Germany’s first Jewish cabinet member embraced her roots against rising anti-Semitism

Berlin – When Karin Prien’s mother brought her to Germany as a little girl in the late 1960s, she gave her an emergency warning: “Don’t tell anyone you’re Jewish.”

Nearly sixty years later, Prien is now the first member of the Jewish federal cabinet since World War II in Germany, elected as Minister of Education, Family Affairs, Elderly, Women and Youth.

Prien told CBS News that she intends to use her platform to face the rise of anti-Semitism in Germany and beyond, and the democratic vulnerability of a country that is still estimating its past.

“Well, in a sense, I’m proud,” the minister told CBS News in a candid interview. “Pride to be the Minister of the Federal Government, but I am also considered Jewish and German society has so far [advanced] To accept that the Jews have the right to be part of the self-awareness of this society. ”

Prien’s political career and her personal story represent an arc of conflict, tension and reconciliation that echoes the arc of post-Germany post-Germany itself.

“Problems of Responsibility”

Prien, born in the Netherlands, is a Holocaust survivor and moved to Germany at the age of 4. Even when she was a child, she realized a lot of silence in her family’s identity. Her mother warned that talking about being Jewish was still too dangerous – she shaped her early years for twenty years after the war.

“There’s always a fear. My mother is worried that there are too many Nazis around,” Prien said. “You can talk about being Jewish. It’s something you keep at home.”

But this silence eventually became unbearable. She said when she was young that she began to understand the democratic values ​​she cherished – freedom, human dignity, anti-discrimination – that needed to be defended.

“I decided, ‘I have to do something about it. Democracy is not something you can take for granted.’

But Prien still waited for decades before publicly acknowledging her Jewish identity.

The turning point was in the early 2010s, when she was already a member of the Hamburg State Assembly. Prien began to promote systematic recording of anti-Semitic events in schools. When a reporter asked why this question was so important to her, she paused and told him, “Because I am Jewish.”

“That was the moment I realized I had a political voice,” she recalled. “I had some influence. For me, it was a matter of responsibility.”

Lessons from the Past Learned Today’s Threat

In today’s Germany, this sense of responsibility is under great pressure on Prien, who says anti-Semitism is no longer limited to the political margins.

“We’re seeing an upward rise in anti-Semitism around the world,” Prien said. “They dare to openly anti-Semitism. I think that’s more than after the end of World War II. They dare to openly anti-Semitism and are getting stronger and stronger in Germany.

Although Germany once seemed like a model of historical estimation, Prien said she feared complacency was blending.

After some “honest decades”, Prien said that the Germans faced the distinct reality of their own country’s history. People are dying. Now, we have to find new ways to talk about this. ”

Prien believes this should include a shift in Holocaust education. She hopes that German schools will expand from the current focus on the atrocities of World War II to teach Israel’s history, the cultural contributions of Jewish Germans, and the origins of anti-Semitism.

“The Jewish identity is part of the German identity,” she told CBS News. “Young people need to know that Jews are not only victims. Jews are diverse. They have voices. They are part of this society.”

Prien said she drew inspiration from figures including Margot Friedländer, a Holocaust survivor who famously coined the phrase: “Become a human.”

Prien said this should be the basis of any educational system in democracy: teaching and human dignity.

She said that this is not only a historical fact and universal dignity, but also needs to be defended, which is also a democratic structure in Germany.

“We are an immigrant society,” Prien said. “But for children who start with more difficult situations, we are not very good at fair and equal opportunities.”

She believes that educational equality and the resilience of national democracy are essentially linked.

Prien is now leading efforts to limit mobile phone use in German primary schools, warning that parents and policy makers are too naive to the risk of digital exposure to young people.

“We are anxious about the real world. We bring kids to school and into classrooms, but we are not worried about what’s online,” she said. “It has to change.”

When asked what she had about the young Jews with political ambitions in Germany today, Prien did not hesitate: “Stay here. Don’t pack your luggage. This is a different Germany. It’s a country where you can live safely. It’s our job to have this promise every day.”