Lord Mayor Dr. Felix Schwenke remembers the racist attack in Hanau

On February 19, 2020, nine people were victims of a xenophobic attack in neighboring Hanau. "Five years have passed since then and the people have not been forgotten. Quite the opposite. After all, even in Offenbach, a city with a long tradition of immigration, people from different countries and cultures live together peacefully, some in their second or third generation," recalls Lord Mayor Dr. Felix Schwenke on the occasion of the anniversary. "They came because they had to flee, because war, hunger or expulsion forced them to leave their homeland. But many also came as guest workers because the German economy needed workers. They stayed, settled down, found work and a home and became part of German society. Like the parents of Gökhan Gültekin, Sedat Gürbüz, Said Nesar Hashemi, Mercedes Kierpacz, Hamza Kurtović, Vili Viorel Păun, Fatih Saraçoğlu, Ferhat Unvar and Kaloyan Velkov."

These young people died five years ago on February 19, when a racist right-wing extremist shot nine men and women within six minutes in Hanau. "In cold blood and planned, because they didn't fit into his world view," Schwenke recalls the act, which joins the ranks of racially motivated crimes committed by the NSU or the murder of Kassel District President Walter Lübcke. "The racist and, more recently, anti-Semitic attacks and acts are a challenge for our democracy because they understandably stir up fear. And to be clear at this point: I am concerned when people have to be afraid because of their appearance, whether they were born here or are migrant workers. I want a cosmopolitan society that offers protection to others. But of course it is also true that everyone who lives in our society must abide by the laws here. This also applies to those to whom we offer protection," Schwenke makes clear with regard to events such as those in Munich, Aschaffenburg or before Christmas in Magdeburg. He believes it is very important to take the resulting fears very seriously. But justified fear should never turn into hate. "The hashtag #saytheirnames has therefore quite rightly commemorated the dead from Hanau since 2020 and reminds us to listen carefully every day and to resolutely counter marginalizing tendencies whenever they are expressed."