‘My heart is bleeding’: German town mourns victims of racist shooting

Her brother was suddenly “torn from the heart of our family,” Ajla Kurtovic said with a halting voice as she shared the stage with German politicians at a memorial to the nine people killed by a gunman in a racially motivated attack two weeks ago.

“What remains is boundless pain, an incomprehensible emptiness and bewilderment,” she said, demanding that the crime that shook the town of Hanau and horrified the nation must be solved so it won’t be repeated.

A 43-year-old German man targeted shisha bars in Hanau in a gun rampage on February 19, killing and wounding people of foreign decent.

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Kurtovic said she refuses to feel hatred, because that is a driving force for racism. 

Claus Kaminsky, the mayor of this town just east of Frankfurt, fought back tears as he greeted mourners at the memorial Wednesday evening, which included German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

They sat in the front row next to the bereaved at the service, and together they later placed white roses next to a large candle on the stage. 

A wall on stage at the Congress Park Hanau event centre listed the names of the victims. They were not foreigners or strangers, as the attacker seemingly believed, but fellow citizens, Kaminsky said.

Kemal Kocak, whose son owned the kiosk where shots were fired and who knew many of the victims well, said that he suffered from anxiety attacks, even at home in his apartment. “It hurts my soul so much, my heart is bleeding so much, I can’t describe in words what happened,” he said.

The commemoration event was broadcast on two large video screens in the city centre, where some 2,000 people were gathered, according to police. Messages in many shop windows in the city centre proclaim “The victims were not foreigners!” and “Hanau stands together.”

The anger that arose after the attack have been supplanted by persistent shock and concern. “I can’t help but think of it every time I walk this way,” says a young woman wearing a headscarf. “But we still have to learn to live with it.” Fear and worry accompany grief in Hanau, especially among citizens with foreign roots.

The perpetrator, who also shot his mother and then himself dead, has a history of spreading hate speech and propaganda via social media, Steinmeier said.

The president acknowledged that as a white man, he does not experience disparaging looks, hurtful remarks or exclusion, but he acknowledged: “Yes, racism does exist in our country – and not just for the past few weeks. Yes, there is widespread Islamophobia.”

The attack by the perpetrator, believed to have been mentally ill, seemed to be aimed at perceived foreigners. He killed people who “lived here, laughed, cried, made plans for the future,” Steinmeier said.

Steinmeier named all nine victims of the crime. “They were our fellow citizens. They were so much more than what the assassin saw in them,” he said. “We keep them in our memories as part of us.”

The remembrance should not end with the funeral service, the mayor said.

The names of the victims should become part of the city’s collective memory, with a permanent memorial to be established for this purpose.(dpa)