German, Israeli envoys urge restraint on Nazi comparisons in Taiwan politics

Taipei, April 29 (CNA) Germany and Israel's top envoys to Taiwan on Wednesday jointly called on Taiwanese politicians not to make Nazi comparisons during a Holocaust remembrance event in Taipei.

"To honor the victims of the Holocaust, we should all refrain from using such Holocaust and other Nazi comparisons lightly. We should not call a political opponent a Nazi just to express our gut feeling that he has some very bad ideas," said Karsten Tietz, director general of the German Institute Taipei.

Israel Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei Representative Maya Yaron expressed similar concerns.

"As a Jew who carries the living memory of the Holocaust, whenever I hear people in Taiwan using words like 'Nazi' and 'dictatorship' too casually, too lightly -- as if they are just another comparison they can use -- my body reacts to this," she said.

"Because for me, these are not abstract words. These are not political shortcuts to explain anything. They carry real suffering and pain."

"The fact that during the last few years, including very recently, there have been numerous uses of hate speech and hate symbols here in Taiwan, including by top leaders, is a sign that must be taken seriously," Yaron said.

Neither envoy named the politicians they were referring to.

In May 2025, Tietz and Yaron's offices issued separate strongly worded statements criticizing then opposition Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) for comparing Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration to the Nazi regime.

"What Lai Ching-te (賴清德) has been doing to the opposition is exactly what [Adolf] Hitler did" during his dictatorship in Nazi Germany, Chu said on May 7, in response to prosecutors' investigation into the KMT's alleged forgery of signatures used in recall petitions against DPP lawmakers.

The German Institute Taipei at the time called on "the KMT leadership to refrain from invoking inappropriate and historically insensitive comparisons in domestic political discourse."

The Israel office said back then it was "disappointed and concerned" about the comparison between "the atrocities of the Nazi regime and the current political context in Taiwan."

Both diplomats made their latest remarks during the 2026 International Holocaust Remembrance Day event in Taipei, which was also attended by Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴).

The two offices that serve as de facto embassies for their respective countries in the absence of formal diplomatic ties have jointly observed International Holocaust Remembrance Day since 2016.

The day was designated by the United Nations in 2005 to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust carried out by Nazi Germany from 1941-45.

The use of Nazi imagery and related criticisms of political opponents has a long history in Taiwan. During the 2014 Sunflower Movement, protesters against a trade pact with China promoted by then KMT president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) publicly used prints depicting him as Hitler.