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Holocaust survivor warns AfD voters: 'You made the wrong choice'
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In an interview with taz, 92-year-old Holocaust survivor Henriette Kretz reacts to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) becoming the strongest party in the Saxony-Anhalt state election with nearly 44% of the vote. Kretz, who survived the Nazi persecution of Jews in Poland by hiding in coal cellars and attics, and whose parents were shot before her eyes in 1944, warns that voters will realize they made the wrong choice when the AfD's lack of competence and hatred become apparent. She draws direct parallels between the current electoral decision and the rise of National Socialism, asking whether voters have forgotten the destruction of German cities and the deaths of innocent people in World War II. Kretz emphasizes that the AfD's anti-immigrant policies would harm essential workers like doctors and nurses. She explains that she continues to speak out despite being 'just an old woman' because she sees society taking a very dangerous path, and her story as a Jew is closely linked to genocide.
Source report
In light of the AfD’s electoral victory in Saxony-Anhalt, Holocaust survivor Henriette Kretz reflects—and warns about the consequences of right-wing extremism.
September 10, 2026 | 2:25 PM
Henriette Kretz, Holocaust survivor and witness, on March 21, 2026, in the Jewish quarter of Antwerp, Belgium. Photo: Nicola Trenz/kna
Interview by Philipp Nierle
Henriette Kretz survived as a Jewish girl in Poland the persecution by the National Socialists. Today she is 92 years old, lives in Belgium, and repeatedly speaks to young people about the Third Reich and the Shoah. Now, for the first time since the end of World War II, with the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt, a right-wing extremist party has become the strongest force in state parliament elections. Henriette Kretz spoke with taz about the election at the Roncalli House of the Diocese of Magdeburg.
taz: Ms. Kretz, in the state election in Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD received nearly 44 percent of all voters’ votes. How does this result affect you?
Henriette Kretz: Unfortunately, one sees that many people no longer know that very similar electoral decisions led to the rise of National Socialism. They may be unable or unwilling to remember. But now, if a party like the AfD comes to power, those who voted for them will realize that it actually has no competence whatsoever and that its representatives only sow hatred. And they will realize that they made the wrong decision with this vote.
taz: How will they realize this?
Kretz: When the people who have come here and already work as doctors or nurses in a hospital, when they are teachers or employed in a company—if these people are supposed to leave, as the AfD says, who remains then? The AfD wants to stay among themselves, associating only with Germans. I am not from here; I live in Belgium. Should I also remain only among Belgians?
taz: What do you say to people who vote for right-wing extremists?
Kretz: If the people in Saxony-Anhalt want the past and National Socialism again—haven’t they seen how it ended last time? Haven’t they counted how many German children, women, and innocent people died in the war? Berlin and Dresden were completely destroyed… Perhaps they didn’t see it themselves, but their parents and grandparents did.
taz: You came specifically from Antwerp to Germany, have already discussed at a youth center, and today in Magdeburg. Why do you still speak out?
Kretz: Why speak out? Look, I am not a person with great influence. I am just an old woman. But I have lived quite long and experienced a lot. And as I see it, we are currently taking a very dangerous path. As a Jew, my story is closely linked to genocide.
taz: What did you experience back then?
Kretz: I was born in 1934 as my parents’ only child in Opatów, then Poland. At the start of the war, I was five years old. We fled eastward and, after periods of imprisonment, stayed and hid for a long time in various places—in a coal cellar, in an attic. In 1944, however, we were betrayed to the Germans—and my parents were shot before my eyes. I escaped and was taken in by a Catholic orphanage. There, the nuns…
About the interviewee:
Henriette Kretz, born on October 26, 1934, in Stanisławów, Poland (today Ukraine), is a Holocaust survivor who reports on her fate in lectures and books as a witness. She survived the German persecution of Jews in various hiding places.
Source
taz.de - taz.deWestern