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Police are investigating a death threat against Charlotte Knobloch, a 93-year-old Holocaust survivor and chair of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria.
The reported message invoked the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party’s recent electoral gains.
A witness reported the white-ink message, found on a bench and trash bin in Munich’s English Garden, and police opened an investigation on Sept. 9.
Citing police sources, the newspaper Abendzeitung reported that the graffiti read, in English translation, “The AfD has won, tomorrow we’ll hang Knobloch.” JTA could not confirm the precise wording with police before publication.
Munich’s Criminal Investigation Department is treating the case as one of incitement to hatred, threats, and property damage. Police appealed for witnesses to come forward.
Knobloch had planned to sit in the audience at a public event. She canceled after learning of the threat, JTA confirmed with the Jewish community in Munich.
The message followed the AfD’s strong showing in Saxony-Anhalt’s Sept. 6 election. Reuters reported Sept. 11 that the AfD received 43.8 percent of the vote. It needed three additional seats for a majority and had not obtained the support required to form a government. Governing there would make the AfD the first far-right party to control a German state since the Nazi era.
Knobloch, a longtime critic who has called for the party to be banned, addressed the result in a Sept. 6 statement.
“I couldn’t have imagined even in my worst nightmares that right-wing extremists could win elections in Germany again in this way,” she said.
Felix Balandat, a spokesperson for the Department for Research and Information on Antisemitism, said the combination of an explicit AfD reference and a named target made the case unusual.
“We have not recorded anything like that before,” he said.
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