According to a press release, other Hasidim were also held at the airport, founder of AAA, former state Assemblyman Dov Hikind, announced Tuesday, adding that some members of the group were pulled away and “harshly interrogated."
“It’s unconscionable for something like this to happen to innocent people anywhere, but even more so to identifiable Jews in Germany, of all places,” Hikind said in the statement.
“They reached out to share their story with me,” he added. “I can tell you the trauma and pain they suffered is scarring and traumatic, so we are calling on the German government to investigate this appalling treatment of [these] innocent people immediately.”
“As soon as I gave my papers over to the officer, he looks at me, he says to me, ‘Are you all five together?'” one of the detained men said. “And I said, ‘Yes.’ And he said, ‘You need to step aside.'”
“Two more people who are on our flight arrive there,” he said. “They went over with their papers and immediately were told to stand next to us as well. So, we immediately saw that this is a Jewish thing.
“Nobody [else] was stopped for more than a minute,” he said. “Looked at the document, ‘Next.’ Seven Jews, Hasidic Jews, were told to stand aside.”
According to the men, they reached out to the US Consulate while being held and were told that “they’re investigating my paperwork, that they might be fraudulent.”
The 16 detainees were eventually allowed to proceed to Vienna, but only after being told to sign disclaimers clearing the German authorities of any wrongdoing, the detained men said.