Berlin, May 30 (RHC)-- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Europe must fight against the right-wing ideology that is on the rise in Europe and around the world.  In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour following the recent European Parliament elections -- which saw some gains for nationalist parties -- Merkel stressed the importance of learning from Germany’s own history.

Angela Merkel said: “There is to this day not a single synagogue, not a single day care center for Jewish children, not a single school for Jewish children that does not need to be guarded by German policemen. … We have to face up, indeed, to the specters of the past.  We have to tell our young people what history has brought over us and others and these horrors, why we are for democracy, why we try to bring about solutions, why we always have to put ourselves in the other person’s shoes.”

Last week, Germany’s anti-Semitism commissioner advised Jews in the country to avoid wearing kippahs in public because of the rise in anti-Semitism.  German government figures show that anti-Semitic hate crimes rose by almost 20% from 2017 to 2018.