Post-WWII Germany's first Jewish cabinet member on embracing her roots, countering rising antisemitism

CBS News

7 days ago

Berlin — When Karin Prien's mother brought her to Germany as a little girl in the late 1960s, she gave her one urgent warning: "Don't tell anyone you're Jewish."
Nearly six decades later, Prien is now post World War II Germany's first Jewish federal cabinet member, having been selected as the Minister for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.
Prien told CBS News she intends to use her platform to confront the rise of antisemitism in Germany and further afield, and the fragility of democracy in a country still reckoning with its past.
"Well, in a way, I'm proud," the minister told CBS News in a candid interview. "Proud to be a minister in the federal government, but also that I'm recognized as Jewish and that German society is now so far [advanced] as to accept that Jewish people have a right to be a self-conscious part of this society."
Prien's political career, and her personal story, represent an arc of conflict, tension and reconciliation that echoes that of post-Holocaust Germany itself.
Karin Prien, Germany's federal minister for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.
Christoph Soeder/picture alliance via Getty Images
"A question of responsibility"
Born in the Netherlands to Holocaust survivors, Prien moved to Germany at the age of 4. Even as a child, she was heavily aware of the silence surrounding her family's identity. Her mother's warning that it was still too dangerous to talk about being Jewish — more than two decades after the war ended — shaped her early years.
"There was always fear. My mother was afraid that there were too many Nazis still around," Prien said. "It wasn't taken for granted that you could talk about being Jewish. It was something you kept inside the home."
But that silence eventually became intolerable. As a young teen, she said she began to understand that the democratic values she cherished — freedom, human dignity, anti-discrimination—- required defending.
"I decided, 'I have to do something about it. Democracy is not something you can take for granted,'" she said.
But Prien still waited decades before publicly acknowledging her Jewish identity.
The turning point came in the early 2010s, when she was already a member of state parliament in Hamburg. Prien began pushing for systematic documentation of antisemitic incidents in schools. When a journalist asked why the issue mattered so much to her, she paused and then told him: "Because I'm Jewish."
"That was the moment I realized I had a political voice," she recalled. "I had some kind of influence. And for me, it was a question of responsibility."
Lessons from the past for the threats of today
That sense of responsibility weighs heavily on Prien in today's Germany, where she said antisemitism is no longer confined to the political fringes.
"We see rising antisemitism all over the world," Prien said. "They dare to be openly antisemitic. I think it's now more than after the end of World War II. They dare to be openly antisemitic, and that's also in Germany getting stronger and stronger. That has changed. And so we have antisemitic tendencies on the margins, but we also have it in the middle of society."
While Germany once appeared to be a model of historical reckoning, Prien said she fears complacency is setting in.
After some "honest decades," during which Prien says Germans confronted themselves with the stark realities of their country's history, "now, people are dying. And now we have to find new ways to talk about that."
Prien thinks that should include a shift in Holocaust education. She wants German schools to expand from their current focus on the atrocities of World War II to also teach the history of Israel, the cultural contributions of Jewish Germans, and the origins of antisemitism.
"Jewish identity is part of German identity," she told CBS News. "Young people need to know that Jews are not only victims. Jewish people are diverse. They have a voice. They are part of this society."
Prien said she draws inspiration from figures including Margot Friedländer, a Holocaust survivor who famously coined the phrase: "Be Human."
That, Prien said, should be the foundation of any education system in a democracy: teaching empathy and human dignity.
But it's not only historical facts and universal dignity that need defending, she said, it's also Germany's democratic fabric.
"We are an immigration society," Prien said. "But we're not very good at having fair and equal chances for children who start with more difficult conditions."
She sees educational equity and national democratic resilience as intrinsically linked.
Prien is now leading efforts to limit mobile phone use in German elementary schools, warning that parents and policymakers have been too naive about the risks of digital exposure for young people.
"We are anxious about the real world. We drive our kids to school and into the classrooms but we are not anxious about the stuff online," she said. "That has to change."
Asked what message she has for young Jews with political ambitions in Germany today, Prien didn't hesitate: "Stay. Don't pack your luggage. This is a different Germany. This is a country where you can live safely. And it's our job to make that promise true every day."