GERMANY: SYNAGOGUE IN WESTERN TOWN OF DUESSELDORF DAMAGED OVERNIGHT AFTER UNKNOWN ASSAILANTS THROW FIREBOMBS AT BUILDING

Record ID: 648573

  • Title: GERMANY: SYNAGOGUE IN WESTERN TOWN OF DUESSELDORF DAMAGED OVERNIGHT AFTER UNKNOWN ASSAILANTS THROW FIREBOMBS AT BUILDING
  • Date: 3rd October 2000
  • Summary: DUESSELDORF, GERMANY (OCTOBER 3, 2000)(REUTERS) 1. WIDE OF SYNAGOGUE 0.05 2. VARIOUS OF ENTRANCE AREA WITH CLEANED WALLS AND GROUND (4 SHOTS) 0.28 3. SV (SOUNDBITE) (German) PAUL SPIEGEL, HEAD OF THE CENTRAL COUNCIL OF JEWS IN GERMANY, SAYING: "I am certainly not in a mood to celebrate today. I think this was a horrible anti-Semitic attack. Within half a year this is the second attack on Jews or on a Jewish institution. It really makes us think about whether it was right to build up Jewish communities in Germany again. I do not want to sound too pessimistic but especially on such a day - and I am sure the criminals chose it carefully - one day after the New Years celebration, on the day of German unification, to conduct this crime is a deplorable act." 1.18 4. VARIOUS OF POLICE AT SCENE 1.39 5. VARIOUS OF SYNAGOGUE ENTRANCE AREA 1.52 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 18th October 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: DUESSELDORF, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVA51IYMZ2DARIG40TQF70WGV89R
  • Story Text: A synagogue in the western town of Duesseldorf was
    slightly damaged overnight after unknown assailants threw
    three firebombs at the building, German police said, adding
    they had detained two youths.



    A police spokesman said three firebombs and a stone
    had been thrown into the entrance of the building late on
    Monday evening (October 2), but had only caused minimal damage
    after a woman living nearby spotted the fire and stamped out
    the flames.

    Witnesses said they had seen two to four people near the
    scene of the crime and police said they had detained two young
    men for questioning although they did not have enough evidence
    to charge them immediately.

    Paul Spiegel, head of the Central Council of Jews in
    Germany, called the latest bombing "horrible", noting that it
    was the second anti-Semitic attack within months.

    "It really makes us think about whether it was right to
    build up a Jewish community in Germany again," Spiegel told
    Reuters television on the fringes of the official celebration
    of the 10th anniversary of German unification in Dresden on
    Tuesday (October 3).

    A group of Jewish immigrants were injured in a mystery
    bomb attack in the centre of Duesseldorf in July and although
    the culprits have not been caught the attack sparked a wave of
    soul searching about far-right violence in modern Germany.

    The country has seen an upsurge in anti-foreigner
    extremism since Germany was reunified exactly a decade ago,
    particularly in the former communist east where unemployment
    soared.

    jrc/jrc/izo

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