German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has told immigrants from Islamic countries that Germany's responsibility for the Holocaust applies to them as much as to anyone born in the country, and that anyone who rejects it must leave. He made the remarks at a reception in Berlin on Friday, 6 November, honouring German medallists from the 2026 Maccabiah Games.

The exchange began when a basketball coach told the chancellor that athletes were afraid to wear Jewish symbols in public, according to the German press agency dpa. Merz replied: "This historical responsibility of our country applies just as much to those who come here to Germany from Islamic countries. And anyone who fails to abide by this must leave our country."

Merz invoked a famous 1985 address to the Bundestag by former German President Richard von Weizsäcker, delivered on the 40th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Von Weizsäcker said the young were not responsible for what happened, but were responsible for what becomes of it in history. Merz said those words were set in stone, binding on German society as a whole and, "given the current circumstances", on people immigrating to Germany as well.

The chancellor's warning referred to antisemitic offences committed by Muslim migrants, according to dpa's account. But it is worth noting what he did not do: the "must leave" language does not appear in the formal speech published on the German government's website, and Merz announced no new immigration law or deportation order at the reception.

The remarks come against a backdrop of rising antisemitic crime in Germany. The Federal Criminal Police Office recorded 6,236 antisemitic offences in 2024, up about 21 percent on the previous year and a new high. Merz has taken a hard line on who may remain in Germany, including plans to deport convicted Syrian criminals and end asylum claims from Syrians.

As of 7 November, no major party reaction or official clarification from the Chancellery had featured prominently in reporting. Germany's president has separately said that rejecting antisemitism must be a condition wherever coalitions are formed.

Separate figures from RIAS, the organisation that monitors antisemitism in Germany, recorded 8,725 antisemitic incidents nationwide in 2025, an average of nearly 24 a day. The chancellor's remarks were first reported by dpa and carried by German and international outlets, including the Berliner Zeitung.

The Maccabiah Games are an international Jewish sporting competition held every four years in Israel, and Merz was hosting the German athletes who won medals there. His comments are likely to feed the wider debate in Germany about integration, antisemitism and migration policy under his coalition government. Source: Clash Report, reporting dpa