German Jew recounts her experiences in the AfD stronghold - interview

A German Jew tells the Post about her experiences in the AfD stronghold.

The historic victory of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Thuringia’s regional election last Sunday made headlines worldwide. Commentators drew comparisons to Germany of the ’30s and even described the regional AfD leader, Björn Höcke, as “Nazi” and “fascist.”

The election date, September 1 – 85 years after World War II began – was chosen to connect the past with the present.

While the German mainstream media competed in dramatizing the electoral gains of the AfD in Thuringia but also in neighboring Saxony, Mirjam Lübke, a German Jew working for the AfD’s parliamentary group in Thuringia, rejoiced.

Mirjam, 55, who was born in Rhineland and grew up in the industrial Ruhr area, still lives in West Germany. But her work for the AfD in Thuringia almost transformed her into an Ossi, an East German. She could feel the vibes of the “Blue Revolution” in Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia, blue being the color of the AfD and other European “freedom” parties.

Mirjam had been interested in politics since her early youth, but she was oriented to the Left. Politics were often discussed at home. Her mother is Jewish, and her father is Evangelical. Her maternal family lived for generations in Germany, originally from Alsace’s French border region.

Mirjam is a Jewish community member in Mönchengladbach, though she rarely visits the synagogue there. She sees herself as a liberal Jew. Her avoiding the synagogue has nothing to do with her work for the AfD, boycotted by the officials of the Jewish community in Germany.

“In this community, many members come from Eastern Europe and have no problem with the AfD,” she said. “Quite the contrary.”

What brings a German Jew to work with AfD, especially in Thuringia?

“The turning point for me was around former president Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and transfer the US Embassy from Tel Aviv,” Lübke told the The Jerusalem Post in an interview.

“I was very disappointed by the reactions in Germany. There were many Palestinian demonstrations, riots; and politicians like Angela Merkel simply disappeared and said nothing despite their previous statements of support to Israel and the importance of defending the Jews in Germany. The riots went on for days, and they said nothing. I was already skeptical about these statements’ seriousness and the ‘memory culture’ in Germany. But then I said: enough is enough. It opened my eyes to see the reality.

“At first, like many others, I was also skeptical about the AfD. Then, a Jewish acquaintance suggested that I get to know them better. I did, and it made me rethink my position regarding the party.

“Another friend enabled me to confront Björn Höcke with his famous speech given in 2017 in Dresden, in which he, among other things, called the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin the ‘Memorial of Shame.’ I sent him an open letter, and after a few days came his reply. He said that he would have liked someone to explain to him, without any prejudice, what made Jews so angry about what he said. He read my letter and found it good, as it was a very detailed reaction.”

That was the beginning of an exchange between the pair. In 2019, before starting to work for the parliamentarian group of the AfD in Thuringia, Mirjam published a book that caused a scandal: Schalom Björn!: Bekenntnisse eines jüdischen Fangirls. The book ironically treats the reporting of the German media and the gap between this reporting and reality. Höcke wrote the introduction to the book.

“Both of us got insults for it,” recalled Mirjam. “People who didn’t even read the book said that I wrote love letters to Höcke, who from his side was accused of having sold the AfD to the Jews.”

This experience brought Mirjam closer to the AfD. Since she is very active on the Internet, writing blogs and articles for the Jüdische Rundschau, she got an offer to work for the AfD as an assistant to its group in the regional parliament of Thuringia. She started working there in June 2020 and admits she is very satisfied with a job that allows her to experience the AfD personally from the inside and bring people to better understand Judaism.

Lübke studied history at university and focused her studies on the work of Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg.

“I am doing my best to interest people in Judaism,” she stated, “mainly people who have prejudices on Jews but who I feel are still open and are not so deeply antisemitic that no one can change their mind.”

Mirjam explained that the ignorance regarding Judaism in Germany has to do with the fact that most people never met a Jew in their life, especially in East Germany.

“Very few Jews lived in the German Democratic Republic,” she stated. “Not that in the West the situation was very different. In the ’90s, Jewish immigrants came from the former USSR, and the chances to meet a Jew became bigger, but there was often a language barrier.

“In East Germany, the Jewish communities are still tiny. It’s not easy to get in touch with the members of these communities, due to the reputation of the AfD. However, this reputation does not reflect reality. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be working there.

“I work very often directly with Höcke, and therefore I can evaluate him personally. On the level of his management style, he is very cooperative, and one can talk to him. He is open to opinions other than his own.

“I can’t confirm in any way that his way of thinking or reacting is undemocratic. Many perceptions about him are constructed by the press, such as the new scandal around him saying ‘All for Germany,’ an expression considered by a court an SA slogan. I believe that he used this expression without knowing that it was used by the Nazis. Many others used this expression without being accused of being neo-Nazis. Höcke certainly didn’t say it with any Nazi connotation.

“His political roots are in the democratic revolutionary movement of 1848. He deals a lot with the 19th century, with the bourgeois revolutions, and not with National Socialism.

“From my personal discussions with him, I know that he has nothing to do with National Socialism. He says that the Nazi system limited freedoms in such an extreme way that he would never consider it a positive system.

“However, in Germany, when one doesn’t act according to the general expectations, automatically, the accusation of being Nazi is used. Accusing someone of being a Nazi became a political weapon, too often without any real substance.”

Being a Jew seldom plays a role in her work, stressed Mirjam. “Every now and then, a question pops up on Jewish themes. So far, I haven’t had any antisemitic experiences in my work. The first time I participated in the group’s closed meeting, I had some fears about what was awaiting me there, that I would have some negative experiences or hostility. But nothing happened.

“It’s neither philo-semitism nor antisemitism. Höcke once asked me to help his son with homework on Jewish themes. But my being Jewish is not a big theme. The private life of the assistants is not an issue, so I am not afraid that it can be used against me. When I first got the job, people asked me if I didn’t fear that the AfD would use me for their purposes as a kosher stamp. But I never had such a feeling.”

REACTIONS OF Jews to her working for the AfD have been mixed.

“Some [people] unfriended me even before I started working with them,” said Mirjam. “On the other hand, others understand my position and feel close to the AfD mainly because they can’t stand the immigration policy of the federal government and the way it affects our security.

“I received terrible curses. Some said that I was a traitor and that I would freely go to the train platform to the extermination camps. One left-wing friend even told me Höcke would send me the gas bill.

“People practically implied that I would stand and watch how Jewish life would be endangered again by the AfD. I couldn’t understand it, because, as far as I am concerned, the threat to Jews in Germany today is coming from other sides.

“People are fixated on the AfD. Even in my own family, the opinions differ. My mother was worried that something bad might happen to me. But she didn’t condemn me or distance herself. My cousin was laughing when she heard about my new job.”

Regarding the stance of the AfD in Thuringia on Israel and the current climate in the Middle East, Lübke said: “Some are powerful supporters of Israel. Those who have visited came back with positive impressions and feel very connected to Israel. Höcke is quite neutral, but he is closer to Israel than to Hamas. The general atmosphere is positive. Nobody questions Israel’s right to exist and defend itself. At least in my circle of acquaintances, nobody is hostile toward Israel.

“Only once have I had a clash with an AfD member, from another region, who claimed that the party is far too Zionist. I asked him why he was complaining about Israel and not about the German payments to the Palestinians. If he is defending patriotic positions, then one could do in Germany many things with the €240 million that Germany transfers yearly to the Palestinians.

“Many have no idea about it. People think that Germany stands unconditionally with Israel, without understanding that this declared support basically consists of empty words.” •