Refugee helpers defiant in face of rising far-right attacks
Play
The ground is still blackened where the burning camper van once stood, the needles on the pine trees are brown and the lavender plants on the driveway have lost their colour from the fire.
The volunteers, who work with refugees, can still hardly believe that their converted bus was set alight in the middle of the night by unknown arsonists a month ago – right next to their house in the small north German village of Neuhardenberg, population 2,000, in the state of Brandenburg.
The Interior Ministry says there was a political motive behind the attack – it’s observed more and more with people linked with helping refugees.
“I heard something outside and then it got bright,” says Hannah Herzog, not her real name.
“I woke my husband up and said ‘something’s wrong.’ And then the bus went up in flames.”
Photos of the van, in which the couple had been on holiday just two days earlier, show the damage that was done: the engine gutted, the paint corroded by the flames.
“It was a dark day,” says Herzog. “When the scrap company came to pick it up it was just so sad. It was like they were taking away a body.”
There are no concrete figures on attacks on refugee helpers, according to a spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry. But threats, insults, assaults and damage to property connected with asylum seekers are all increasing.
The daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung recently reported on a photographer in the western town of Bielefeld who received a death threat because he was collecting money for refugees by selling photo calendars.
In the eastern state of Brandenburg there were no crimes reported against refugee helpers between 2010 and 2013. But last year there were two, and in the nine months to September alone there were 16.
“It’s also a sign that the far-right scene is using the increasing numbers of asylum seekers for propaganda purposes and isn’t afraid to use violence,” says a ministry spokeswoman.
The police have launched a thorough investigation and are holding security talks with victims – some are being offered special protection.
The stabbing attack on successful candidate for Cologne mayor Henriette Reker in October, who was responsible for the housing and integration of refugees before her election, also showed that violence is no longer only being directed at refugees themselves.
Police, aid organisations employees and volunteers are also being targeted.
“Perhaps we were too naive,” says Herzog. She and her husband, originally from Baden-Wurttemberg in the south-west of Germany, moved to Neuhardenberg three years ago and built themselves their ideal home. It happens to stand opposite several blocks of flats which now house around 300 refugees.
The Herzogs have been part of a welcoming initiative for the refugees since 2013 and say they now do “everything, everything, everything” for them – it’s sometimes exhausting, but also very fulfilling, they say.
“I can’t imagine it any other way,” says Herzog.
According to her they didn’t make any enemies because of their volunteer work. But at a fundraising concert they noticed a group of young men, dressed all in black, who were usually seen hanging around the local supermarket.
Herzog noticed that they were writing down the number plates of the people attending the concert – but they could never have imagined that someone would set their van on fire.
Herzog is still asking herself exactly what message she is meant to draw form the attack.
“I certainly don’t want to give up my support for the refugees,” she says. But the incident has affected her. “I look at things differently, I’m suspicious, and that’s a shame because I’m not normally anxious.”
Their case also shows how difficult it can be to catch the perpetrators – the Interior Ministry won’t give any details on the case for “tactical reasons” while it’s still investigating.
Their own new-found vulnerability has made the couple even stronger allies of the refugees. And Herzog says she was simultaneously shocked and impressed how sensitively the refugees reacted to the fire.
“This has happened because you help us,” one of the seven or eight refugees who came to see them after the fire told them.
“We share the powerlessness of the refugees: We haven’t fled anywhere like them, but on an emotional level we’re on the same page.”
