A Jewish organisation has asked the authorities of the German capital to acquire the derelict villa of the chief propagandist for Nazi Germany and turn it into an education centre against propaganda as a tool of hate.
Deep in the outskirts of Berlin lies an abandoned building with a notorious past.
The villa of Joseph Goebbels, who spearheaded propaganda for the Nazis, has been covered in shrubs and weeds for years, and the city is so desperate to have someone take it off its hands that it may give the property away for free.
The European Jewish Association said it’s interested and wants to turn the building into an education centre about how propaganda led to the Holocaust.
But it also wants to focus on present propaganda.
The ever-increasing rise in hatred and antisemitism across the continent makes it a pressing matter, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, chairman of the European Jewish Association, told Euronews.
“We will find ourselves again in a situation where not only in Germany but also in other countries in Europe, there will be governments elected democratically, officially, and the people that will be elected will be people who hate Jews, who hate people who are different than them,” Rabbi Margolin said.
The building is so derelict that people can’t venture inside, so it would require significant funding to turn it into a functional educational centre.
The European Jewish Association said it could provide some of the funding, but it wants the government to chip in. However, the government is not sure it can afford it.
“The project of the European Jewish Association is definitely worthy, but the issue is financing,” Berlin’s Senator of Finance Stefan Evers told Euronews in an emailed response.
While there are also other serious offers for the building as well, handing it over to people who may misuse it will not be considered, Evers explained, such as extremists wanting to take it over for ideological purposes.
The building is located close to Berlin in the state of Brandenburg, where an election is coming up in just a few weeks.
Just minutes away from Goebbels’ former abode, campaign posters by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) call for deportations.
The party made historic success over the weekend, coming in first in a state election in Thuringia, in Germany’s east.
A Berlin city councillor who is a member of the Jewish community told Euronews that today’s political context means that people must understand how propaganda works.
“We see a rise of anti-democratic movements worldwide, and they use this sort of propaganda to become stronger, to make their ideas go mainstream,” said Daniel Eliasson of the Greens.
“That’s why it’s very important to learn how propaganda worked back then so that you can understand how it works now,” he concluded.
To learn more, watch the Euronews report in the video player above.
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