A criminal court in the city of Hamm in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia announced that an extremist right-wing German politician was guilty of incitement to hate because he termed a Jewish community leader a “naughty Jew”—a term that was used by the National Socialists to denigrate Jews.
The court’s decision said the 32-year-old Sascha Krolzig who serves as the federal chairman of the neo-Nazi party “The Right,” violated Germany’s anti-incitement law. “The use of the term “naughty Jew” incites hatred because it is a form stoking a hostile attitude toward people of the Jewish faith that goes beyond the mere expression of rejection and contempt,” wrote the court.
According to the court’s reasoning, the phrase invoked by Krolzig was used “in connection with National Socialist racial ideology.” The court further justified its conviction of Krolzig because he had been previously convicted of incitement to hate.
The German language phrase “ein frecher Jude” (a naughty Jew) has also been translated as “an impudent Jew.”
According to the court, Krolzig published an article on his website in 2016 that labeled the Jewish community leader “the naughty Jewish official.”
In 2018, a lower court in Bielefeld convicted Krolzig, who lives in Dortmund, for his antisemitic writing targeting the Jewish community leader. He appealed the verdict based on the argument that the phrase “naughty Jew” is protected by the guarantees of free speech. Krolzig announced on the webpage of “The Right” party that he will again appeal the verdict to Germany’s highest court.
