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Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Federal President:
"As Federal President I would like to say to you, the relatives, today: We stand by your side. We all. The people in our country mourn with you. We will not forget."
One year after the right-wing extremist attack in Halle, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier remembered the victims during a central memorial service.
“It is almost a miracle that the cruel plan failed. We also owe this miracle to a door - an old wooden door! She, only she prevented a bloodbath. The image of this door with its bullet holes also left a deep imprint on me. This door is a symbol of the wound that October 9th tore. But for me this door is also a symbol of strength and solidarity. "
In the attack on October 9, right-wing extremist Stephan Balliet tried to break into a synagogue and shoot members of the Jewish community gathered there.
After failing to do this, the perpetrator shot a 40-year-old passerby and a 20-year-old man.
Now a plaque and a memorial commemorate the deed.
For the memorial, the artist Lidia Edal redesigned the door of the church, which presumably dozens of people owe their lives to.
In addition to the Federal President, the chairman of the Jewish community in Halle, Max Privorozki - and Reiner Haselhoff, Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt, spoke in the Ulrichskirche.
Max Privorozki, chairman of the Jewish community in Halle:
"I'm sorry, but we have become more sensitive than before. It may be over at some point, but this is not the time yet. I hope we get back to normal life, but we will never have Jana and Kevin again. "
Reiner Haseloff, Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt:
"Something like that in planning a criminal act of terrorism does not come about in a vacuum."
"Was that not to be recognized? Was the responsibility really perceived in such a way that one could not have avoided such a development of a perpetrator who is so radicalized? This question is and that is the question for us as a civil society when it comes to it to build up a sensorium that enables us to prevent something like this in the future. "