Antisemitism in Germany ‘worse than any time since the Holocaust,’ annual figures show

"Germany continues to face persistently high levels of antisemitism, with 2,197 anti-Jewish incidents recorded in Berlin in 2025, according to a report published Wednesday by Germany’s Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism, known as RIAS.

The figure was down about 13 percent from 2,521 incidents the previous year, but remained more than double pre-October 7, 2023, levels.

In the state of Hesse, RIAS noted a record 1,099 antisemitic incidents in 2025, an 18% increase from the previous year and nearly six times higher than before Hamas launched its war against Israel in late 2023.

‘The threat to Jewish life is worse than at any time since the Holocaust,’ Hesse antisemitism commissioner Uwe Becker said in a statement following the report.

RIAS highlighted 40 violent incidents in Berlin during the year, including a stabbing attack in February at the Holocaust Memorial in which a young man was wounded in the neck.

That attacker, who carried a written oath of allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist group and shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ during the assault, was later convicted of attempted murder and attempted membership in a foreign terrorist organization, and sentenced to 13 years in prison, the report noted. The man narrowly survived the life-threatening injury after fighting back, fleeing to the edge of the monument, and undergoing emergency surgery.

Other cases involved assaults, victims being punched in the face, spat on, sprayed with chemical irritants, or having religious garments and jewelry violently torn from their bodies.

The report describes an increasingly hostile environment in which Jews and Israelis face harassment, intimidation and violence in public spaces..."