Holocaust survivors president says exclusion of Jews from public life has ‘disturbing parallels’ to Nazi Germany

George Foster has told the Melbourne hearings of the Australian royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion that there are parallels in Australia with Nazi Germany. Photograph: Luis Ascui/AAP

A rise in antisemitism across Australia has “disturbing parallels” with the social climate of Nazi Germany, the president of the Australian Holocaust survivors association says.

George Foster, the president of the Australian Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants, told the antisemitism royal commission that he did not believe Australia was “becoming another Germany in the 1930s”.