Jewish groups slam President Jair Bolsonaro for warm embrace of Beatrix von Storch, deputy leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Brazil’s president effusively welcomed a far-right German lawmaker whose grandfather was a senior Nazi officer, causing an uproar among Jewish groups. Jair Bolsonaro, who has been highly divisive among Brazilian Jewish voters despite his openly pro-Israel speech, met with Beatrix von Storch, the deputy leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and a member of the German parliament since 2017. The right-wing Bolsonaro was all smiles while meeting on Monday with von Storch, who is a granddaughter of Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, a former finance minister during Adolf Hitler’s Nazi rule. “AfD is an extremist, xenophobic party whose leaders downplay Nazi atrocities and the Holocaust. Brazil is a diverse, pluralistic country that has a tradition of welcoming immigrants. We defend and seek to represent the tolerance, diversity and plurality that define our community,” said Claudio Lottenberg, president of the Brazilian Israelite Confederation, in a statement.
via times of israel: Brazil’s welcome to granddaughter of Hitler’s finance minister draws Jewish ire
