Participants at a Junge Alternative (JA), a youth group that claims ties to the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, event allegedly made antisemitic and anti-immigrant statements, RTL reported Wednesday.
A JA participant was quoted as allegedly saying Jews and immigrants should be interned in a ghetto and then should be put to work to get food, the outlet wrote in German. (RELATED: Green Party Realizes Germany May Need Fossil Fuels After All As Economic Crisis Drags On)
“I would just intern them first, put them in a ghetto. They have a duty to go to work. You could set up workshops like this, for example. Of course, they have to perform to ensure they get food and a warm roof over their heads,” the participant allegedly said, according to a translation of the RTL interview by GB News.
The reporters asked how they envisioned this coming about, according to the outlet. “There needs to be a certain willingness to use violence among the German people… As a state, I would look for volunteers who are prepared to shoot women and children if necessary,” the group allegedly responded with, the outlet reported.
German youth group call for ‘Jews to be put in ghettos’ and are looking for ‘volunteers prepared to shoot women and children’https://t.co/l8dIJCeNVK
— GB News (@GBNEWS) February 8, 2024
“The solution to the Jews would be to assign them an area where they can all go,” one individual allegedly said, according to GB News’ translation of RTL’s reporting.
Both the JA and the AfD have released statements distancing themselves from these “unconstitutional and inhumane” alleged remarks, RTL reported, according to the translation.
The Saxon chapter of JA released a statement on Twitter which acknowledged that if such remarks were made they were “problematic” but questioned how representative they were of the group as a whole and contested the media’s coverage of the affair. It further claimed the alleged incident took place back in Nov. 19 at a JA hike in Saxony.
Am 19.11.2023 schleuste RTL zwei Journalistinnen zu einer Wanderung der Jungen Alternative Sachsen anlässlich des Volkstrauertages in Bautzen ein. Dabei soll es zu problematischen Äußerungen gekommen sein. Wichtig ist dabei Folgendes: 🧵 pic.twitter.com/FcSeQGKMLn
— Junge Alternative Sachsen (@JA_Sachsen) February 8, 2024
“The statements were made in a private conversation by a single person who is not a member of Junge Alternative or the AfD,” the organization added on Twitter.
– Die Aussagen wurden außerhalb der Hörweite der anwesenden Mitglieder der Jungen Alternative getroffen. Dies ist auf den Videoaufnahmen zu erkennen und wurde uns von mehreren Teilnehmern bestätigt.
— Junge Alternative Sachsen (@JA_Sachsen) February 8, 2024
This controversy comes after a German administrative court ruled that the JA could be labeled a “certified right-wing extremist endeavor,” which permits increased surveillance of the group, the court stated, Deutsche Welle News reported.