Status: 11/23/2022 2:44 p.m
In 1992, three people died in a racist attack in Mölln, Schleswig-Holstein. The victims were remembered in Kiel today. Federal Interior Minister Faeser called for tough action against “racist hate speech and violence”.
30 years after the racist arson attack in Mölln, the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament in Kiel remembered the murders of three people. MEPs from the parliamentary groups commemorated the victims, stressed the importance of continued remembrance and called for a constant fight against hatred and intolerance. The FDP MP and former Minister of Economics Bernd Buchholz called the crime in Mölln a “black day” in the history of the state of Schleswig-Holstein.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) also spoke out – and called for tough action against “racist hate speech and violence”. That was the “reminder” that came from the crime at the time, she explained. “The action of the right-wing extremists in Mölln did not come out of nowhere, the agitation against people of other origins prepared the ground for them,” wrote Faeser on Twitter. The victims “won’t be forgotten,” she added. “Resolute” action must be taken against racist hate speech.
Nouripour: Failure to deal with victims
Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens) also wrote on Twitter that the racist arson attack had shaken the trust of many people with a migration background in German society and politics. He will never forget “that my parents were also considering putting a ladder on the window for ’emergencies’.”
Green leader Omid Nouripour said the attack also represents a failure to deal with victims and relatives of right-wing terrorism in Germany. The traffic light coalition wants to expand a coordination center for victim and family support and provide money for the establishment of a documentation center for the right-wing terrorist group NSU and an archive for right-wing terrorism. “We owe it to the victims and their families to do everything we can to keep the memory alive and to decisively fight right-wing extremism.”
Three dead and nine injured
The racist arson attacks in Mölln with three dead people are 30 years old. On the night of November 23, 1992, two neo-Nazis threw incendiary devices on two houses in the old town of Mölln that were occupied by Turkish families. The 51-year-old Bahide Arslan and her granddaughters Yeliz Arslan (10) and Ayşe Yilmaz (14) were killed. Nine other people were injured.
The crime caused great shock. It was part of a wave of racist attacks and riots after German reunification. At that time, the political debate in Germany was dominated by public disputes about asylum policy and the influx of civil war refugees from Yugoslavia, which was just breaking up.
Shortly after attack by Lichtenhagen
A few months before the crime in Mölln, there was a day-long xenophobic pogrom in Rostock-Lichtenhagen, and a few months later five people died in a right-wing extremist arson attack in Solingen, North Rhine-Westphalia.
A memorial service is planned in Mölln in the afternoon, which should include an interreligious service and a wreath-laying ceremony at the sites of the attacks. State and federal politicians also wanted to take part, including the Vice President of the Bundestag and former Federal Commissioner for Integration, Aydan Özoguz (SPD).