The rollout of Covid-19 vaccines in Germany has been slower than in the US, but in the meantime Germany has caught with and surpassed the US in terms of the percentage of fully vaccinated adults. Still, like in the US, there is a large anti-vaxx movement that is closely connected to right-wing extremist organizations. In the US, vaccine hesitancy is driven by disinformation seen on right-wing media outlets such as Fox News and Newsmax. In Germany anti-vaccine conspiracies are found primarily on online social media outlets such as Twitter, Facebook and Telegram - much of it originating in Russia. One other difference: in the US, blame for the coronavirus has been directed at Asian Americans - thanks to former President Trump and his labeling Covid as "the China Virus". In Germany, we have seen a reversion to historical anti-Semitic tropes: many blame "the Jews" for originating the virus and also for the lock-down measures that have disrupted normal life. The American Jewish Committee Berlin Ramer Institute found more that 560 anti-Semitic incidents in connection with Corona demonstrations in Germany between March 2020 and March 20201:
"Seit dem Beginn der Coronapandemie erlebten antisemitische Verschwörungsmythen demnach eine starke Konjunktur. Juden wurden verantwortlich gemacht für die Pandemie oder auch für staatliche Eindämmungsmaßnahmen."
Beyond that, many Jews living in Germany report being verbally assaulted in supermarkets and other public venues and accused of setting the virus loose into world.
The association of vaccines with Jews has a long history in Germany. Bismarck had instituted mandatory vaccinations against smallpox (Reichsimpfgesetz), but this was rejected by the Nazis, who viewed viruses as a convenient tool for culling the Volk of weaker genes. Moreover, vaccines were considered a Jewish invention that should never be allowed to "contaminate" the German people. The Nazi publisher of the rabidly anti-Semitic "Der Stürmer" called vaccines a "defilement of the race" (Rassenschande).
Die Idee einer Immunisierung der Massen widersprach indes dem Gedanken von Auslese und Abhärtung. Dass der "Herrenmensch" mit einer Impfung den "Untermenschen" schützt und vice versa, das war offenbar ein unerträglicher Gedanke. Julius Streicher schrieb im Jahr 1935: "Die Impfung ist eine Rassenschande". Hinter einer gesetzlichen Impflicht aus dem Jahr 1874 verortete Streicher jüdische Abgeordnete. Streichers Hetzblatt "Der Stürmer" illustrierte den Zeitgeist in einem Sujet: Ein Arzt mit Hakennase, er lächelt verschlagen, hält eine Spritze in der Hand. Seine Patientin hat ein Kind im Arm, sie sieht sehr deutsch aus und äußert Bedenken: "Mir ist so komisch zu Mut, Gift und Jud tut selten gut."
The Nazis' resistance to vaccine shifted later during war, when German troops in on the East Front were dying of typhus. Desperate to stem the spread of the deadly disease the Nazis turned to a group of Jewish doctors incarcerated in the Buchenwald concentration camp to produce an effective vaccine.
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