A Green party politician in the capital city of Berlin has resigned after being arrested for driving while drunk, well over the legal limit, and then giving the Hitler salute to police.
The politician, Jutta Boden (photo), was arrested on Saturday night with a 1.34 per mille alcohol blood content while driving on the A115. A police car initially pulled her over and she was administered a test, at which point she was taken into custody.
However, she then began making the Hitler salute in the police car and yelled “Heil Hitler” twice inside the vehicle, according to German newspaper Bild.
When first confronted about the allegations, she said it was “total insinuation” and that she “didn’t feel like she was being treated correctly.” She denied making a Hitler salute but admitted to driving while drunk. She has since resigned from her position, writing in an email:
“Driving while drunk and my inappropriate and wrong reaction during a police stop were unacceptable. I would like to sincerely apologize for this misconduct. In order to take responsibility for my actions, I am resigning from my mandate as district councilor,” she wrote.
Boden has represented the Green party in the Berlin district of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf since the end of 2019.
A Christian gospel singer was told by a volunteer police officer that she was forbidden from singing “church songs” on the streets of Britain in the latest example of apparently legally ilitterate anti-Christian bias from UK police.
Harmonie London, a gospel singer who often performs Christian music on the streets of London, shared footage over the weekend of a female volunteer police officer trying to shut down her performance.
In the video, the officer told London: “No, miss, you’re not allowed to sing church songs outside of church grounds,” and wrongly asserted that she could only sing “outside of church grounds unless you have been authorised by the Church to do these kind of songs”.
“That’s a load of rubbish, you’re allowed,” Ms London replied, appealing to the Human Rights Act, which protects freedom of religion in the UK. The officer, apparently stumped by this walked away in frustration while sticking her tongue out at the camera.
Instagram
There are currently no laws preventing people from singing on the streets in the UK and the Daily Mailnoted that the area in which Ms London was performing was specifically regulated by the local council as a zone for busking and street entertainment.
According to the paper, the volunteer officer involved in the dispute was Maya Hadzhipetkova, a Bulgarian who relocated to Cyprus in 2009 for five years before coming to the UK.
The video has sparked widespread backlash, with many on social media claiming that the incident demonstrated a bias against Christians in Britain.
The chief executive of the Christian Concern campaign group, Andrea Williams said: “One of my favourite things as I commute to work is to hear Harmonie’s beautiful worship.
“She blesses tens of thousands of people in the same way and brings harmony to the streets. We need more of this, not less. It is shocking that she has been treated like this.”
On Monday, the Metropolitan Police confirmed the veracity of the video, saying that it was filmed on Oxford Street in London over the weekend.
“At the heart of this is a specific by-law related to busking,” the force said. Without saying whether the law had been broken, the Met merely added: “The officer knows she could have handled this differently and is speaking to her manager.”
The London police force went on to admonish the public for criticising the officer: “We’re aware of significant social media commentary. Some of the comments are personal and hurtful. This is unacceptable.”
The incident is by no means a one-off, however, with multiple street preachers being arrested in the UK for spreading Christian messages, which some apparently found offensive, such as asserting that God intended families to be comprised of a man and a wife rather than two people of the same gender.
Over the past year, police have also arrested multiple Christians for silently praying in their head outside abortion clinics. In instance filmed in March of last year, a police officer claimed that “engaging in prayer” outside the abortion facility was an “offence”.
WATCH: Christian Pastor Arrested in London for Quoting ‘Homophobic’ Bible Verses https://t.co/cS4hsjA8CS
A family in Glasgow, Montana is accusing the state’s child protective services of “kidnapping” their teenage daughter after the girl began to identify as a transgender “boy.” Krista and Todd Kolstad spoke to Reduxx about their ordeal, revealing that the child had been removed from their care and was now going to be sent to Canada.
Krista, the child’s step-mother, explains that their nightmare began in August of 2023 after they received a call that their 14-year-old daughter, Jennifer*, had expressed suicidal ideations while at school.
“She had always had problems at school,” Krista says, noting that she and Todd had even pulled her from one district and sent her to another due to issues with bullying in an effort to give her a fresh start. But despite experiencing some real-world hardships, Krista claims Jennifer also had some undiagnosed mental health concerns, including attention-seeking behavior.
Later on that same evening, a case worker with Montana Child and Family Services (CFS) showed up to the Kolstad home to speak with Jennifer and do an inspection. Krista had been preparing dinner at the time, and invited the case worker to tour the residence despite both her and her husband being distressed by the sudden appearance.
