- Previous coverage:
- Part 1, originally published on 5/8: OUTRAGEOUS: German Airline Bans Jews From Flying; Lufthansa Supervisor: It’s “Jewish People Who Were The Mess, Who Made The Problems, Everyone Has To Pay For A Couple!”
- Part 2, originally published on 5/10: Lufthansa’s Apology Takes Things From Bad To Worse With 9 Things That Remain Unaddressed; The Media Needs To Get This Story Right
- Part 3, originally published on 5/11: Lufthansa CEO Apologizes To Rabbi Of Berlin For Anti-Semitism On His Airline, Suspends Employees Involved
- Part 4, originally published on 5/18: What Has Happened In The 2 Weeks Since Lufthansa’s Shocking Anti-Semitic Fiasco In Frankfurt
- Part 5, originally published on 5/24: Here Is The Apology Letter That Lufthansa’s CEO Is Sending Passengers That Were Denied Boarding To Budapest; Is The 4th Time The Charm?
- Part 6, background covered in Ami Magazine’s 5/25 issue.
- Part 7, originally published on 5/24: Here Is Lufthansa’s Response To The US DOT Complaints Filed Against Them
The Times Of Israel is reporting that an investigation commissioned by Lufthansa found no evidence of institutional antisemitism that led to Lufthansa banning some 130 visibly Jewish passengers from flying on the airline for 24 hours. That’s despite a Lufthansa employee acknowledging that just a small number of Jewish passengers caused mask related problems on their flight to Frankfurt.
The Times reports that Lufthansa Airlines CEO Jens Ritter called the antisemitism charge “categorically inappropriate.”
That’s despite Mr. Ritter previously writing that his airline was embarrassed by what transpired as it was not reflective of what Lufthansa stands for and despite the reported apologies for the antisemitism at Lufthansa by Lufthansa group CEO Carsten Spohr.
It’s also despite a Lufthansa employee stating that “Jewish people who were the mess, who made the problems, everyone has to pay for a couple!”
In a letter reviewed by the JTA, Lufthansa states that the internal task force found that some crew members were “insensitive and unprofessional,” but didn’t reveal any sentiments of antisemitism by Lufthansa representatives.
Ritter blamed “an unfortunate chain of inaccurate communication, misinterpretation and unintended misjudgments” and “several Orthodox Jewish passengers” who “created a tenuous situation” and prompted “several announcements” from the captain.
Mr. Ritter did promise that his airline would create a senior management role for the prevention of discrimination and antisemitism and says that the airline still deeply regrets the denied boarding and the impact it had on our passengers.
Deborah Lipstadt, the US State Department’s special envoy for antisemitism, plans on meeting with Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohr to discuss the incident and allegations of antisemitism at the airline.
I have also heard from people close to those involved in a lawsuit against Lufthansa that the airline is hiding behind the Montreal Convention, which the airline says bars recovery of punitive, exemplary damages, and other non-compensatory damages. Lufthansa has also told them that the incident has been investigated and it occurred due to “a chain of miscommunications, misjudgments and erroneous assumptions among our employees in Frankfurt.” That has been used to offer just a pittance to the passengers as a settlement offer.
Lufthansa has not responded to our requests for comment since May 8th. We have once again reached out to the airline for comment about their investigation into the incident.
Loading ...What do you think of Lufthansa’s investigation and their action after the fiasco in Frankfurt?
HT: s mh
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33 Comments On "Lufthansa Denies Antisemitism Played A Role In Their Fiasco In Frankfurt"
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CFS = can’t fix stupid
I think we need to differentiate between “discrimination or racial profiling” and Anti-Semitism”
Although they are both very wrong, they stem from a different perspective.
While it’s true that there can be a difference between racial profiling and anti-semitism, they are not mutually exclusive. Lufthansa would never have dared to do this to any other “racial” group.
One of their reps told one of the Jews that “It would have been if you were African, if you were Polander”–see Dan’s Part 1 post above.
Why you looking for nuance here? Lufthansa is denying guilt for either option. If anything, the lack of any discrimination admission only reinforces the claims of antisemitism.
Well, technically, what Lufthansa wrote is mostly true. No one said “Jewish people make messes…”. That employee identified the source of the trouble as coming from Jewish passengers. On a simple level, it’s not so different from a scenario where the employee says “The problem came from people with glasses, therefore all passengers with glasses will be denied boarding.”
