Events were held in over 100 cities to denounce the state racism and right-wing extremism that made the fascist attack possible two years ago, and to finally demand answers. “A state that doesn’t protect, a police force that doesn’t help Hanau is everywhere!” one participant wrote on her poster.
Last Saturday, the mass murders of February 19, 2020 were commemorated in the German city of Hanau. The case has never been completely clarified and raises questions that extend far beyond the crime itself.
The right-wing extremist murders in Hanau, Germany, one year on
One year after the Hanau murders, when right-wing extremist Tobias Rathjen killed nine strangers eight men and one woman aged between 20 and 37 the background to this crime has still not been clarified.
The authorities are sticking to their version of a “confused lone perpetrator,” who also injured six others, some seriously, in the attack. Many unanswered questions point to links to right-wing terrorist networks that reach deep into the state. The murders are the result of profoundly right-wing politics.
For the bereaved, the enumeration of the names of those killed (#Saytheirnames) is more than a duty to prevent the memory of their loved ones from being cast into oblivion. It is a symbol for the active fight against right-wing terrorism. They want to ensure that Hanau is “not a transit station, but the final terminus of right-wing terrorism,” as the father of one of those killed put it.