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German protesters say meeting by far-right extremists echoed the Nazis’ notorious ‘Wannsee’ conference
BERLIN (JTA) — As many as 1 million Germans rallied this weekend against far-right extremism after a bombshell report revealed that leaders of a far-right party had secretly discussed plans to deport foreigners, including those who had become German citizens.
The meeting at a lakeside villa, revealed by a public-interest media organization, for many induced painful echoes of the gathering of Nazi leaders at nearby Wannsee in 1942 to devise a plan to deport and then murder Jews. Prominent neo-Nazis attended the November meeting, according to the investigation.
The revelations caused the country’s leading Jewish organization to reiterate its longstanding objections to the party, known as Alternative for Germany or AfD.
“Anyone who has ever wondered why the federal office for constitutional protection classifies AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist group now has an answer,” Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said in a statement. “This meeting shows what a great danger the AfD and its supporters pose to our free, democratic society and our peaceful coexistence.”
According to the report published by Correctiv, which describes itself as a pro-democracy, public interest media company, prominent right-wing extremists and a handful of mainstream right politicians met secretly to strategize over the deportation — or as they put it, “remigration” – of millions of foreigners and dual-citizens.
Alice Weidel (C) and Tino Chrupalla (L), co-leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) political party, attend a session at the Bundestag in Berlin, Jan. 17, 2024. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
Along with the influential AfD members who met in a 1920s-era hotel near Potsdam were neo-Nazis, among them Martin Sellner, former head of the far-right Identitarian movement in Austria; right-wing-oriented businesspeople, and two members of Germany’s center-right Christian Democratic Party, according to Correctiv.
The gist of the far-right plan, the report concluded, is that “people in Germany should be forcibly extradited if they have the wrong skin color, the wrong parents, or aren’t sufficiently ‘assimilated’ into German culture according to the standards of people like Sellner. Even if they have German citizenship.”
The plans drafted at the meeting amount to a “fierce attack on the German constitution,” providing “a sinister glimpse into what could happen should the AfD ever come to power,” the media organization said in its report.
AfD has tapped into nationalist and anti-immigrant sentiment in Germany to rise in the polls there, sometimes surpassing the popularity of mainstream right-wing parties. Although the party did not win enough votes to gain seats in the country’s parliament during the last national elections in 2020, an AfD candidate won a race for regional office for the first time last summer, in rural eastern Germany, and the party is expected to mount a strong showing there in upcoming regional elections next month.
The rallies, which took place in more than 100 cities and towns over several days, aimed to demonstrate that a significant portion of Germans reject AfD’s attitudes. “Fascism isn’t an alternative,” read signs carried by some rally-goers, who mobilized about a week after the first report of the party’s secret meeting to plot a strategy to combat Germany’s tolerance of immigration.
The meeting took place at a villa alongside Lake Lehnitz, about 30 miles from the villa where the Nazis’ Wannsee Conference to discuss the “final solution” — a euphemism for the genocide of European Jewry — took place in 1942.
“The vocabulary is no different, the place is no different — the only difference is that we have been there before,” said Andrea Römmele, a professor at a private Berlin university, told the New York Times.
Schuster rejected the Holocaust comparison, saying that “the industrial mass murder of European Jews is unique in history in its cold-bloodedness and madness.” But some rally-goers carried signs that directly tied the secret meeting to Germany’s mass murder of European Jews, including ones reading “Never again is now” and “Now we can see what we would have done in our grandparents’ position.”
A participant holds up a placard during a demonstration against racism and far-right politics in front of the Siegestor (Victory Gate) memorial arch in Munich, Germany, Jan. 21, 2024. (Michaela Stache/AFP via Getty Images)
AfD’s co-leader Alice Weidel called the Nazi comparisons “unreflective,” “excessive” and “a scandalous trivialization of Nazi crimes” – using terms that critics have used to describe statements by fellow AfD leaders, such as former party chief Alexander Gauland, who in 2018 called the Nazi-era a mere “bird s–t” in 1,000 years of German history.
Weidel criticized Correctiv’s methods, which reportedly included renting a boat to photograph the meeting from afar and obtaining footage recorded on a digital watch from inside the villa. (The organization also reportedly spoke to people who attended the meeting.)
But she did not deny that a meeting was held; that her personal advisor, former Bundestag member Roland Hartwig, was present alongside prominent right-wing extremists; or that a plan for expulsion of foreigners was discussed. Hartwig has been let go from his position “by mutual agreement.”
AfD draws strength from populist resentment against refugees arriving in Germany over the last decade from conflict zones in the Middle and Far East and Africa, and more recently against those fleeing Ukraine. Far-right activists have traditionally prescribed deportation of so-called foreigners as a solution for socioeconomic problems. And the AfD is known to take a Russia-apologetic, NATO-critical stance.
