Merkel calls on each citizen to fight anti-Semitism

BERLIN – German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called on every single citizen to help fight anti-Semitism ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Merkel said Saturday in her weekly podcast: “Today we are seeing a very different kind of anti-Semitism: there’s the hatred of Jews by our local people, but also by Muslim migrants.”

In recent years, Germany has seen a rising number of often violent attacks against Jews which led the government to appoint a commissioner against anti-Semitism. It’s also funding the creation of a national registration office for anti-Semitic hate crimes.

On Sunday, Germany and many other countries are marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day — 75 years after the Soviet army liberated the Auschwitz death camp in occupied Poland.

Some six million European Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.