BERLIN (AP) – Several Jewish groups, politicians and an alliance of civil society groups gathered Sunday night for a memorial service and protest rally against a Roger Waters concert in Frankfurt.
They accuse the Pink Floyd co-founder of anti-Semitism – an accusation he denies.
Waters has also drawn their ire for supporting the BDS movement, which calls for boycotts and sanctions against Israel.
The Frankfurt authorities had initially tried to prevent the concert from taking place, but Waters successfully defended himself in a district court.
The concert takes place in the city’s Festhalle, where in November 1938 more than 3,000 Jews were rounded up, beaten and mistreated by the Nazis and later deported to concentration camps.
“Against this historical background, the concert should not have taken place under any circumstances,” said Sacha Stawski, a member of Frankfurt’s Jewish community and leader of the group Honestly Concerned, which helped organize the protests.
“It is very frustrating” that the concert is going ahead as planned, despite attempts by Frankfurt officials and many others to prevent it, Elio Adler, the head of the Jewish groupWerteInitiative, which supports the protest, told The Associated Press.
“His words and images spread hatred of Jews and are part of a trend: to normalize hatred of Israel under the protection of freedom of speech and freedom of art,” added Adler.
Last week, police in Berlin said they had launched an investigation into Waters on suspicion of incitement to hatred over a costume he wore to his performance in the German capital earlier this month.
Pictures on social media showed Waters firing a mock machine gun while wearing a long black coat with a red armband. Police confirmed that an investigation had been launched over suspicions that the costume’s context might represent a glorification, justification or endorsement of Nazi rule and thus a disturbance of public peace.
Waters denied those allegations in a statement on Facebook and Instagram, saying that “the elements of my performance that have been questioned are very clearly a statement against fascism, injustice and bigotry in all their forms.”
He claimed that “attempts to portray these elements as something else are disingenuous and politically motivated.”
During Sunday’s ceremony and protests, which took place before the start of Waters’ concert in front of Frankfurt’s Konzerthaus, demonstrators loudly read the names of 600 Jews who were herded into the Festhalle on November 9, 1939. The so-called Kristallnacht – the “Night of the Broken Glass” – in which Nazis terrorized Jews throughout Germany and Austria.
In addition, the organizers in Frankfurt held a joint Jewish-Christian prayer for the victims of Nazi terror. The mayor of the city and the head of the local Jewish community spoke at the protest.
“Hatred against Jews is to be condemned everywhere in our city,” said Frankfurt’s Mayor Mike Josef, according to dpa. “There is no reason to hate, insult and attack a person because of his religion.”
Before the performance began, around 400 demonstrators distributed leaflets to concert-goers and waved Israeli flags. Others held banners with slogans like “Israel, we stand by your side” or “Roger Waters, wish you weren’t here” in reference to Pink Floyd’s famous song “Wish You Were Were”, the dpa reported.
Earlier this month, protesters demonstrated in Munich against a Waters concert after the city council said it had looked at ways to ban the performance but had concluded that it was not legally possible to end a contract with the promoter .
Last year, the Polish city of Kraków canceled performances by Waters because he was sympathetic to Russia in the war against Ukraine.
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Michael Probst contributed the reporting from Frankfurt.