German Defense Minister Peter Struck said on Wednesday he was sure that anti-Jewish views endorsed by a top general were not widespread in the army and stressed all soldiers were taught in-depth about the Nazi past.
Struck fired the commander of the elite KSK special forces, Reinhard Guenzel, on Tuesday after the brigadier-general wrote a letter of support, on army notepaper, to a lawmaker who sparked outrage with comments widely seen as belittling the Holocaust.
Struck said soldiers receive extensive training about Germany's "terrible past." Regular studies of the attitudes of conscripts and professional soldiers, from privates to generals, are made to ensure the Bundeswehr remains anchored in democracy.
"I am completely convinced that members of the armed forces, and especially the KSK, are firmly rooted in democracy," Struck told a news conference. "I have no reason to assume the general's views are shared -- quite the contrary."
Struck sacked Guenzel almost instantly after learning about a letter he wrote in support of Martin Hohmann, a conservative member of parliament under pressure to resign for saying that Jews, like Germans, could be seen as "perpetrators."
Struck said Guenzel's comments were "warped" and he would study the 59-year-old's files for signs of extremist views.
Guenzel told Hohmann, a member of the Christian Democrats, most Germans shared the lawmaker's views.
The comments are embarrassing for Germany, where remarks by public figures critical of Jews or Israel often trigger protest because of the country's Nazi past, when six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.
A group of 100 past and present officers said in a statement that Guenzel was "not an isolated case."
"The army is not made up of right-wing extremists but there is a considerable number in leadership positions who lack democratic awareness," said Helmuth Pries, head of the group.
Michael Wolffsohn, a historian at the Bundeswehr university in Munich and a leading Jewish voice in Germany, said Guenzel's comments were not representative of the views of soldiers. He praised Struck for firing Guenzel so quickly.
But several conservative members of parliament criticized Struck for firing Guenzel.
"He's not in any way a right-wing extremist," said Hans Raidel, a defense policy expert for the Christian Social Union.
"Admonishing him would have been enough," added Peter Gauweiler, another conservative CSU deputy from Bavaria.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of