In Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia, an Islamist-motivated attack on the synagogue was apparently thwarted at the last minute. On Thursday morning, the police arrested a 16-year-old youth who is said to have planned him, as well as three other people, as Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) announced. On Wednesday they received “a very serious and specific advice”. He referred to the place, time and perpetrators and allowed “conclusions to be drawn about an Islamistically motivated threat situation”.
On Wednesday evening, the police blocked and searched the synagogue in the city center with a large-scale operation, including with explosive detection dogs, as Reul said. But nothing was found. On Thursday, the officials in Hagen searched the apartment of the 16-year-old, who is a Syrian citizen, and arrested him. Three other people who were found there were also arrested, said the interior minister. Whether they were involved in the act is still being checked. According to the police, further searches are currently underway.
According to information from Süddeutsche Zeitung a foreign secret service is said to have warned the German authorities about the alleged Islamist, including the mirrors reported accordingly. The 16-year-old is said to have talked about an attack on the synagogue via chat.
Now the central office for the prosecution of terrorism is investigating the General Public Prosecutor’s Office in Düsseldorf on charges of preparing a serious, state-endangering act of violence. The Federal Prosecutor General was also involved, reported the dpa news agency, citing security circles.
In a first reaction, the North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister and candidate for chancellor of the Union, Armin Laschet, called for terrorists to be expelled from the country. “Anyone who integrates here should integrate, should learn German and should also work and be allowed to stay. But anyone who plans terrorist acts must be removed from the country,” said Laschet at an election campaign date. “That has to be clear and precise. And that’s what the Union stands for.”
On Wednesday, Yom Kippur, the highest Jewish holiday, indications of a possible threat to the synagogue in Hagen led to a major police operation. After waiting for hours, the authorities finally gave the all-clear: they had not “found any indications of a hazard,” said the police well after midnight. There are also no indications that other Jewish communities in North Rhine-Westphalia could be endangered. On Thursday, too, several police cars and police officers with submachine guns were standing near the synagogue in Hagen.
Memories of the terrorist attack in Halle were quickly awakened
Because of the possible threat, the Jewish community could not come together for traditional prayer on Yom Kippur – the festival of atonement – of all places. Memories of the terrorist attack in Halle an der Saale two years ago were quickly awakened – on Yom Kippur, which fell on October 9th in 2019, two passers-by were killed and two others injured by a right-wing extremist. Actually, however, the man had planned to kill significantly more people in the synagogue in Halle, only a sturdy wooden door prevented that.
Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) spoke of “terrible memories” on Thursday: “It is unbearable that Jews are once again exposed to such a terrible threat and were unable to peacefully celebrate the beginning of their highest festival, Yom Kippur.”
It quickly became clear on Wednesday evening that the emergency services in Hagen took the evidence of a possible attack very seriously. Numerous forces with submachine guns were called together to protect the Jewish community building. The police initially only announced that the synagogue in the city in the southeastern Ruhr area was “potentially dangerous”. Hagen’s Lord Mayor Erik O. Schulz hurried to the synagogue. “We are against anti-Semitism, we don’t put up with that,” he said.
The possible danger became known in the afternoon
The possible danger became known in the late afternoon. The service planned for 7 p.m. was canceled at short notice and the area around the synagogue in the city center was cordoned off. Most members of the community could have been informed of the cancellation by phone and did not even come to the synagogue, said the police spokesman. Some were notified by the police at the barriers and sent back home. This happened very calmly and without panic. The Jewish community in Hagen is small. According to the Central Welfare Office for Jews in Germany, it had 264 members last year.
Eventually sniffer dogs arrived and searched the building. Outside it became more and more clear that the situation was probably easing. The emergency services took off their helmets and no longer had submachine guns on standby all the time. Residents returning home were allowed through the police cordon and were escorted to their homes by police officers.
“Thank God we found out about it in advance and increased the security requirements,” said Prime Minister Laschet. “And we are now in the process of uncovering how serious this attack was.” Increased sensitivity towards all extremists is required. “In Halle it was the right-wing extremists who carried out an attack. Elsewhere it is Islamists. In the third place we have left-wing extremists,” said Laschet. “We have to fight all extremes without hesitation, without being blind in one eye.”
The NRW Greens called for a “dark field study on the subject of anti-Semitism”, as their parliamentary group leader Verena Schäffer told the WDR. “Where is it widespread and how widely in which milieus? Also in order to be able to take targeted action against it.” It must be about making the life of Jews in Germany safer. The government factions of the CDU and FDP had already initiated such a dark field study the day before – in response to the increase in anti-Semitic crimes in North Rhine-Westphalia in the first half of the year.