In Berlin, Descendants of Nazis March for Israel and Against Antisemitism in Powerful Act of Moral Reckoning

By: Fern Sidman

In a deeply moving display of moral clarity and historical accountability, approximately one thousand people—many of them direct descendants of Nazi perpetrators—are marching through the heart of Berlin this Wednesday in support of Israel and in defiance of resurgent antisemitism. The march, covered extensively in a VIN News report, unfolds under the bold banners “We will not be silent again” and “Am Yisrael Chai,” phrases that reflect the determination of participants to confront their families’ dark legacies and to stand with the Jewish people in an era of renewed hatred.

Organized by the March of Life movement, the event coincides with the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and follows the horrific Hamas-led October 7th massacre in Israel—an atrocity that many participants say served as a stark wake-up call about the ongoing threat of antisemitism. As VIN News reported, the route of the march deliberately winds through Berlin’s most infamous historical locations, including the site of Hitler’s former bunker. It is a symbolic journey through Germany’s darkest chapters and a public commitment to ensure that history does not repeat itself.

The March of Life, founded in 2007 by German pastor Jobst Bittner and other descendants of Nazi perpetrators, has long advocated for historical reckoning, moral responsibility, and reconciliation with the Jewish people. But as Bittner told VIN News, the urgency of this mission has dramatically intensified in recent months. “October 7th was a turning point. We realized antisemitism is not a thing of the past—it is the present,” he declared. “When Jewish suffering is met with silence—it’s not a coincidence, it’s a failure. Antisemitism thrives on indifference, denial, and silence of the majority. That’s why we shout: we will not be silent! The time to take a stand is now—not later, not quietly.”

Among the many prominent figures joining the march are German government officials, Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, representatives from the Israeli Embassy, Holocaust survivors, and hundreds of ordinary Germans carrying the extraordinary weight of their ancestral histories.

VIN News spoke with Markus Dimer, a 62-year-old participant whose grandfather was a devout Nazi. “He joined the Nazi Party in 1928 and served as a police officer under the SS in occupied Poland,” Dimer said. “He took part in Kristallnacht and was involved in torture and the murder of Jews and Poles.” After uncovering these horrifying truths through archival research, Dimer chose a radically different path—one of accountability and reconciliation. “The first time I came to Israel in 2007, I felt like I was coming home,” he said. “We want our voices to be heard—not just Jews raising theirs, but us as Germans too.”

Similar sentiments were echoed by 25-year-old student Kim Kasche of Tübingen. “My great-grandfathers served in the Nazi army. When we asked about the war, they’d deflect or joke about it,” she told VIN News. After one of them passed, the family discovered damning records showing he had been involved in the establishment of the Kovno Ghetto and the oppression of Jews there. Kasche said that speaking in support of Israel at her university has been challenging. “Many of my friends, especially Muslim ones, were angry at me. But silence during the Holocaust made it possible. If we stay quiet now, we’re no better than our families. We must speak.”

Felix Kunze, 31, another participant and volunteer with the March of Life, described his transformation. “My grandfather was a Nazi until the day he died,” he said. “But when I met Holocaust survivors in Israel and told them about my family, it changed me. Looking into their eyes made the history real—it moved from my head to my heart.” Kunze pointed out the tragic continuity between Holocaust survivors and survivors of the October 7th Nova music festival massacre, where Jews were again targeted simply for existing. “It wasn’t just ‘the Nazis’ who murdered Jews,” he told VIN News. “It was our families. We march not out of guilt, but out of responsibility.”

As the report highlighted, the scope of the movement extends far beyond Berlin. On May 11, March of Life participants will inaugurate a new exhibition in Jerusalem exploring the evolution of antisemitism. They will also host solidarity marches in Israeli cities including Be’er Sheva, Netanya, Ashkelon, and Zichron Yaakov. Over 60 such events are planned globally throughout the month of May.

What distinguishes this march is not merely the public show of support for Israel, but the courage it takes for participants to stand up not only against present-day hate, but against their own ancestral shadows, as was observed in the VIN News report.  In doing so, these marchers are not rewriting history—they are reclaiming moral agency from the bloodstained silence of the past.

At a time when antisemitism has re-emerged with shocking boldness in Europe and around the world, Wednesday’s march in Berlin is more than symbolic. It is a call to conscience—from those whose families once served the machinery of genocide, now walking hand in hand with survivors and their descendants. It is an act of transformation. A declaration that silence is complicity. And a bold reminder that the words “Never Again” demand action—not just remembrance.