An investigative report published in Germany over the weekend revealed the Nazi familial past of Alice Wiedel leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany Party (AfD). Her grandfather Hans Wiedel served as a military judge in Nazi-occupied Warsaw during the Holocaust.
The avid Nazi joined the party in 1932 and served in the SS, a family history Weidel failed to divulge during her ascent to the leadership of her party. She and AfD urged Germany to move on from what the party calls a “cult of shame” over its Nazi-era atrocities.
According to the report, Weidel's Nazi grandfather was investigated after the war for his involvement in the execution of 20,000 opponents of the Nazis but the investigations were dropped, because of insufficient documentary evidence. He claimed he did not know about the atrocities committed by the SS or the mass extermination of Jews.
After the war Hans Wiedel opened a law office which was mostly preoccupied by his efforts to receive compensation for his lost property in Upper Silesia.
Weidel said she was six years old when her grandfather died and did not know him or about his involvement with the Nazi regime. "Because of a family feud we did not have any contact with my grandfather," she said. "He was never a subject of discussion in my family."
Many Germans of Wiedel's generation have relatives who were Nazis but Weidel has become the co-leader of a political party that was trying to erase the past and some of its senior members were the children or grandchildren of Nazis. Bjorn Hocke, even described a Holocaust memorial as a "monument of shame" calling for a reversal of Germany's approach to remembrance.
After succeeding in the elections in three German federal states in the east of the country in September the AfD was no set to establish its position in the federal elections next year.
The latest revelations may not lessen support for Wiedel or the Afd.
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