(JTA) – The same far-right politician in Germany who, in 2017, called the Nazi era mere “bird shit” in 1,000 years of German history said the day of the Nazis’ World War II surrender should not be turned into a public holiday, as per a proposal by Esther Bejarano, the head of the Auschwitz Committee in Germany. Berlin is observing the day for the first time.

The statement by Alexander Gauland, who heads the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany faction in the Bundestag, has drawn sharp criticism from Jewish leaders and mainstream politicians in Germany. Asked his opinion on the holiday proposal, Gauland told the German news agency RND that Nazi Germany’s surrender on May 8, 1945, was not viewed in the same way by all Germans. “For concentration camp inmates it was a day of liberation. But it was also a day of total defeat, a day when large parts of Germany were lost, a day when opportunities to shape the future were lost,” he said May 6. “Women who were raped in Berlin” after the defeat “would see things very differently from concentration camp prisoners,” Gauland continued, referring to accounts of criminal excesses by Soviet soldiers.

Given Gauland’s past statements relativizing the Holocaust, his comments were “no surprise,” former Central Council head Charlotte Knobloch said in a statement. But “for most people in Germany it is clear: May 8, the day of the defeat of the Nazi regime, is an occasion for joy and gratitude,” she said. “It was the day that made freedom and democracy in Germany possible again.”

Gauland, whose party has had more electoral success than any right-wing party in postwar Germany, in 2017 said it was high time that Germany stopped feeling guilty about the past.

Main Photo: Alexander Gauland, parliamentary group leader of Germany’s far right AfD party (Alternative for Germany), Oct. 16, 2017. Credit:AFP