The first member of the Jewish ministers in Germany at the time after the First World War in embracing its roots, and facing the high anti -Semitism

Berlin – When Karen Brain’s mother brought her to Germany as a little girl in the late 1960s, she gave her a passing warning: “Don’t tell anyone that you are a Jew.”

Nearly six decades, Brian is now the first member of the Jewish Federal Cabinet in World War II, after he was chosen as Minister of Education, Family Affairs, the elderly, women and youth.

Prien CBS News told that she intends to use her platform to face the rise of anti -Semitism in Germany and in further places, and the fragility of democracy is still in a country that calculates its past.

“Well, somehow, I’m proud,” the minister told CBS News in an explicit interview. “I am proud to be a minister in the federal government, but I am also recognized and that German society is now (advanced) so far to accept that the Jewish people have the right to be a conscious part of this society.”

Bren’s political profession, and her personal story represents an arch of conflict, tension and reconciliation that was reported in Germany after Holocaust itself.

“The question of responsibility”

Bren was born in the Netherlands for the Holocaust survivors, and moved to Germany at the age of four. Even when she was a child, she was very aware of the silence surrounding her family’s identity. Her mother’s warning that it is still very dangerous to talk about being a Jew – more than two decades after the war ended – formed her early years.

“There was always fear. My mother was afraid that there were many Nazis still present,” said Brian. “It was not considered to be Muslim that you can talk about being a Jew. It was something you kept inside the house.”

But this silence in the end is unbearable. When she was a young teenager, she said that she began to understand that the democratic values ​​that she cherished- freedom, human dignity, and combating discrimination- required defense.

She said, “I decided, I must do something about it. Democracy is not something you can consider as a foregone.”

But Brain is still waiting for decades before publicly recognizing her Jewish identity.

The turning point came in early 2010, when it was already a member of the government parliament in Hamburg. Prien has begun to pressure a systematic documentation of anti -Semitic accidents in schools. When a journalist asked why the case was very important to her, she temporarily stopped and then told him: “Because I am a Jew.”

“That was the moment when I realized that I had a political voice,” she recalls. “I had a kind of effect. As for me, it was the issue of responsibility.”

Lessons from the past for today’s threats

This sense of responsibility is largely weighing on Brene in Germany today, where she said that anti -Semitism is no longer confined to the political margin.

“We see the high anti -Semitism around the world,” said Brain. “They dare to be anti -Semitic. I think it is now more than the end of World War II. Done Also in Germany It becomes stronger and stronger. It has changed. Thus, we have anti -Semitic tendencies on margins, but we also have in the middle of society. “

While Germany seemed once a model of historical account, Brain said she was afraid to be satisfied with it.

After some “sincere contracts”, Brain says that the Germans faced themselves with the flagrant facts in their country’s history “now, People die. Now we have to find new ways to talk about it. “

Breen believes this should include a transformation in the Holocaust teaching. It wants German schools to expand from their current focus on atrocities in World War II as well to teach the history of Israel, the cultural contributions of Jewish Germans, and the origins of anti -Semitism.

“The Jewish identity is part of the German identity,” she told CBS News. “Young people need to know that the Jews are not only victims. The Jewish people are varied. They have a voice. They are part of this society.”

Brain said she is inspired by personalities, including Margot FriedländerOne of the Holocaust survivors who formulated the famous phrase: “Be a human being.”

This should be the basis of any educational system in democracy: teaching human sympathy and dignity.

She said it’s not only historical facts and global dignity that needs defense, it is also a democratic fabric in Germany.

“We are a community of migration,” Breen said. “But we are not very good in getting fair and equal opportunities for children who start more difficult conditions.”

You see the educational stocks and national democratic flexibility are fundamentally linked.

Prien is now leading efforts to reduce the use of a mobile phone in German primary schools, warning that parents and policy makers were very naive about the dangers of digital exposure to youth.

“We are concerned about the real world. We are leading our children to school and classrooms, but we are not concerned about things online,” she said. “This must change.”

When I was asked about the message that it has for young people with political ambitions in Germany today, Brene did not hesitate: “Stay. Do not pack your luggage. This is different. This is a country you can live in safe. It is our duty to make this promise right every day.”