“Secular commemoration at a high level is possible”

“The memorial service for the victims of right-wing extremist violence, which took place yesterday in the Konzerthaus Berlin, impressively demonstrated that the new Germany can also commemorate in a completely secular way.” Frieder Otto Wolf, President of the Humanist Association of Germany, summed up the state ceremony for the victims of the “National Socialist Underground” (NSU) group yesterday, Thursday. Wolf expressed his regret that Chancellor Angela Merkel had not formulated any “clear self-criticism as the highest responsible party of a state authority” in view of the “blatant” failure of the judiciary over the years to clarify the background and connections of the murders. Nevertheless, she gave an “important speech that all those who fight exclusion and racism in our society can build on.” He found the speeches of the relatives more impressive than Merkel’s speech and said that “they formulated demands and challenges that we as humanists cannot ignore: To seriously take up the fight against racism and exclusion and, together with all those who want to work in these alliances, to ensure that right-wing terror and its background ideologies no longer have a future in all of our Germany.” Frieder Otto Wolf also saw the HVD’s invitation to the act of state as an important step in an event that had shown “that secular remembrance at a high level is possible in this Germany”. According to Wolf, it is now important “that this commemorative event does not remain an inconsequential ‘flash in the pan’, but is permanently mobilized to ensure that the misanthropic terror of these racists no longer has a place in our country”. The decision by the daughter of one of those murdered, “who so fiercely defended basic democratic values in her speech”, to go to Turkey for the time being also showed him how “serious the situation is and how urgent the task of finally finding a democratic remedy is. We all have a role to play here,” explained Frieder Otto Wolf.