After a large-scale operation in Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia, the police arrested a young person. He is suspected of having planned an explosive attack on the synagogue there, as the North Rhine-Westphalian Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) confirmed: “There was a risk of an attack on the synagogue in Hagen,” he said in Cologne that morning. The police searched the 16-year-old Syrian’s apartment in Hagen and arrested three other people by their own account.
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.
The central office for the prosecution of terrorism in North Rhine-Westphalia is also involved in the investigation, as the public prosecutor’s office in Düsseldorf confirmed to the dpa. From security circles it was said that the Attorney General was also involved.
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 is also no evidence that other Jewish communities in North Rhine-Westphalia could be endangered. According to the dpa news agency, there were still several patrol cars and police officers with submachine guns in Hagen near the synagogue on Thursday morning.
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 of the members of the community could have been informed of the cancellation of the service 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.