German neo-Nazis buried in Jewish musicologist’s grave: ‘fatal mistake’

An error occurred in a cemetery southwest of the German capital, Berlin, which is run by a Protestant church. Henry Havenmayer, a 48-year-old neo-Nazi, was buried there last Friday, according to The Guardian. It happened exactly in the place where the Jewish singer and musicologist Max Friedländer, who died in Berlin in 1934, is buried.

empty grave

Friedlander’s grave has already been emptied, which is commonplace a few decades later. His tombstone was still there because it was a memorial. There was a place for new cemeteries, but according to the church, a neo-Nazi should never have been buried.

Haffenmayer called the Holocaust a “lie” and was sentenced to prison, which made him a celebrity in Germany’s far-right circles. Neo-Nazis attended his funeral last week and covered Friedlander’s tombstone with a black cloth.

The right to the final resting place

Havenmayer’s relatives initially requested a central place in the cemetery, but the church did not agree to this for fear of it becoming a gathering place for right-wing extremists.

Because everyone deserves the final rest, the new place was allotted to him, but according to the church, it should never have happened. “This is an astonishing turn of events in light of our history,” the church said in a statement.

consciously chosen

An anti-Semitic movement in Berlin has already lodged a complaint about the situation. “It is clear that right-wing extremists deliberately chose a Jewish grave to destabilize eternal peace by burying a Holocaust denier.”