August 22nd marks the twentieth anniversary of the Rostock riots. Targeting Roma and Vietnamese migrants, the two days of violence that followed are considered amongst the worst race riots to hit post-war Germany. Many activists contend that the upheaval helped move the country to the right on questions concerning multiculturalism and immigration.
Preparing to commemorate the event, anti-racist and anti-fascist organizations have planned a series of demonstrations and rallies. Central and east Berlin are awash in a variety of flyers, (as well as some disturbing counter-flyers) advertising the proceedings. The flyers photographed above are amongst the most common. Click on the image for greater detail. See the English translations below, to get the full gist. The historical information alone is worth it.
LEFT PANEL (with photo of high-rise apartment buildings):
20 years after the pogroms
The problem is called racism
Countrywide demonstration in Rostock-Lichtenhagen
Saturday — August 25th 2012 — 2pm
CENTER PANEL (mustard yellow background)
Solidaridad ilimitada
“Solidarity without borders”
Tinh doan ket khong bien gioi
Solidarity unlimited
Bezgranicni solidarnost
Solidarieta illimitata
Demonstration
Rostock — August 25th
20 years after the pogrom in Rostock-Lichtenhagen
August 25th — 2pm, S-Bahn station Rostock Lütten-Klein
August 26th — Anti-racist world café
“Lichtenhagen, NSU und everyone looking on”
Meet & Greet, Information stands, Exhibits
August 25th and 26th, Peter Weiss House
RIGHT PANEL (White text on black background)
Germany in Autumn, 1992
“In August 1992 people in Rostock and other German cities went around committing acts of violence and arson against innocent families, children, women and men. We recall the millions of children, women and men who, because they were born Jews, Sinti and Roma, fell victim to the National-Socialist genocide. In one night of unforgettable horror, August 2nd 1944, the 3000 people still alive in the Gypsy camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau were murdered with gas. These experiences and historical obligations of the German people must be kept awake, in order to deter violence and the despising of human beings from ever being repeated.”
(Small black text on white background below this statement)
A sign with this same text was hung on the town hall in Rostock by the “sons and daughters of the deported Jews of France” on October 19th, 1992. The reaction of the authorities consisted of the immediate removal of this inscription, the temporary arrest of 43 and the longer imprisonment of three participants.
(Bigger text in black and red at the bottom of this panel)
August 25th in Rostock
Limitless solidarity!
20 years after the pogrom in Rostock-Lichtenhagen
[Kundgebung] at 11am in the New Market
Demo at 2pm at the Lütten-Klein S-Bahn station
Translated from the German by Charlie Bertsch. Photographed in Berlin by Joel Schalit.
Never let this happen again. We are people with feelings, too.