Stupid? Yes.
Insensitive? Yes.
Discriminatory? Yes.
Anti-semitic? Possibly. Even probably. But no real “smoking gun” to prove it. Like Lufthansa’s report says, it didn’t reveal any sentiments of antisemitism by Lufthansa representatives. “Reveal” in this context means “overt proof” (but we pretty much know the real truth)
Men, women, children, and Jews of all shapes and sizes were denied boarding.
Do you really think Lufthansa would remove everyone wearing glasses?
Yes, we know that they discriminated against Jews. But that isn’t exactly the same thing as proving that there were “any sentiments of antisemitism by Lufthansa representatives.”
There’s no smoking gun, except, explicitly denying anyone visibly Jewish from boarding, sending in a huge group of heavily armed police even without any threats, banning them all from flying for the next 24 hours, claiming outright that all Jews have to pay for the sins of a few, and then blatantly lying and vehemently denying that anything bad happened at all until Dan uncovered it.
When your religion/race is literally the only reason you receive cruel and repeated discrimination, then yes it’s antisemitism. The pretzels people twist into to claim there was no antisemitism is simply amazing to behold.
But obviously the nazis were not either antisemitic, they just discriminated against Jews.
Mind boggling.
When you discriminate people from different rece you are a racist.
When you discriminate jews because of their religion you are antisemitic!!!
Definitely wouldn’t fly Lufthansa because of this. I can’t afford to suddenly be denied boarding due to a non-anti-Semitic reason and left stranded somewhere. So not worth it. If they can do it once and be so ignorant about it, they can do it again.
Why not just wear a cap instead of a yarmulke and no one will no your religion?
Should I also shave my beard?
I’ve been doing just fine being a proud Jew, even if there some uncomfortable moments.
Keep the beard but dress like a trucker or a lumberman.
Lol it literally says I’m not a male in my name. So not wearing a yarmulke is something I do daily. Also what are we teaching our kids?
What’s the Montreal Convention?
Basically it is the set of rules airlines made up and operate under. It is the small print that applies to every ticket. For example, it requires an airline to get you to your destination but allows them to switch you to a third world carrier with multiple transfers.
Nope. I will not fly Lufthansa. Several times in the past few months, I was looking for flights and there were (cheaper) options with Lufthansa. I skipped right over them. I never flew them but certainly have no plans of changing after this incident.
If they’re in middle of lawsuits – I’d think a lot of what they’re saying is to match up with and strengthen their defense case, as opposed to simply planning the most positive response from a PR angle.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the anti-semitism here is that they don’t see a problem with lumping all the Jews into one group, but they would never dream of doing that to any other racial group.
Mr Ritter, I’ve got a bridge to sell you
It took many years for Germany to admit to their war crimes in ww2.
Germans are stubborn but eventually with the right pressure Lufthansa will also give!
I mildly disagree with your conclusion. I believe Lufthansa treats all with disdain. Last year my wife and I were the only two in the entire business class section. An attendant woke my wife because her mask wasn’t on correctly then told her to wake me up and have me put on mine correctly. The ratio of bathrooms to seats in the business class has to be one of the poorest and the food was very poor quality.
You need another option in your survey, Only as a last resort.
1. If their excuse is true, why not publicize the details of the miscommunication?
2. Were other passengers on the flight who were not going to Budapest also denied boarding?
lots of other options to fly, sometimes Lufthansa is cheaper but only by a little but. I don’t mind paying the “Jew” tax and fly on an airline that I feel safe with.
That’s what all the Natzis said when they got caught. Bunch of liars m. Maybe we should start a Nuremberg trial for these guys and maybe just maybe then they’d come to grips with what they actually did.
the story was ugly
Dan we miss the news roundups.
This group stood out and they punished anyone that looked like part of the group. Could it have been because they were Jewish, absolutely. Can it be members here are not looking at this objectively, ABSOLUTELY!
As Biden appointee Deborah Lipstadt said, what would happen if there were a couple Black people on the flight that has mask compliance issues and Lufthansa banned all 130 Black people from their connection or flying the airline for 24 hours?
Most would blame it on racism.
Appointing her is probably the only good thing he has done in his career
no need to differentiate. you never hear anyone say ‘no Irish allowed’, ‘no Greeks allowed’. it’s the old fashioned – call it what you will – this time it the innocent German people. they never did this before