After attack on Holocaust Memorial: Victims' Commissioner takes over care

After the suspected anti-Semitic knife attack at the Berlin Holocaust Memorial, the Federal Victims' Commissioner, Roland Weber, has taken over the care of those affected. The brutal knife attack last Friday was deeply inhumane and disturbing, Weber said in Berlin on Tuesday. On Monday, the Federal Prosecutor's Office took over the investigation into the case. Weber is also the Victims' Commissioner for the State of Berlin. A 30-year-old tourist from Spain was attacked with a knife on Friday in the field of stelae at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and was critically injured. The suspect is a 19-year-old Syrian who lives in Germany as a recognized refugee. He was arrested near the crime scene on Friday evening. Several witnesses were also cared for by rescue workers immediately after the attack.

Weber was relieved that the victim was rescued. He wished the injured man a quick and full recovery. His team, together with the central contact point in Berlin, is there for victims and all other affected people. On Monday in Karlsruhe, the Federal Prosecutor General justified taking over the case with its special importance. The perpetrator acted out of radical Islamist and anti-Semitic convictions. According to the police and the Attorney General's Office, the accused came to Germany in 2023 as an unaccompanied minor refugee. The victim had to undergo emergency surgery after the attack and was temporarily placed in an artificial coma.