In the central square of Tübingen, a German city with a heavily charged Nazi past, large signs calling "Don't forget the hostages" were raised on Wednesday morning. The signs were hung specifically by descendants of collaborators with the Nazi regime – as a gesture of repair, morality, and humanity.
Hostage Evyatar David's father and brother, a close friend of hostage Guy Gilboa Dalal, delivered a speech in Tübingen's city square just a few months ago, during a hostage support event.
An additional banner, with the same message, was hung on the front of the TOS church and the adjacent conference center on Eisenbahnstraße street. The initiative is led by church members and the March of Life movement, which has worked for years to commemorate the Holocaust and build bridges with the Jewish people – and now mobilizes for the approximately 50 hostages still held in Gaza.
"The key to ending the fighting"
Campaign organizers warn that "against the backdrop of one-sided coverage of the distress in Gaza, it's easy to forget the suffering of the hostages – but their release is the real key to ending the fighting."
"We will not be silent and will not rest until they all return home," said Heinz Roos, director of the organization's international activities. "We call on every citizen, journalist, and politician – don't forget the hostages. Demand their release."
Hub of Hitler support
Tübingen was a central hub for spreading Nazi ideology, primarily through the city's university, which served as a breeding ground for racial theory and research that supported extermination policies.
The city was among the early centers of support for Hitler, and its Jewish population suffered severe persecution already in the 1930s. On Kristallnacht, the local synagogue was burned, and during the Holocaust, most Jews were sent to extermination camps.
Only years after the war – and thanks to organization founder Jobst Bittner, a pastor who discovered the Nazi roots in his family – did the city begin to openly confront its past and work toward memory restoration and strengthening ties with the Jewish people.