Todd, Krista, and Jennifer in a Christmas photo. SOURCE: Supplied.
During the interview with CFS, Jennifer claimed to have consumed toilet bowl cleaner and painkiller medications that day in an effort to commit suicide. Krista says that it had immediately struck her as being highly unlikely, as not only did Jennifer not have access to either substance unmonitored, but that Jennifer had expressed no symptoms of imminent illness that day.
Despite their doubts about the veracity of Jennifer’s claims, Krista and Todd agreed to take Jennifer to the local hospital on an emergency basis. While there, blood work returned that Jennifer had not consumed any toxic substances.
Krista and Todd provided Reduxx with copies of Jennifer’s medical paperwork to substantiate their claim that Jennifer had not consumed any dangerous substances the day she was admitted to hospital. The paperwork confirms that there were no abnormalities detected in Jennifer’s system, and that her overall physical health was good.
But notes taken at the hospital consistently mention that Jennifer identifies as a “male” and wishes to be called “Leo.”
From the hospital documents. SOURCE: Provided.
Krista says she and Todd immediately made their objections known to Hospital staff, requesting Jennifer be called by her birth name.
“We were very clear to the emergency room staff as well as [CFS] that this goes against our values, morals, and our religious beliefs,” she said, but hospital staff refused to listen. “They told me to call their lawyer if I have an issue as they will do what the patient tells them.”
While the medical transitioning of minors was prohibited in the state of Montana at the time, Krista says the hospital told her that “social transitioning” was a “grey area” and continued to call Jennifer “Leo” and refer to her as a boy.
As a patient admitted for suicidal ideations, Jennifer was placed on 24/7 watch to keep her safe. But Krista says an aide was placed outside of her door who would regularly talk to Jennifer about “gender affirming” care.
“I came one day and she was talking about having top-surgery and being non-binary,” Krista says of the aide. She took her complaint to the on-duty Doctor, who dismissed her. “He told me, ‘why are not you more concerned that your daughter is trying to harm herself, then what [the aide] is talking about?’”
Another aide who had been set to watch over Jennifer similarly chastised Krista, telling her to “respect” Jennifer’s wishes to be called “Leo.”
Krista describes Jennifer’s time in the hospital as a period of constant efforts to undermine her and Todd’s parental authority. In addition to not respecting their wishes to refer to Jennifer by her birth name, hospital staff refused to abide by any other requests, such as limiting Jennifer’s TV and phone time, encouraging her to do her school work, and not allowing her to have copious amounts of junk food.
During this time, Krista and Todd had communication with Child and Family Services, and all agreed that Jennifer would benefit from specialized residential care for treatment and counseling. But during a conversation about where Jennifer could be placed, Krista says the possibility of her being moved to Wyoming was presented.
Jennifer and Todd. SOURCE: Provided
“They told us that there were 6 facilities in Montana, but that there was also a facility in Wyoming. And at that point, because we were already in such a state from the hospital disrespecting us and our wishes, we immediately looked up Wyoming’s laws on transitioning minors,” Krista says. “It looked to us like kids could go ahead and have procedures done and have hormones without parental consent.”
Concern began to set in, but Krista and Todd were assured that the most likely scenario was Jennifer being placed in a Montana-based facility, and on August 22, Krista and Todd were told that Jennifer was next in line for a bed in Billings, Montana.
But hours later that same day, Krista and Todd were called and informed Jennifer would be moved to Wyoming.
“They called and told us that a bed had opened up in Wyoming and that Jennifer needed to go. [The Doctor] said ‘she has to go. she’s not doing any good here,’ and we were really blown away,” Krista recounts. “No one talked to us about the the name of the facility — we had no one to answer our questions. We told them we wanted our questions answered before we accepted the bed.”
Ten minutes later, Child and Family Services arrived at the Kolstad residence with police.
“They showed up at our home to serve us with papers to take Jennifer out of our care,” Krista says. “They told me the reason was that we were ‘unable or refusing to provide medical care.’ That’s just not true.”
The next day, August 23, Jennifer was transported to Wyoming. Despite the fact that Krista and Todd were not allowed to see Jennifer during her move, CFS did allow Jennifer to stop and see friends and co-workers prior to leaving the city. Krista would later find out that Jennifer had told her friends that she was “crazy and trying to kill herself” and was being taken away from her parents.
“I feel this was a lapse in judgement by [CFS], a violation of HIPAA, and a miscarriage to Jennifer, as she is only 14. What if, when she is 17, this incident is behind her and she is in a good place mentally? This is a very small town and they have just let her brand herself as the ‘crazy kid’ who tried to kill themselves.”