It is maintaining a second-place hold in national polls, running slightly behind the Christian Democratic Union. The centrist governing coalition has fallen to a distant third. Responding to the Correctiv report, Chancellor Olaf Scholz that any plan to expel immigrants or citizens would be “an attack against our democracy, and in turn, on all of us.”
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Rubio Heads to Israel Amid Tensions Among US Middle East Allies
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to members of the media, before departing for Israel at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US, September 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Nathan Howard/Pool
US President Donald Trump’s top diplomat, Marco Rubio headed to Israel on Saturday, amid tensions with fellow US allies in the Middle East over Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar and expansion of settlements in the West Bank.
Speaking to reporters before departure, Rubio reiterated that the US and President Donald Trump were not happy about the strikes.
Rubio said the US relationship with Israel would not be affected, but that he would discuss with the Israelis how the strike would affect Trump’s desire to secure the return of all the hostages held by Hamas, get rid of the terrorists and end the Gaza war.
“What’s happened, has happened,” he said. “We’re gonna meet with them. We’re gonna talk about what the future holds,” he said.
“There are still 48 hostages that deserve to be released immediately, all at once. And there is still the hard work ahead once this ends, of rebuilding Gaza in a way that provides people the quality of life that they all want.”
Rubio said it had yet to be determined who would do that, who would pay for it and who would be in charge of the process.
After Israel, Rubio is due to join Trump’s planned visit to Britain next week.
Hamas still holds 48 hostages, and Qatar has been one of the mediators, along with the US, trying to secure a ceasefire deal that would include the captives’ release.
On Tuesday, Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with an airstrike on Doha. US officials described it as a unilateral escalation that did not serve American or Israeli interests.
The strike on the territory of a close US ally sparked broad condemnation from other Arab states and derailed ceasefire and hostage talks brokered by Qatar.
On Friday, Rubio met with Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani at the White House, underscoring competing interests in the region that Rubio will seek to balance on his trip. Later that day, US President Donald Trump held dinner with the prime minister in New York.
Rubio’s trip comes ahead of high-level meetings at the United Nations in New York later this month. Countries including France and Britain are expected to recognize Palestinian statehood, a move opposed by Israel.
Washington says such recognition would bolster Hamas and Rubio has suggested the move could spur the annexation of the West Bank sought by hardline members of the Israeli government.
ON Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed an agreement to push ahead with a settlement expansion plan that would cut across West Bank land that the Palestinians seek for a state. Last week, the United Arab Emirates warned that this would cross a red line and undermine the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords that normalized UAE-Israel relations in 2020.
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Netanyahu Posts Message Appearing to Confirm Hamas Leaders Survived Doha Strike
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a Plenum session of the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, in Jerusalem, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – In a statement posted to social media on Saturday evening, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the Qatar-based leadership of Hamas, reiterating that the jihadist group had to regard for the lives of Gazans and represented an obstacle to ending the war and releasing the Israelis it held hostage.
The wording of Netanyahu’s message appeared to confirm that the strike targeting the Hamas leaders in Doha was not crowned with success.
“The Hamas terrorists chiefs living in Qatar don’t care about the people in Gaza,” wrote Netanyahu. “They blocked all ceasefire attempts in order to endlessly drag out the war.” He added that “Getting rid of them would rid the main obstacle to releasing all our hostages and ending the war.”
Israel is yet to officially comment on the result of the strike, which has incurred widespread international criticism.
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Trump Hosts Qatari Prime Minister After Israeli Attack in Doha
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani attends an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, at UN headquarters in New York City, US, Sept. 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
US President Donald Trump held dinner with the Qatari prime minister in New York on Friday, days after US ally Israel attacked Hamas leaders in Doha.
Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with an attack in Qatar on Tuesday, a strike that risked derailing US-backed efforts to broker a truce in Gaza and end the nearly two-year-old conflict. The attack was widely condemned in the Middle East and beyond as an act that could escalate tensions in a region already on edge.
Trump expressed annoyance about the strike in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sought to assure the Qataris that such attacks would not happen again.
Trump and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani were joined by a top Trump adviser, US special envoy Steve Witkoff.
“Great dinner with POTUS. Just ended,” Qatar’s deputy chief of mission, Hamah Al-Muftah, said on X.
The White House confirmed the dinner had taken place but offered no details.
The session followed an hour-long meeting that al-Thani had at the White House on Friday with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
A source briefed on the meeting said they discussed Qatar’s future as a mediator in the region and defense cooperation in the wake of the Israeli strikes against Hamas in Doha.
Trump said he was unhappy with Israel’s strike, which he described as a unilateral action that did not advance US or Israeli interests.
Washington counts Qatar as a strong Gulf ally. Qatar has been a main mediator in long-running negotiations for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and for a post-conflict plan for the territory.
Al-Thani blamed Israel on Tuesday for trying to sabotage chances for peace but said Qatar would not be deterred from its role as mediator.