Germany: swastikas in Halle, one year after the attack which killed two
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his wife Elke Buedenbender took part in the commemoration ceremonies for the Halle bombing, one year later, on October 9, 2020. Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters
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3 min
On October 9, 2019, Germany was in shock after the attack in Halle on a synagogue and a small Turkish restaurant.
Two people, a passerby and a restaurant customer, were killed.
While the far-right terrorist has been on trial since this summer, the commemorations of this attack have been tarnished by swastikas painted on graffiti in memory of the victims.
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With our correspondent in Berlin,
Pascal Thibaut
This Friday, October 9, the city of Halle-sur-Saale, in the Land of Saxony-Anhalt, commemorated the attack perpetrated a year ago to the day.
On the occasion of this sad first “anniversary”, ceremonies took place in a heavy context.
"
The Halle attack is far from being a thing of the past,
" the headline of the regional daily
Mitteldeutsche Zeitung
published on Friday morning was particularly relevant.
The night before, graffiti in memory of the two victims of
the attack on October 9, 2019
, was covered with swastikas, the quintessential symbol of the Nazi era and banned in Germany since the end of World War II.
► See also: Germany: first day of the trial of the anti-Semitic attack in Halle
Several anti-Semitic acts in Germany in recent days
Graffiti, in several places in Halle, bore the names of the two victims of the attack, Jana and Kevin, with the words "
Never forget
".
The city paid homage to them.
At 12:01 p.m., when the assailant fired the first shot at the synagogue door (which ultimately did not give in), life stopped in Halle.
The bells of all the churches rang and the population observed three minutes of silence.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who had been there a year ago, has returned.
In his speech, he referred to a “
nightmare
”, stressing that right-wing extremism remained “
deeply rooted
” in German society.
The swastikas painted in Halle, a brutal assault on a young Jew last Sunday in Hamburg, a global rise in anti-Semitic acts, are all confirmations of this analysis.
► Read also: Germany: after the attack on Halle, the fear of neo-Nazi terrorism
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