Almost four months have passed since massacres were launched by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza. According to the latest data from the Palestinian authorities, more than 25,000 innocent people have lost their lives in Gaza so far due to Israel's ongoing slaughter, with the number of injured being approximately three times this figure. Despite Israel's efforts to justify these massacres as self-defense against Hamas, it is undeniable that Israel is committing outright genocide against the Palestinians.

What is even more distressing is that Western countries, often presenting themselves as champions of democracy and human rights, support the genocide in Gaza. Among these countries, Germany, grappling with its historical burden from the Holocaust, stands out. Germany is noted as one of the nations providing significant support to the ongoing massacres in Gaza since Oct. 7. Prime Minister Olaf Scholz, during his visit to Tel Aviv on Oct. 17, declared Berlin's unwavering support for Israel in his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the "butcher of Gaza."

Following Scholz's visit, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier paid a visit to Tel Aviv in November and stated that since Israel is defending itself against "terrorists" it cannot be condemned. In other words, Berlin believes that Israel can massacre any Palestinian in Gaza to maintain its existence. Moreover, Germany requested to intervene in the case that South Africa filed with the International Court of Justice on the grounds that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, and it argued that there is no genocide. The Scholz government cited Germany's special responsibility toward Israel as the reason for this brazenness.

What is this special responsibility that causes Berlin to support Israel's oppression? Essentially, to understand this responsibility and the reasons why Germany defends the massacre in Gaza, it is necessary to remember the genocide committed against the Jews in Germany during World War II.

As known, after Adolf Hitler was elected chancellor in 1933, a state-led institutional policy of marginalization against Jews began in Germany. As a result of a process that changed dimensions over time and reached racism, Nazi Germany embarked on a systematic massacre to completely exterminate the Jewish lineage. Although the figures are controversial, it is thought that the Nazis murdered approximately 6 million Jews until 1945. The series of massacres described as the Holocaust in the literature is considered the bloodiest genocide in human history. It should be noted here that there is no logical explanation for Netanyahu's lie that "Hitler wanted to exile the Jews, but a Palestinian mufti gave him the idea to massacre the Jews."

Germany's lesser-known genocide record

By the way, although the words "Germany" and "genocide" are often read in terms of the Holocaust, it must be said that Germany's genocide record is quite extensive. While imperial Germany plundered Namibia in the southwest of Africa, which it colonized in the late 19th century, it committed a bloody genocide between 1904 and 1908 to intimidate the natives who wanted to protect their lands. At least 75,000 locals were brutally murdered as a result of the four-year genocide carried out by the colonial Germans. After a century, Germany accepted the crimes committed in Namibia as genocide in a statement made in 2021 but refused to pay compensation for those who lost their lives. Therefore, we can easily say that Germany is one of the most "talented," most "experienced" and most brazen countries in Europe when it comes to genocide.

Returning to our topic, the Holocaust remains a heavy burden on Germany, as it has paid significant compensation to the families of the Jewish victims or Israel as the heir of the orphans. The political cost of the Holocaust has become even heavier for Germany. So much so that Germany, under the influence of guilt psychology, has had to submit to every demand of Israel. Moreover, it is not possible to make any statement against Jews and Israel in Germany because even the slightest allusion against them is evaluated within the framework of anti-Semitism, which is considered a crime. For this reason, Germans who do not accept the genocide committed by Israel in Gaza either enter into a spiral of silence to avoid being ostracized or are silenced after being subjected to a neighborhood watch. As a matter of fact, we have observed this situation closely in the case of German politicians and journalists who have been lynched on social media for criticizing or attempting to criticize Israel after Oct. 7.

In addition, Germany tried to keep good relations with Israel due to the Holocaust. Political relations, which began after the reparations agreement signed between (West) Germany and Israel in Luxembourg in 1952, gained a new dimension with West Germany's recognition of Israel in 1965. Within the framework of the relationship called "special friendship" today, Germany stands by Israel on every platform and defends Israel's interests unconditionally. In the national security strategy document published by Germany last in 2023, it is seen that Israel's right to exist must be defended at all costs. As a matter of fact, Germany has been trying to legitimize its policy by resorting to the lie "Israel has the right to defend itself" with reference to this in every statement it has made since Oct. 7.

At this point, it should be noted that if Germany had shed the burden of the past and was truly ashamed of the inhumane genocide inflicted on the Jews by the Nazis, it should have approached the events in Gaza since Oct. 7 from a very different perspective and reacted to the massacres brazenly carried out by Israel. Moreover, it would have stood strongly against Israel in the genocide case rather than on Israel’s side.

In short, Germany's support for Israel's actions in Palestine today appears as an attempt to divert attention from its past crimes against Jews and erase the lingering scars of that brutality. In other words, Germany is trying to compensate for the historical wrongdoing by endorsing another crime today. This echoes President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s remarks during his meeting with Scholz in Berlin in November, where he emphasized that Türkiye, unlike the West, did not owe a debt to Israel over the Holocaust before offering to work together with German statesmen toward a cease-fire, humanitarian aid and freeing the hostages.

Erdoğan's statement, drawing criticism from pro-Israeli groups, actually implied that Türkiye does not carry the Holocaust like a historical guilt on its back in contrast to Germany, while shaping its relations with Israel, and thus could easily give the necessary reaction to the oppressors. As a matter of fact, except for a few brave countries led by Türkiye, the rest of the world is complicit in Israel's crime by supporting the genocide in Gaza. History, however, will never forget Germany's support for the genocide in Palestine, just as it does not forget the Nazi-perpetrated genocide against the Jews.