While Jennifer was in Wyoming, neither Krista nor Todd were allowed to speak with her directly. Instead, they had to go through Jennifer’s counsellor, but Krista says they were very reluctant to give her information.
Krista later had to request Jennifer’s records from the center in order to get an understanding of what had happened to her while she was at the facility.
A letter sent by Krista to CFS expressing dismay at the situation and offering Jennifer clothes and comfort items. SOURCE: Provided.
On September 25, Jennifer was returned to Montana and placed in a Youth Dynamics group home where she has remained ever since.
“They called it ‘temporary legal custody,’ which means they have the say over where she is at, but we are supposed to be able to have the say over everything else. But that was not upheld. There were incidents of her getting vaccines we did not consent to, we were not told the name of the Doctors involved, and she was allowed to shave her head,” Krista says.
Since Jennifer returned to Montana, Krista and Todd have had monthly court meetings along with Child and Family Services to determine next steps. The couple was assigned a public defender, who simply encouraged them to keep their head down until the process was complete.
“I am not trying to throw them under the bus… but all of their advice has been ‘play nice, just let her finish the group home program and then get her back in your care and move on with your lives.’”
But while the group home placement should have been just 6-9 months, the family’s situation took a dramatic turn for the worse during their hearing on January 19, 2024, when the court decided to hand custody of Jennifer over to Child and Family Services.
“We were told that letting Jennifer transition and live as a boy was in her ‘therapeutic best interest’ and because we aren’t willing to follow that recommendation, the court gave CFS custody of Jennifer for six months,” Krista says. “CFS is now going to place Jennifer in the care of her birth mother in Canada, who has never really been apart of her life. The judge said to us ‘you need to expect that reunification with your family may not be what you are expecting.’”
Krista and Jennifer. SOURCE: Supplied.
Jennifer’s birth mother, Christine, currently lives in Kitchener, Ontario with her new husband. After Jennifer was born, Christine reportedly left the child with Todd, and has never been involved in her care since.
“She’s never called to see how [Jennifer] is. She’s never sent her anything. Nothing,” Krista says.
According to Krista, any communication from Christine at all has been sparse, and she has never made a meaningful effort to have a relationship with the children she left in Montana. Despite her apparent lack of interest, Krista has been sending Christine semi-regular updates on all of her children for the past seven years.
But disturbingly, Krista explains that she and Todd have grave concerns about Christine’s fitness as a parent.
“I have this letter from one of Jennifer’s previous counsellors that recommends that if Christine wants to come back into her children’s lives, she should do unification therapy, there should be trial visits… all of this stuff should happen because the children reported her as being abusive,” Krista says.
Krista and Todd provided Reduxx with a copy of a statement from a licensed professional counselor detailing sessions that Jennifer and her sister had attended. Both girls described Christine as being uncaring, abusive, and even “crazy.”
In one section of the statement, the counselor describes one of the girls as witnessing “incidents of violence directed at an older sibling,” which involved Christine “throwing that sibling against the refrigerator after becoming enraged at her” for wearing her mother’s jewelry without permission. The child goes on to detail “incidents when her biological mother would punch, hit, slap, and kick her and her siblings.”
An excerpt from the counseling report reviewed by Reduxx. SOURCE: Provided.
Jennifer similarly alleged disturbing cases of abuse by her biological mother, including one time Christine reportedly grabbed and held her around her waist while repeatedly slapping her in the face.
Of the five children Christine and Todd had together, only one had lived in Canada with Christine prior to aging out of her care. While living with Christine, the boy exhibited severe behavioral problems to a point where Christine approached Krista and Todd for help.
In one conversation, Christine admits to regularly checking homeless encampments and police records in anticipation she would one day find her son in jail.
Child and Family Services was provided both the counselor’s statement and the text messages, but Krista said that nothing could be done to intervene in Jennifer’s placement.
“Our family has been destroyed by this. We have little to no contact with Jennifer and our rights as her parents have been trampled on,” Krista says. But despite the turmoil that has been brought into their lives, the couple says they will never stop trying to help their daughter come home.
Krista and Todd chose to defy a judge’s order to remain silent on the case in order to tell their story. They were set to appear in court today to respond to charges of contempt, but have had to delay the hearing due to a family emergency.
