Holocaust survivor to return German award over far-right role in parliamentary vote

BERLIN (Reuters) - A 99-year-old Holocaust survivor said on Thursday he would return his federal order of merit award to the German state in protest over a parliamentary vote in which support from the far-right was used for the first time to secure a majority.

Germany's main opposition conservatives, who are tipped to win a national election on Feb. 23, pushed through parliament on Wednesday a motion calling for a drastic crackdown on migration with the help of votes from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is polling in second place.

Though the motion is non-binding, the AfD's role in passing it was symbolically important. Critics have accused the conservatives of breaking a taboo among mainstream parties against working with the AfD.

Albrecht Weinberg told Reuters he would return his decoration as a protest against the vote.

Born to a Jewish family in 1925, Weinberg spent time during World War Two in the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. He was freed on April 15, 1945, according to the Bergen-Belsen memorial website. He emigrated to the United States after the war but returned to Germany 10 years ago and now lives in the northwest of the country.

Some six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

Luigi Toscano, a photographer whose project 'Lest We Forget' shares the stories of survivors of the Holocaust, said he was also returning his order of merit to the German state in protest over Wednesday's vote.

"Yesterday, the CDU (conservatives) betrayed our democratic values with a resolution and the support of a party that is partly designated as right-wing extremist," Toscano wrote in an Instagram post in which he also mentioned Weinberg's decision.

The CDU did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.

The AfD, which is under state surveillance on suspicion of being right-wing extremist, has come under fire in the past for criticising Germany's culture of remembrance around the Holocaust. It denies having any Nazi links.

Wednesday's vote occurred hours after German lawmakers held a special sitting in the Bundestag lower house of parliament to commemorate 80 years since the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz in southern Poland on Jan. 27, 1945.

(Reporting by Rachel More; Editing by Gareth Jones)