ZDF broadcast
“Case number XY” honors courageous helpers
The presenter Rudi Cerne. photo
© Joerg Carstensen/dpa
Acts of violence often take place in public, but many witnesses still look the other way. But some observers are calling for help. Some are now being honored with the “XY Prize”.
The homeless man was tortured in a Bochum subway station for more than two hours. A young man and a boy Woman keeps hitting and kicking him. It’s early New Year’s Eve 2022, people are in a hurry. More than 50 passers-by pass by, but no one intervenes. This is what videos from the surveillance cameras show. Only two committed witnesses end the drama by independently calling for help. The 72-year-old Lothar C. and the young Yelyzaveta K., who came to Germany from the Ukraine, probably saved the life of the blood-covered homeless man. Together with two other courageous helpers, they were awarded a prize for their efforts on Thursday by the ZDF program “Aktenzeichen XY… unsolved”.
The “XY Prize – Together Against Crime”, worth 10,000 euros each, was presented to them in the ZDF capital studio in Berlin. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) praised the two women and two men, all from North Rhine-Westphalia, for their “courage and wisdom”.
Lothar C. and Yelyzaveta K. both acted without putting themselves in danger, but still resolutely and correctly. Lothar C. made an emergency call to the police and described the situation. Yelyzaveta K. passed the same spot shortly afterwards. Because she didn’t yet speak German well, she called a friend who alerted the police. “You just have to imagine that you find yourself in such a situation, I just had to help,” said Lothar C. on Thursday.
Mentally ill perpetrator
“It was really terrible, I didn’t expect it because I thought Germany was a safe country,” reports Yelyzaveta K. “Then I saw it and was shocked. But I believe that everyone should help each other, always .” At this point the laudator, actor Jürgen Vogel, intervenes again. “We sometimes play the heroes, you really are in your private life. Thank you very much.”
In another case at the award ceremony, an older woman sees a man and a woman on the street from an Aachen office building early in the morning in autumn 2022. Other witnesses don’t see any problem, Klara C. quickly understands that the sexual acts are not consensual and that the woman, rigid with fear, is in real distress. “There are enough people who look the other way, but I’m not one of them,” says Klara C. in a broad Rhenish singsong. She calls the police, keeps an eye on the perpetrator and the victim and can lead the police to them. It turns out that the man had already raped the woman and wanted to force her to withdraw money.
In Mülheim in the summer of 2022, parcel delivery man Mohamad Al H., who comes from Syria, witnessed a mentally ill perpetrator aggressively swearing and finally ramming a knife into the back of an 81-year-old woman. Mohamad Al H. knows the woman’s apartment and alerts the relatives, at the same time he calls the police and pursues the perpetrator. As he approaches a bus stop where children and elderly people are waiting, he stops the perpetrator and hugs him. The police arrived after three to four minutes, he says. “Without the police I wouldn’t have been able to deal with the man, it was very difficult. This price also applies to the police here in Germany.” According to ZDF, the 81-year-old was operated on after the knife attack and survived.
Faeser: “Look”
Interior Minister Faeser asked several times on stage this morning: “Look if something seems strange to you. And call for help.” The helpers are role models who “acted when others were in need.” Nobody has to put themselves in danger, the only important thing is not to look away, but to alert the police: it’s better to do it once too often than once too little. On November 29th, the award winners will be guests on the live program “Aktenzeichen XY… unsolved” and will talk about their actions.