German general sacked in anti-semitism row

A German general was sacked today for praising a speech by an MP accused of anti-Semitism when comparing the actions of Jews in the Russian revolution with those of the Nazis.

Brigadier General Reinhard Guenzel, the commander of Germany’s special forces, was fired over a letter he wrote to right wing politician Martin Hohmann, praising his “courage” for a speech that drew criticism from across the political spectrum and legal action from Jewish leaders.

“I have decided to relieve him of his command and to dismiss him. With that, the case is closed for me,” said Defence Minister Peter Struck, emphasising that he considered the general’s remarks an “isolated case” not representative of the German military.

Prosecutors in Fulda this week opened an investigation of Hohmann on charges of incitement, slander and disparaging the dead in his speech marking German Unity Day last month.

Hohmann argued that Germans still labour under the burden of Nazi crimes, but other nations with bloody pasts cast themselves as “innocent lambs.” He cited the French revolution and the prominent role of Jews in the 1917 communist revolution in Russia.

“With a certain justification, one could ask in view of the millions killed in the first phase of the revolution about the ’guilt’ of the Jews,” Hohmann said.

He said “it would follow the same logic with which the Germans are described as a guilty people.”

He concluded that the point was not to blame the Germans for Nazi crimes or Jews for those of the Bolsheviks, but rather “the godless with their godless ideologies.”

Hohmann, 55, apologised for his comments under pressure from colleagues in the main opposition Christian Democratic Union party.

But in a letter from Guenzel that Hohmann read to a TV programme – which producers said they did not see – the general praised the speech.

“It was an excellent speech, of a courage truth and clarity which one seldom hears or reads in our country” Guenzel reportedly wrote.

The KSK special forces, an elite unit touted by German leaders for its professionalism, have seen duty recently in Afghanistan as part of Germany’s contribution to the U.S.-led war on terrorism.