Prague, Aug 27 (CTK) – German historian Werner Imhof, who organised and accompanied several hundred debates with Czech Holocaust survivors, has returned the For Merit Medal to the Czech Freedom Fighters (CSBS) as it was also given to President Milos Zeman, Imhof told CTK on Saturday.
Zeman’s spokesman Jiri Ovcacek said this was a purely political gesture.
Imhof received the decoration in February 2011.
“I considered it a big honour to receive the medal only as the second German, after Joerg Skriebeleit, head of the Flossenbuerg memorial,” Imhof said.
Along with staging public debates, Imhof has translated autobiographies with the Holocaust as their theme from Czech to German and also worked as a guide in the former Terezin concentration camp.
Imhof has returned the medal in protest.
“If Zeman deserves it, I do not,” Imhof said.
Imhof criticised Zeman for heartily welcoming the German anti-refugee movement Pegida, tolerating rightist extremists, calling for general arms possession by people, offending journalists and creditable NGOs, looking for close relations with the presidents of China and Russia and inciting for disrespecting EU agreements on the acceptation of refugees.
“If these are his merits, I cannot keep the pace,” Imhof said.
He said Zeman was destroying the Czech Republic’s tradition and reputation.
Imhof conveyed his decision to the CSBS by e-mail and will send the medal by mail to it next week.
Ovcacek said Imhof presented himself as a builder of the Czech-German friendship bridge, but with this step he had deliberately harmed the bridge.
“At any rate, this is a purely political gesture that will only be appreciated by a part of the media, the Prague cafe [a term coined by Zeman for his intellectual opponents] and TOP 09,” Ovcacek said.
This June, the CSBS, a veteran organisation, decorated Zeman for “his long-standing support for freedom and democracy” after he delivered a speech at its tenth national conference.
