Far right politician sparks national debate over Berlin's Holocaust memorial

A member of the nationalist Alternative for Germany party has called a Berlin memorial to the millions of Jews killed in the Holocaust a "monument of shame".

The concrete slabs of Germany's national Holocaust memorial sit near the Reichstag dome and the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. [File Image May 3, 2005] Source: AP Photo/Herbert Knosowski

Germany's vice chancellor has harshly condemned remarks by a prominent member of the nationalist Alternative for Germany party, who suggested ending the country's decades-long tradition of acknowledging and atoning for its Nazi past.

"We Germans are the only people in the word who have planted a monument of shame in their capital city," Björn Uwe Höcke said.

Sigmar Gabriel wrote on Facebook that even though he knows the AfD party thrives on provocation, the comments by Bjoern Hoecke, who leads the party in the eastern state of Thuringia, were "shocking."

"This is not just some kind of provocation," Gabriel wrote. "We must never let this kind of demagoguery be undisputed."

Hoecke said Germany needs to perform a "180-degree turn" when it comes to remembering its past.

Berlin's Holocaust Memorial, close to the Brandenburg Gate and the nation's parliament, memorialises the millions of victims of the Holocaust.

The majority of the Holocaust's victims were Jewish, though many were also targeted for their political views, sexuality or ethnicity.