German authorities have arrested a 19-year-old suspect in a Friday stabbing attack at Berlin’s Holocaust memorial.
The arrest of the suspect, a Syrian citizen who, according to police, said he wanted to kill Jews, came shortly after the Thursday arrest of another teenager, a Russian citizen accused of plotting an attack on the Israeli embassy in Berlin.
Both arrests occurred shortly before German elections on Sunday. The center-right Christian Democratic Union won the election, while Alternative for Germany, a far-right anti-immigrant party with a history of minimizing the Holocaust, came in second.
The stabbing incident at the Holocaust memorial seriously injured one victim, a 30-year-old Spanish tourist who was put into an artificial coma but whose life no longer appears to be in danger, according to news reports. Three hours after the attack, the suspect reportedly approached officers with blood on his hands and was arrested.
The suspect is a formerly unaccompanied minor who applied for asylum after arriving in Germany in 2023. In questioning, he told police he had decided in the last few weeks to kill Jews, apparently motivated by Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. At the time of his arrest he was reportedly carrying a backpack with the weapon, the Koran and a prayer mat.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called the attack “an abhorrent and brutal crime” and vowed to “deport violent criminals to Syria again.”
In its condemnation, the Central Council of Jews in Germany said the attack posed a broader threat to Western society.
“The contempt for the memory of the Shoah and the hatred of Jews go hand in hand with the fundamental rejection of our Western values and are often the ideological core of Islamist-motivated perpetrators,” the group said in a statement. The Anti-Defamation League said it agreed with the council’s assessment, adding, “We are deeply concerned.”
Meanwhile, an 18-year-old Russian citizen arrested Thursday in Brandenburg was suspected of plotting to carry out what police said was a politically motivated attack on the Israeli embassy.
The suspect was a native Chechen who reportedly was planning to leave Germany and join the Islamic State terror group. Police who searched an apartment in connection with the case found objects resembling explosives.
Berlin authorities last week also responded to an Israel-related controversy at the globally renowned Berlin Film Festival. At the festival a director from Hong Kong delivered a speech that included the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which many Jewish groups deem an antisemitic call for Israel’s destruction. The director Jun Li had been reciting a speech written by an Iranian actor who boycotted the festival for its perceived support of Israel, and was heckled by some members of the crowd.
Following the speech, police investigated Jun Li for using the phrase, which the German government classifies as a prohibited slogan. The festival issued a statement announcing it had “deescalated the situation,” and also “acknowledged the harm that it has caused to people in the room, and clearly addressed our stance against antisemitism and any other form of discrimination.”
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