“We will continue to fight. We will never give up on our daughter and for what we believe is morally right. We will continue to tell our story, even though we are currently in contempt of court, and try to keep other families from going through this. Our greatest fear is that our daughter is now going to become a victim of this system and eventually take her own life.”
While Krista has expressed fear that the family’s legal avenues are limited, she has said that they intend to find any means they can against Montana Child and Family Services as well as the hospital where Jennifer was treated.
“I will also be looking at if we have a case against Youth Dynamics Group Home for socially transitioning our daughter against our wishes,” Krista says. “This is NOT about money, this is about standing up and telling our story so this does not happen to another family. We will fight to save our daughter no matter what it costs us financially or emotionally. That’s what parents do for their children.”
*The child’s name has been changedat the request of her parents.
Our recently launched NCF Locals scheme is proving hugely successful, with 10 branches now established across the country and a further 50 branches being rolled out in 2024. We’re also launching a new online platform to enable people to stay in contact. Email: Locals@NewCultureForum.org.uk for more info The aim of our NCF Locals programme is to create local spaces for people to meet kindred spirits, socialise and feel free to have discussions and express their thoughts and opinions. Too often we hear that people feel alone and isolated. We aim to help end that. You’ll also have a chance to meet some of our NCF team and occasionally from guest speakers too. Email: Locals@NewCultureForum.org.uk for more details.
On Sunday, migrants paralysed traffic on Vienna’s Ringstrasse with their anti-Israel protest – as reported by eXXpress. It has now emerged that “supporters of the Islamist ‘Muslim Brotherhood'” were among them. This was reported by the Vienna Press Service. For some, ” jester’s licence” applies, criticised FPÖ leader Kickl. Migrants set off from Heldenplatz on Sunday afternoon in leased show-off boxes. They then agitated against Israel on the Vienna Ring Road and blocked traffic – as reported by eXXpress. As has now become known, supporters of the radical Islamic Muslim Brotherhood were also among the Israel-haters. They outed themselves by displaying the R4bia sign. This emblem has been used by the Muslim Brotherhood since 2013, originally to demonstrate against the government in Egypt.
The terrorist organisation Hamas is the Palestinian branch of the radical Islamic Muslim Brotherhood. It is also responsible for the massacre in Israel on October 7, in which 1,200 citizens were killed and 240 others were taken hostage. The anti-Semitic group “Palestine Solidarity Austria” and the Islamist Khalid Ott, among others, had called for the rally, reports the Journalists’ Network Press Office Vienna. A total of around 200 people in dozens of SUVs took part. They blocked the Ringstrasse, honking their horns and shouting. A Turkey flag was emblazoned on a BMW off-road vehicle. Another participant hung the Iraqi flag that was used under Saddam Hussein. Despite the traffic chaos caused by the demonstrators and the highly questionable organisers, the gathering had previously been approved, the police reported. It remains to be seen whether individual Israel-haters who behaved in a clearly unlawful manner will be investigated. Only FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl commented on the incident on Facebook: “How can it be that in the middle of Vienna, in the capital of a neutral country, thousands of kilometres away from Israel and the Gaza Strip, such a motorcade is organised by supposedly so well-integrated migrants?” he wrote. “For some, there is obviously a jester license.”
Rabid, imported anti-Semitism causes outrage in Graz: for the first time, a Syrian citizen in Styria has been charged with an offence against the Prohibition Act. The man had glorified Adolf Hitler and wanted to continue his mass murder of the Jews. The media have not yet reported on the incident. Last Thursday, a Syrian man (22) shocked visitors to a hairdressing salon in Graz with his aggressive anti-Semitism. The man then fled the scene. The incident has already had legal consequences: The Syrian citizen was charged with offences under the Prohibition Act the day after. The incident has not yet been reported.
The hairdressing salon is about a ten-minute walk from the main railway station. The Syrian citizen Ibrahim (full name known to the editors) had visited the salon on his bike. There he began to rave loudly about his religion, Islam, and about Adolf Hitler, as eXXpress has learnt. The man highly praised the former dictator of the Third Reich because he had “killed Jews”. Finally, the Syrian declared that he wanted to complete Hitler’s work: The Jews would have to “pay with their blood!”
The suspect then left the salon – without paying. Fortunately, the hairdresser, an Iraqi, had a camera that recorded everything. The owner immediately pressed charges. The Syrian was arrested a day later.
