We have learned that consideration is being given to locating the antisemitism commissioner within the Auswärtiges Amt, the Federal Foreign Office. We regard this as an absolutely wrong signal. In letters to the leaders of the governing parties we pointed out that the message thereby conveyed is certainly not the one intended: Jewish Germans are not foreign policy!
Protecting Jews and society from antisemitism is a domestic policy task; all the more so if antisemitism is understood as an indicator of the condition of society as a whole. This is not about the effect on foreign policy or about foreign policy interests, but about showing that the words of Federal President Steinmeier, so heartening for us – and we quote: „Only when Jews are completely at home in Germany is this Federal Republic completely at ease with itself.“ – are reflected in political practice as well.
As regards the other possible locations under consideration (the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the Federal Chancellery, the Federal Ministry of Justice), we have no preferences – what matters is the resourcing of the post and the exchange with those affected.
Our reservations are expressly not directed against Mr Klein, but solely against a possible location within the Auswärtiges Amt.
