the history of National Socialism and discuss its relevance to today. In our work we use the diary and the biography of Anne Frank as a unique tool to promote tolerance and educate people about the consequences of discrimination and racism.”
Col. Richard Kemp, who was a former British Army commander of Operation Fingal in Afghanistan, wrote on Twitter: “A terrible insult by @BS_AnneFrank. They should delete this disgraceful tweet.”
Kemp is widely considered one of the United Kingdom’s most prominent supporters of the security of the Jewish state.
Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the head of the Jerusalem office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told the Post on Saturday, "that this is another case of totally misinterpreting the lessons and the implications of the holocaust and applying them erroneously to people who don't deserve any sympathy at all."
 
Zuroff, a leading international expert on the Holocaust, added it reminds of him of "people in Germany who became pacifists and the lesson of the holocaust is no wars," but they fail to understand there are "just wars" and there "are times when strong measures have to be taken" in the context of combating the Islamic State, for example.
Aras-Nathan Keul, an executive board member of the youth organization, the German-Israel Friendship Society, wrote to the center on Twitter: “How do you get into such nonsense? The ‘Anne Frank Education Center’ compares German IS returnees with Jews persecuted by Nazis.”
The center seemed to double-down on its thread of tweets opposing German Islamic State combatants from losing their citizenship.
The Anne Frank Educational Center tweeted to the Post: “Because that is the historic precedence of withdrawal of citizenship in Germany. And that is the reason why it was outlawed after WWII in the constitution. That is why this is a big issue as it has not been a legal procedure since the Holocaust, hence our tweet about it.”
"Lawyers plead for a cautious use of this remedy," the center noted. "The Frankfurt lawyer Astrid Wallrabenstein says: ‘For security, police and prosecutors are responsible, not the passport authority."’
Germany banned the Islamic State as a terrorist organization. The federal republic, however, refused on Friday to outlaw the Lebanese organization Hezbollah, which calls for Israel’s destruction and is classified as a terrorist entity by the US, Canada, the Arab League and the United Kingdom.


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