When asked, Dr Christian Kroschl from the media office of the Graz public prosecutor’s office told eXXpress: “I can basically confirm the facts described. The charges were brought on the grounds of Section 3g of the Prohibition Act and fraud.” However, the Syrian is not currently in custody due to his mental state. He was “temporarily accommodated in a forensic therapeutic centre.” The public prosecutor’s office was unable to say anything about the accused’s asylum status. In recent weeks, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have also encountered rampant anti-Semitism and Nazi propaganda during their operation in the Gaza Strip. One shop in Gaza, which called for a “knife intifada” with its range of knives and balaclavas, was given the expressive name “Hitler 2” – eXXpress reported. The customers did not hide from the fact that “I like Hitler because he was the most anti-Semitic person in history”, one of them told Reuters. The shop has since been destroyed in the course of the military fighting. In addition, the IDF came across numerous copies of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”.
Kicking off the “Siege of Paris” on Monday, thousands of farmers took to their tractors in a coordinated attempt to block off entrances to the French capital in protest against globalist green policies they say are destroying their ability to stay in business.
In an escalation of the latest example of popular uprisings that have come to define President Macron’s tenure in office, farmers descended in their tractors to shut down major highways leading into Paris on Monday following a week of similar protests throughout the country.
According to the Le Figaro newspaper, farmers successfully enacted blockades on eight major highways, with tractors lined up for tens of kilometres around the ring road surrounding Paris. In total 16 highways and 30 administrative departments around the city were impacted by the demonstrations on Monday, while separate farmer uprisings continued in at least 40 other locations throughout the country.
President Emmanuel Macron will reportedly hold an emergency meeting with his government ministers at the Élysée on Monday to be briefed on the “overview of the agricultural situation”. Meanwhile, Gabriel Attal, who was installed as France’s youngest-ever prime minister earlier this month by Macron, will reportedly hold crunch negotiations with the leader of the FNSEA farmer’s union Arnaud Rousseau and the head of the Young Farmers Arnaud Gaillot on Monday evening.
The “Siege of Paris” was called for over the weekend after Prime Minister Attal’s attempts to quell the anger of the farmers with several “concessions” were rejected for not going far enough.
Nosta Lgia
It is unclear exactly how many of the farmer’s 140 demands the French government can actually meet, given that many of the stifling green agenda regulations were imposed by the EU. However, farmers groups and populist politicians have noted that Macron’s party in Brussels was a principal backer of the climate change cause and, therefore, is still to blame.
Speaking from a blockade outside Paris on Monday, the president of the FDSEA farmer’s union in Yvelines, Luc Janottin said: “We want to tell Mr Attal that he must work for his subjects rather than going for walks on the farms. France could suspend overnight all the environmental standards that complicate our lives and we expect it to do so!”
Nosta Lgia
Janottin said that the purpose of the protests was not to “annoy motorists” and that the farmers would allow people to move through the blockades, saying: “The Paris blockade is just an image. We are not going to completely stop people from moving around. Above all, we want to show our presence, to say that we are tired of doing paperwork rather than our job.”
In addition to targeting Paris, at least 80 tractors enacted a blockade of the A7 highway and elsewhere outside Lyon, where local farmers have also spoken of a “siege” of the city.
“A siege normally lasts a long time, we are not specialists in blocking but we will maintain it for as long as it takes,” said the head of the regional branch of the FNSEA union Michel Joux. “There is palpable tension and exceptional motivation.”
Critical roads leading into Marseille, including the A7 and A55 motorways were subject to “snail operations” local officials said, adding that the A50 is “currently at a complete standstill”.
The battle between agriculture and green agenda proponents is set to become a key issue in the upcoming European Union Parliament elections in June, with farmers and rural communities rising up in France, Germany, Poland, Romania and previously in the Netherlands over green regulations, which they claim have become too much to handle on top of the rising cost of fuel and inflation.
The decision by Brussels to allow tariff-free access to agricultural goods from Ukraine has also been a major sticking point. While the move may have lowered the cost of baguettes in Paris, farmers have struggled with the imports undercutting their prices, given the much lower cost of labour in the former Soviet state as well as the lack of EU regulations, further lowering the cost of Ukrainian imports.
While the EU is actively attempting to entirely incorporate Ukraine into the bloc as a member state, there has been little public consideration from Eurocrats about the impact such a move would have on European farmers.
On Monday, FNSEA chief Arnaud Rousseau pointed to the sugar industry as a key example, saying that the sharp increase in imports into Europe following the Russian invasion has made business “untenable” for farmers throughout the continent.
Stark new EU documents reveal immediate plans drawn up by a European Council official to engineer a financial crisis in Hungary, specifically targeting the country’s currency and debt servicing in a ploy to punish and destabilise the ruling Fidesz government over its position on Ukraine.
