Interview: Beate Klarsfeld

She pointed out that the neo-Nazi NPD had called on its supporters in two federal states to give their first vote to the AfD and their second to their own party.

If Le Pen became president, we would have to leave France

Mrs Klarsfeld, who is not Jewish, said: "When refugee centres in Germany go up in flames - at the hands of AfD supporters - then NPD fans are present as well. The groups are inseparable."

Together with her Jewish husband Serge, Mrs Klarsfeld has been hunting Second World War Nazis for decades. In 1968, she was sentenced to prison for openly slapping former German Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger, who had been an active Nazi propagandist.

The Paris-based couple managed to bring to trial several prominent Nazis, such as Klaus Barbie and Kurtz Lischka.

They also demonstrated against Austrian president Kurt Waldheim, who hid his Nazi past; and went to Damascus to demand the extradition of Nazi war criminal Alois Brunner, responsible for the murder of 130,000 Jews in concentration camps, among them Serge Klarsfeld's father. Recently, the Klarsfelds managed to block performances by antisemitic French "comedian" Dieudonné.

Mrs Klarsfeld said that French Jews are afraid of Islamists. "Sometimes their children are being harassed in public schools by Muslims, especially on the outskirts of Paris. Some parents have moved further into Paris, others moved their children to Jewish or even Catholic schools."

But Mrs Klarsfeld insisted that Islamists were not the only danger to Jews in France: there is also the far-right Front National. Asked why some 14 per cent of French Jews voted for the FN, she said: "These are North African Jews who believe that once in power the FN would protect them from the Islamists, which I don't believe because they are demagogues just like Hitler."

Mrs Klarsfeld's criticism of far-right violence in Germany is based on her experience with Nazi atrocities.

"First the books went on fire, then the synagogues were burned down and now refugee centres go up in flames," she said.

"Back then, Jews were to blame for everything - they were allegedly ruling the world. These days, politicians in Germany incite people by telling them, 'the refugees take your money and because of the refugees there are no good schools in Germany', so even people who are not radical say, 'we have to suffer because of the refugees'."

Mrs Klarsfeld also accuses German police for failing to protect refugees. "So many attacks were not possible if the police had acted properly," she said. "The police seem to turn a blind eye to the far right."

In 1970, Mrs Klarsfeld was arrested in Poland after protesting against the official antisemitic politics; in 1971 she demonstrated in Prague for the same reason. In 1986 in Beirut, she tried to bring about the release of Jews who had been kidnapped by a jihadi group. In recent years, the couple has been documenting the fate of 11,000 French Jewish children who were sent to the death camps.

In 2012, Mrs Klarsfeld was selected by the socialist left-wing party, Die Linke, as its presidential candidate, but she lost to current president Joachim Gauck, who in 2015 awarded her and her husband the highest German decoration.

In February 2016, Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri accepted an initiative by Yad Vashem to grant her Israeli citizenship for her efforts on behalf of the Jewish people and Israel. Mr Deri called on the Klarsfelds to make aliyah. "Serge is already an Israeli citizen and my son has served with the Israeli border patrol," said the 77-year-old. She is not considering emigrating to Israel, "but if the Front National ever comes to power and Marine Le Pen becomes president, we would have to leave. That's clear because we've invested so much in fighting the FN."