A sign in a German shop banning Jews drew outrage from locals and officials and was compared to messages seen on German streets during the Third Reich.
“JEWS are banned from here!!!!,” read the sign in Flensburg, which has since been taken down after a number of complaints to police. “Nothing personal. Not even antisemitism. I just can’t stand you.”
Israeli Ambassador to Germany Ron Prosor wrote Thursday on X that “The 1930s are back,” expressing hopes that Jews and all other groups stay away from the store. “It’s the same old hatred, just in a different font.”
“It was never about Zionism. It was always about Jewish life. And it never ends harmlessly,” added Prosor.
Germany’s antisemitism commissioner Felix Klein told Die Welt that “this is antisemitism in its purest form, and of course, there are direct references to the Nazi era, when Jews were boycotted and there were many such signs.”
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German Education Minister Karin Prien, who is Jewish, denounced the “blatant antisemitism” and urged a “tough crackdown.”
Other local and federal officials also condemned the sign, and an investigation was opened by the public prosecutor’s office, the German news outlet reported.
A sign in a German shop reads:
“JEWS are banned from here!!!! Nothing personal and not antisemitism, I just can’t stand you.”
The shop owner put it up because of Israel’s “actions in Gaza”. It’s now removed but exposes the Jew-hate just waiting to pour out. pic.twitter.com/Q04y2ExrTT
— Heidi Bachram ????️ (@HeidiBachram) September 18, 2025
The sign was first noticed on Wednesday afternoon. By Thursday, it had been taken down, with the storefront now featuring scrawled signs reading “Fuck Nazis” and Nazis Out” among other sentiments, local media reported.
The owner of the shop, which sells books and gothic antiques, was quoted as defending the sign in the Schleswig-Holsteinische Zeitungsverlag, saying he put it up in response to the war in Gaza.
“Jews live in Israel, and I can’t tell between them who are for and against the attacks [on Gaza],” he was quoted as saying.
The outrage over the sign came a day after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned that criticism of Israel was increasingly being used in Germany as a pretext for stoking hatred against Jews, noting that antisemitism had “become louder, more open, more brazen, more violent almost every day” since the Hamas-led massacre on October 7, 2023, that ignited the Gaza war.
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