Oldenburg
“Cowardly attack”: Unknown people throw an incendiary device at the synagogue, triggering police action
A police emergency vehicle is parked in front of the synagogue in Oldenburg city center. Unknown people threw an incendiary device on a door there
© Hauke-Christian Dittrich / DPA
The Jewish community in Oldenburg has fallen victim to an arson attack. A caretaker team was able to prevent anything worse from happening. Lower Saxony’s education minister condemned the act.
Unknown people set an incendiary device on a door in Oldenburg thrown out of the synagogue. A police spokesman said no one was injured in the attack on Friday afternoon. The investigators initially did not provide any further information – such as the background to the crime and the security concept.
A caretaker team from a neighboring cultural center immediately discovered the fire and extinguished the flames. A door was damaged. The police are searching for the perpetrators with a large contingent, and state security is also investigating. Politicians and church representatives condemned the act and expressed their horror. The Alliance Against Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism Oldenburg called for a spontaneous vigil in front of the synagogue in the evening.
Oldenburg Bishop: “Evils of anti-Semitism have not been overcome”
Lower Saxony’s Interior Minister Daniela Behrens (SPD) called for the crime to be clarified quickly and consistently. “The security authorities will do everything they can to identify the perpetrator or perpetrators. The rule of law will show a clear stance here,” said Behrens on Friday evening. “Even if the background to the crime is still unclear, it affects me very much. For me, arson attacks on synagogues are absolutely reprehensible and unspeakable,” Behrens was quoted as saying in the ministry’s statement.
He hopes “that the culprits can be identified as quickly as possible,” said Oldenburg Bishop Thomas Adomeit. “This vile and inhumane attack unfortunately shows once again that we have not overcome the evil of anti-Semitism in our society,” said the bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oldenburg and chairman of the council of the Confederation of Protestant Churches in Lower Saxony.
Lower Saxony’s Education Minister Julia Willie Hamburg (Greens) spoke of a “cowardly attack” and described the fight against anti-Semitism as a “task for society as a whole”. Everyone is called upon to “support and protect communities, Jewish schools and kindergartens by opposing any form of anti-Semitism.”
The President of the Oldenburg Police Department, Andreas Sagehorn, announced that security measures at the synagogue would be increased immediately until the further circumstances of the crime were clarified. Oldenburg’s mayor Jürgen Krogmann emphasized his solidarity with the Jewish community. “Attacks on synagogues are attacks on all of us,” the SPD politician made clear. “We will not accept that a Jewish institution in our city has become the target of an attempted attack.”