‘Disturbing parallels’: Holocaust survivors president says exclusion of Jews from public life similar to Nazi Germany

George Foster, president of the Australian Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants, has told a royal commission that rising antisemitism in Australia has unsettling similarities to the social atmosphere that surrounded Nazi Germany, while stressing that the two countries are not equivalent.

According to a monitored public feed based on reporting from The Guardian World, Foster said Australia’s democratic institutions are “fundamentally different” from those of 1930s Germany. But he also said he could not ignore what he described as “certain disturbing parallels” in the wider social climate.

The remarks were made to the antisemitism royal commission, where Foster addressed the exclusion of Jews from public life and the broader rise in antisemitism across Australia. The feed summary indicates he warned that recent developments have created echoes of past patterns of marginalisation, even as he rejected the idea that Australia is “becoming another Germany in the 1930s.”

The commission is examining antisemitism and social cohesion, and Foster’s evidence appears to have focused on the social impact of hostility toward Jewish Australians rather than on any direct comparison of political systems. His comments highlight concern among Holocaust survivors and their descendants about how prejudice can intensify when public discourse becomes more hostile.

The report does not provide additional details about other evidence heard by the commission or any response from government or commission officials.

This article is based on a monitored public feed and the material supplied from The Guardian World.

Source: The Guardian World - https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jul/21/holocaust-survivors-australia-exclusion-nazi-germany-ntwnfb