The revelations come ahead of a special EU Council meeting Thursday to discuss EU funding for Ukraine. Hungary has come under fire from Eurocrats for blocking EU attempts at sending another €50 billion in financial support to Ukraine, a decision that requires the approval of all member states. PM Viktor Orbán has said EU funding to Ukraine must not come out of the EU’s budget, and that Hungary does not want to engage in collective borrowing and go into debt along with other countries.
The explicit document seen by the Financial Times outlines EU plans to permanently cancel all EU funding going to Hungary. This, the document says, would lead to a situation where “financial markets and European and international companies might be less interested to invest in Hungary.” Withdrawing EU funding could also “quickly trigger a further increase of the cost of funding of the public deficit and a drop in the currency,” the report says.
The plans were defended off the record by various EU officials who declared that Brussels was only retaliating to alleged ‘blackmail’—that is, using the right to disagree given to every member country—from Orbán. The European Parliament has also set in motion plans this month that could strip Hungary of its voting rights at the European Council.
Bóka János, Hungarian Minister for Europe, publicly lambasted the attempt to strongarm Hungary into changing its Ukraine policy Monday morning saying that EU elites were increasingly weaponising access to funding to shift national policy and adding that Budapest would participate constructively in the negotiations, but will not give in to “blackmail” on Ukraine.
While the EU has previously used finance to bring wayward member states into line—as with Greece during the euro zone crisis—many feel the showdown between Brussels and the Orbán government to be accelerating, with Eurocrats continuing to fret ahead of Hungary’s Presidency of the European Council later this year.
The European Commission did not respond to queries raised by The European Conservative at the time of publication about whether the leaked report would constitute financial blackmail of a sovereign member state government.
Whether or not the plans would have the desired effect, they point to the growing hostility of EU leaders towards sovereigntist governments that defend their own national interests.
There are growing diplomatic signs that the EU may use an expected dispute between it and Hungarian officials to trigger Article 7 proceedings and strip Budapest of voting rights on matters such as foreign policy.
Utrecht University of Applied Sciences has temporarily canceled a lecture series on the Holocaust. The educational institution reports that it will hold the series at a different time on Sunday, because “the safety of speakers, students, teachers and visitors cannot be guaranteed”.
The lecture series on the persecution of the Jews was supposed to start on February 7, but the university surprisingly announced that the series of eight lectures would be postponed indefinitely. The Utrecht University of Applied Sciences is accused of being influenced and guided by the pro-Palestinian activist group New Neighbors Utrecht, the Telegraaf reported.
The university’s spokesperson rejected this accusation and told the newspaper that the reason for the postponement is the temporal and historical context given the war in Gaza. “The reason is that we want to facilitate a diverse and balanced dialog on this issue. We need more time to put the events of October 7 and beyond into a broader perspective, with room for different opinions and beliefs.” However, the university was unable to provide any information on when the lecture series will continue.
The Jewish community and the lecturers who were to take part in the lecture vehemently criticized this decision. Lecturer Lotte Bergen, who was to give the fifth lecture on concentration camps, cannot understand the university’s decision and suspects anti-Semitic reasons. “It even seems anti-Semitic to me. If you allow history lessons to be dictated by current events in this way, something is completely wrong. This is about a series of lectures on the Holocaust between 1933 and 1945, the history of which is more important than ever to teach. And then a committee decides: We’re not going to do that for a while, it’s too complicated for us”.
Bergen is convinced that a clear signal needs to be sent. Teaching should no longer be determined by committees or a group of activists, she told the Telegraaf.
Chanan Hertzberger, chairman of the Jewish Central Consultation, finds it unacceptable that the university is allowing itself to be intimidated by the activist group. “It is shameful and deeply offensive that we cannot count the Board of Governors of Utrecht University of Applied Sciences among those who want to preserve the memory of the Holocaust.”
Director Naomi Mestrum of the Center for Information and Documentation Israel (CIDI) also cannot understand the postponement of the lecture series on the Holocaust. She wonders why the university even wants to update the thematic examination of the mass murder of over six million Jews that took place 80 years ago.
The Utrecht action group New Neighbours announced shortly after the university’s announcement that this was a victory for them. Sympathizers of New Neighbours Utrecht congratulate the organization at length: “A nice victory”, “outrageous that they wanted to hold this lecture series at all” and “I saw that a Holocaust survivor is coming as a speaker. Bizarre,” the Telegraaf reported.
