protests Germany
A video went viral Sunday in Germany of a confrontation at a coronavirus protest, where a young woman compared herself to a famous Nazi resistance fighter and then was accused by a security guard of "trivializing" the Holocaust.

Several people protesting coronavirus restrictions in Germany that seek to tamp down new infections have tried to depict themselves as victims of government persecution. Some have even put on Stars of David, symbols that the Nazis forced Jews to wear during the Third Reich before they killed them.

The woman spoke on stage Saturday evening in the northern city of Hannover, telling fellow protesters "I feel like Sophie Scholl, since I've been active in the resistance, giving speeches, going to protests, distributing flyers."

Scholl fought the Nazis with her brother and other members of the resistance group White Rose. After distributing flyers at a Munich university, she was convicted of high treason and was executed at age 22 by the Nazis in 1943.

While the female protester was talking, a young security guard approached the stage, saying repeatedly that "I'm not going to be a security guard for this kind of idiocy." The woman looked at him in disbelief while he called her speech "a trivialization of the Holocaust." He was ushered away by security and she threw down the mic in anger.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas tweeted Sunday that the comparison with Scholl "mocks the bravery that was needed to take a stand against the Nazis."


Comment: Some bravery in supporting the truth against the covid orthodoxy would be nice from politicians like Mass about now. But instead, his government has just been suppressing protests when possible, and arresting demonstrators:
[...] Police made arrests as they dispersed a blockade on the path of the marchers.

The organizers of the event insist that the "campaign of fear" launched by the government over the Covid-19 pandemic is infringing on their rights and must end. They are aiming for their protest to be as civilized as possible, with participants asked to wear face masks, abide by social distancing rules, and refrain from chanting any political slogans.

Some 5,000 signed up for the event, but the actual attendance was far lower. The column was made up of around 400 coronavirus skeptics when the march began, according to estimates by local media. As such, the police deployed on site actually surpassed the protesters in numbers at that point.

"Nothing connects the corona protests with the resistance fighters. Nothing!" Maas wrote.

The Nazis orchestrated the genocide of six million European Jews during the Third Reich. They also killed tens of thousands of other people who opposed their regime, such as communists, Social Democrats, members of the church or resistance fighters.

German officials, meanwhile, have been generally praised for their handling of the pandemic. The European Union nation has reported over 14,000 coronavirus-related deaths, a toll only one-fourth that of Britain's.