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Edgar Franke (SPD, left), Federal Government Commissioner for the concerns of victims and survivors of terrorist offenses in Germany, and Reiner Haseloff (CDU) in front of the synagogue in Halle / Saale
Photo:
Hendrik Schmidt / picture alliance / dpa / dpa-Zentralbild
Two years after the terrorist attack in Halle, the victims and their bereaved were remembered with wreaths, flowers and roll calls. October 9, 2019 was a turning point for Saxony-Anhalt and all of Germany, said Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff (CDU) in front of the synagogue of the Jewish community. "Our special memory goes to the victims and their relatives, for whom the perpetrator brought endless suffering."
At noon, life in the market square stood still for a while.
From 12:04 p.m. the bells of the market church and the red tower rang.
At that time, the heavily armed right-wing extremist and anti-Semitic assassin tried two years ago to carry out a massacre in a fully occupied synagogue on the highest Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur.
When the locked doors prevented him from doing so, he shot a 40-year-old passerby.
A little later he killed a 20-year-old in a kebab shop.
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) tweeted: »Anti-Semitism & right-wing terror are bitter reality in Germany.
It is the task of the state to protect everyone's life - and everyone's task to oppose any racism and anti-Semitism. "
Haseloff: brutalizing language as a warning signal
Haseloff warned society against forgetting and playing down right-wing extremist violence.
"We can't leave that unchallenged," he said.
“Let's draw a red line of decency together.
We have to consistently oppose defamation of the other, and we have to stand up to right-wing extremists together. «Anti-Semitism and racism are also spreading in the middle of society.
This is not only evident in social networks, but also in face-to-face conversations.
"The limit of what can be said is shifting in a way that we would not have thought possible ten or 15 years ago."
The change and brutalization of the language is a warning signal.
The attack in Halle shows that word and deed are not far from each other.
"We have to do everything we can to ensure that the Internet is not a legal vacuum."
Josef Schuster, President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany
Two years after the terrorist attack, the President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, also sees a great need for action in the fight against anti-Semitism and right-wing extremism.
"The spread of hatred and agitation, for example in the form of anti-Semitic conspiracy narratives on social media, is a massive problem."
The Network Enforcement Act was an important first step.
According to the federal government, it aims to combat hate crime, criminal false news and other criminal content on social networks.
According to Schuster, it should be examined how the law can be extended to messenger services such as Telegram.
"We have to do everything we can to ensure that the Internet is not a legal vacuum," he said.
However, the President of the Central Council of Jews also reported that the federal government reacted quickly after the Halle attack and provided money to secure Jewish facilities.
As a result, structural and technical improvements would be made successively in many communities.
That is an important step.
"At the political and social level," said Schuster, "there is still a lot to be done to combat growing anti-Semitism."
irb / dpa
