A Holocaust survivor has vowed to return his federal order of merit award after a German political party chose to work with the far right to secure a parliamentary vote.
Albrecht Weinberg, 99, said he planned to give his honour back to the German state in protest, after the mainstream right CDU sought support from the AfD to push through a resolution on immigration.
"I want to give it back after the parties joined forces with the right-wing radicals," Mr Weinberg said.
CDU's motion, passed on Wednesday, called for a drastic crackdown on immigration.
Though the motion is non-binding, the AfD's role in passing it was symbolically important.
Critics have accused the CDU of breaking a consensus among mainstream politicians to not work with far right parties.
Known as the "firewall", it is a convention which has been observed in the Bundestag since the end of World War Two.
The CDU tabled the resolution after a series of violent attacks allegedly perpetrated by refugees hit the headlines.
Fears history is repeating itself
Born to a Jewish family in 1925, Mr Weinberg spent time during World War Two in the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen.
He was freed on April 15, 1945, according to the Bergen-Belsen memorial website, and he emigrated to the United States after the war but returned 10 years ago to live in Germany.
In 2017, Mr Weinberg received Germany's highest honour for his work raising awareness of the Holocaust in schools, where he has shared stories of his family's persecution by the Nazis.
"The experience I had as a young person was very dangerous and horrible for me," Mr Weinberg said.
The Holocaust survivor said he had fears "that it's happening again, that I have to pack my bags and go to another country that would take me in".
Another Auschwitz survivor, 82-year-old Eva Umlauf, compared the situation to 1930s Germany before Hitler's Nazis took power.
"We all know how German politicians once thought they could cooperate with Hitler and the Nazi party. Keep them in check," wrote Ms Umlauf in an open letter to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
"And in just a few years, our democracy became a dictatorship. Peace became war," she added.
Luigi Toscano, a photographer whose project 'Lest We Forget' shares the stories of survivors of the Holocaust, said he was also returning his order of merit to the German state in protest over Wednesday's vote.
Thousands of people took to the streets around Germany on Thursday to protest against the CDU's cooperation with the far-right.
Second vote to come
Germany's mainstream parties were locked in talks on Friday in an attempt to avert the possibility of a law passing thanks to far-right support for the first time in its post-war history.
The Bundestag was set to debate and vote on a law to tighten immigration controls that had been moved by conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz.
Mr Merz, whose bloc leads in polls ahead of a February 23 election, says tightening migration controls is a necessary response to a series of high-profile killings in public spaces by people with an immigrant background.
But moments before the debate was due to start at 11am local time (8pm AEST), the conservatives asked for an adjournment.
Another vote on actual legislation aimed at curbing immigration numbers and family reunion rights will now take place.
Wires
