Overview
- Reif made the remarks on the podcast Zwischen den Zeilen and voiced the comments during a discussion of the AfD's electoral successes on Wednesday.
- He compared recent trends in German politics to what he knows of the Weimar Republic and warned that treating extremist positions as a joke is dangerous, saying the AfD means business and quoting, "Euch wird das Lächeln schon noch vergehen."
- The 76-year-old said he has a Swiss passport and admitted he has thought about returning to Switzerland, noting he took Swiss citizenship in 2013 and gave up his German citizenship, though he has not announced any concrete plan to move.
- Reif stressed he still finds hope in Holocaust education work, saying visits to school classes and conversations with pupils keep him engaged and convinced "it is not all lost."
- Multiple German outlets carried the podcast excerpts on May 20–21, framing his remarks as an alarm about normalizing illiberal politics and prompting wider public debate about memory, citizenship, and how media amplify elite warnings.