Berlin – 82 assaults on synagogues took place in Germany between the years 2008 and 2012. This information has been obtained from the Federal Government response to an enquiry of the leftist party in the German parliament. The Parliament president, Petra Pau, further announced that the numbers range between 21 incidents in 2008 and 9 in 2010. Most of the antisemitic assaults took place in the states of Nordrhein-Westfalen (24) and Rheinland-Pfalz (13).
A few days ago, following another enquiry, the federal government announced that in the month of August of this year alone 1200 offenses carried out by the extreme right were recorded. The authorities recorded 66 violent incidents.
According to Pau, this brought the attacks by neo-Nazis to their highest number since May 2010. Since these are just preliminary results, which are likely to rise at least by 50% following inspections by the government offices, one can state that the average number of attacks by the extreme right amounts to three violent acts per day, says the politician.
She also pointed out the fact that studies of non-governmental organizations and reporters have shown much more dramatic results. Since 1990, between 150 and 180 people were murdered, beaten, shot, drowned and burned on account of neo-Nazi and racial motives. “The governmental statistics does not report even half of these victims” said Pau.
