Hanau
Call to fight against right-wing extremism
Commemorative event on the Hanau market square in February 2022. Photo
© Boris Roessler/dpa
The nine victims of the attack four years ago are remembered in Hanau. The focus is also on the present.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) spoke on the fourth anniversary of the racist attack in Hanau called for a determined fight against right-wing extremism. Since right-wing extremists are again fantasizing about wanting to take people away from Germany simply because of their origin, it is all the more important to oppose this, said Faeser in Hanau. Instead, you have to stand in front of the victims’ relatives and tell them: “We are on your side.”
“Nobody should have to feel that way in Germany that they think about leaving this country,” she said after the end of the official memorial service for the victims of the attack. “We as a state are the guarantee that all people are protected, no matter where they come from.”
Avoided political speeches
Faeser, together with representatives of the Hessian state government and the city of Hanau, had previously honored the victims with wreaths at a silent memorial in the city’s main cemetery. According to the city, political speeches were refrained from “at the express request of the victims’ relatives.”
Before the official event began, an imam prayed for the dead at the graves of three victims buried in the cemetery. Relatives and friends of the victims also gathered there. In the evening, vigils were planned at the two crime scenes, which are located in the city center and in the Kesselstadt district.
In Hanau on February 19, 2020, a 43-year-old German shot nine people for racist motives. He then killed his mother and himself.