Almost 400 antisemitic crimes were prosecuted in the country between 2019 and 2022. Antisemitism is “not a problem for the fringes,” according to state commissioner Michael Blume.
Investigations into crimes motivated by antisemitism have increased significantly in Baden-Württemberg.
This emerges from the latest activity report by the country’s anti-Semitism commissioner, Michael Blume, which is available to SWR. Blume is the contact for the concerns of Jewish groups, but also for the state parliament, municipalities, church and mosque communities and educational institutions.
The report was introduced to the state parliament for the second time. According to the report, five antisemitic violent crimes were recorded in the country last year. There were two in 2019, four in 2020 and one in 2021. A high number of unreported cases can be assumed. In Baden-Württemberg, the number of violent crimes has ranged between one and five in the last ten years, with an average of 2.8 violent antisemitic crimes per year. Even if antisemitic acts of violence are consistently in the single digits throughout the period under review and this is a statistically small proportion of the total number of crimes, action must be taken, said Blume.
According to the report, the Internet plays a special role in the spread of antisemitic hatred and conspiracy myths: almost half of all antisemitic crimes are committed through the “internet as a means of crime”. According to Blume, the majority of the cases recorded include hate speech, insults, damage to property and the so-called use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations, mostly the wearing of swastikas.
These crimes are mostly committed from a right-wing motivation, but antisemitism is not a problem on the fringes, but has arrived in the middle of society: at school , at work, on the Internet.
