Marches by thousands of supporters of the far-right Pegida movement went ahead on Monday, the 77th anniversary of the 1938 Kristallnacht pogroms, despite attempts to have them banned.
In Munich, around 3,000 Pegida opponents took to the streets, protesting against racism and xenophobia and calling to ban Pegida-related events on the anniversary of the 'Night of the Broken Glass'.
Despite the counter-protests, Dresden's mayor Dirk Hilbert, who belongs to the liberal Free Democratic Party, said that there was "no legal base" for canceling the rally and stressed that he could not ban or relocate Pegida's marches.
A group of city officials sought a ban on Pegida's Monday demonstrations in courts, but were unsuccessful.
Holocaust survivor Charlotte Knobloch, chairwoman of the Munich Jewish Community and World Jewish Congress commission for Holocaust memory, called it "unbelievabe" that "apparently the law in Germany does not allow for adequate measures to defend democracy against its enemies." At a commemorative event in Munich, Knobloch declared: "I cannot forget the scenes I witnessed then. The images of burning synagogues and of loved ones being beaten and chased from their homes by the Nazis are forever on my mind." She said it was not acceptable that more wasn't done today to prevent this from happening again.
The International Auschwitz Committee also criticized the decision by Dresden's municipality to allow the Pegida march.
In an online petition, more than 80,000 people protested the decision. An association of cultural institutions in Dresden said it was "incomprehensible" that Pegida was allowed to hold the march on Monday night. "Kristallnacht is one of the darkest nights in German history," the association was quoted by 'Sächsische Zeitung as saying. "We cannot understand this decision and are sad and deeply ashamed. It shows that we are giving space to hatred."
Over the past year, Pegida has drawn intense media attention for its xenophobic statements and the presence of right-wing extremists at its rallies. The growing refugee crisis has reignited the movement in recent months, with its supporters vehemently opposed to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's policy for openness.
