German protesters build Berlin’s Holocaust memorial replica near home of far-right politician

Bjoern Hoecke sparks outrage when he suggests history books should have more emphasis on German World War Two victims

A replica of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, has been placed near a right wing politician's house (L) (EPA)

Protestors have built a replica of Berlin’s Holocaust memorial near the home of a far-right politician in Germany.

Bjoern Hoecke, a senior member of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, sparked outrage when he suggested history books should place more emphasis on German World War Two victims.

In response, the Centre for Political Beauty, an art activist group, built a copy of the Berlin Holocaust memorial near Mr Hoecke’s house, in the state of Thuringia.

The group’s leader, Philipp Ruch, said they were just doing their "neighbourly duty."

“We hope he enjoys the view every day when he looks out the window,” Mr Ruch told the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper.

The group livestreamed the work and said they had collected a third of the €28,000 (£25,000) required to keep the replica memorial in Mr Hoecke's neighbourhood until the end of 2019.

The original memorial includes 2,711 concrete slabs of varying heights, arranged in a grid pattern and serves as a sombre reminder of the six million Jews who were killed by the Nazis.

Mr Hoecke had criticised the memorial in Berlin and said: “Germans are the only people in the world who plant a monument of shame in the heart of the capital.”

After he was criticised for his comments, the politician refused to back down and defended his speech. Denying that he criticised the memorial, he said he had made clear that the Holocaust was a disgrace.

However, the Centre for Political Beauty has offered to remove the memorial if Mr Hoecke would kneel in front of it and ask sincerely for forgiveness.