“"Jews were active in great numbers in the leadership as well as in the Cheka (Soviet secret police) firing squads," Hohmann

By Khaled Schmitt, IOL Correspondent

BERLIN, October 31 (IslamOnline.net) - A German member of parliament caused a political furor, expected to increase in coming days, for a speech in which he played down the Holocaust and described Jews as a "race of perpetrators".

On its website Thursday, October 30, the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel reported that lights were shed on Hohmann’s speech – almost a month later – after a transcript of the speech was published on the web site of the CDU in his hometown of Neuhof.

Deputy Martin Hohmann of the conservative opposition Christian Democrats (CDU) said in a speech to constituents on the 13th anniversary of German reunification October 3 that “primarily Jewish Bolsheviks were responsible for crimes against civilians during the Russian revolution”.

"Jews were active in great numbers in the leadership as well as in the Cheka (Soviet secret police) firing squads," Hohmann said according to a transcript of the speech on the web site of the CDU in Neuhof.

"Thus one could describe Jews with some justification as a Taetervolk (roughly translated by Agence France-Presse (AFP), race of perpetrators).

His speech is ““a reach into the lowest drawer of disgusting anti-Semitism," Spiegel

"That may sound horrible. But it would follow the same logic with which one describes the Germans as a race of perpetrators."

The head of Germany's Jewish community, Paul Spiegel, fiercely attacked Hohmann calling his speech "political disgrace” and “a reach into the lowest drawer of disgusting anti-Semitism".

Spiegel said he had spoken to CDU leader Angela Merkel and "she shared my views", according to AFP.

Dieter Graumann, a leading member of the Jewish community in Frankfurt, the largest city in Hohmann's home state, said he was appalled by the remarks.

"Anti-Semitism in Germany has gone beyond the pub tables and arrived at the German Bundestag," he told public radio Hessischer Rundfunk.

The Hesse state chapter of the CDU was quick to distance itself from Hohmann's views. The chapter's general secretary, Michael Boddenberg, demanded that Hohmann "refrain from such unhistorical, false and unacceptable comments".

Deputies from Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats called for Hohmann's dismissal from the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament.

Hohmann now faces anti-Semitism charges and his speech was removed from the Internet soon after the story broke, according to AFP.

Hohmann defended himself by asserting that his speech about the Jews was no more “a reproduction of similar statements by the late U.S. industrialist Henry Ford.

It is widely expected, though, that the Jewish Community in Germany – about 100,000 and enjoys overwhelming influence and unusual advantages within the German society – would launch a tense campaign against Hohmann.

During the first half of this year, the Jewish community has mobilized all their potentials and waged a fierce campaign against former Economy Minister and Head of the Arab-German Society Jurgen Moellemann for his anti-Israel views.

Moellemann, who died Thursday, June 5, in a controversial parachute jump, has always accused Israel of “state terrorism” and defended the Palestinians’ legitimate rights.

It is not yet known whether Moellemann committed suicide or has been murdered.