Holocaust memorial outside far-right politician's house will be removed 'if he kneels and begs'
KEY POINTS
- Protesters build mock Holocaust memorial outside home of AfD politician Bjorn Höcke.
- German far-right figurehead previously described Berlin Holocaust Memorial as "monument of shame".
- Centre for Political Beauty say they will remove it if Höcke kneels and "begs for forgiveness"
A political art group has built a replica of Berlin's Holocaust Memorial outside the home of a far-right German politician.
The Centre for Political Beauty group set up 24 concrete slabs outside the home of Alternative for Germany (AfD) politician Bjorn Höcke, saying it was their "neighbourly duty" to remind him of the six million Jews who died during the Second World war.
Höcke's, one of the key figurehead's in the German right-wing, has been accused of anti-Semitism over his past comments regarding the Holocaust.
Speaking to a group of AfD supporters in Dresden, Höcke said that Germany is "the only people in the world who plant a monument of shame in the heart of the capital", believed to be in reference to the Berlin memorial.
Philipp Ruch, activist and member of Centre for Political Beauty, told the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper: "We hope he enjoys the view every day when he looks out the window."
The group are hoping to raise funds to keep the scaled down version of the memorial in the private property neighbouring Höcke's home in Thuringia.
They initially wanted to keep it up for two years after raising their initial goal of €28,000 (£25,000), but are now aiming for five years by raising a total of €54,000.
However, the Centre for Political Beauty said they will take down memorial on the condition that Höcke drops to his knees and "begs for forgiveness" for Germany's actions during the Second World War, as former chancellor Willy Brandt famously did once outside the monument to victims of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
Ruch added: "He will now have to deal with the fact that he has neighbours who don't consider the Holocaust Memorial a 'monument of shame', but who try to remember what had happened, to prevent it from happening again."
The AfD party won 13% of the vote in Germany's September election.
Höcke did not stand then, but is reported to be considering putting his name forward should there be another election following the collapse of the coalition talks involving Angela Merkel.
