At the beginning of November, the security authorities counted 1,850 crimes with an antisemitic background for this year. Experts estimate that only one in five acts of violence is reported at all. The hatred comes from several directions.
For the year 2021, a total of 1,850 crimes with an antisemitic background have been recorded so far, which corresponds to around six crimes per day. This emerges from the response of the federal government to a small request from the left-wing parliamentary group in the Bundestag, which WELT has received. The data as of November 5 originally come from the case statistics of the Federal Criminal Police Office (Fallzahlen Statistik des Bundeskriminalamtes BKA) on politically motivated crime.
antisemitic crimes in Germany are therefore still at a high level. This is also shown by a look at the past few years. More antisemitic crimes have already been counted this year than in all the years 2001 to 2018. In 2019 there were 2032 crimes. Last year it was 2,351 – a high in times of pandemic, crisis and lockdown.
Whether there will be another increase or a slight decrease will only be known after the end of the year and the statistics have been completed. However, observers are already assuming an increase. This is also due to the fact that the data from the BKA are of a provisional nature and can still change, for example due to later criminal charges or new findings in investigative proceedings. In the latest response from the federal government, for example, hundreds of antisemitic crimes were reported for the first two quarters of this year.
So far this year 35 antisemitic acts of violence have been identified. 17 people were injured as a result of a politically motivated crime with an antisemitic background. The security authorities did not find any seriously injured or dead people. According to the information, 930 suspects have been identified so far. Only five people were arrested and two arrest warrants were issued. In its answer, the Federal Government does not provide any information about how the criminal proceedings will end.
The numbers only show the bright field, not every antisemitic act is displayed and is included in the statistics. The Federal Association of Research and Information Centers for Antisemitism (RIAS) has set itself the task of measuring the dark field – including those acts that are not reported and do not make it into the statistics. To this end, the research centers cooperate with the security authorities and offer low-threshold options for reporting antisemitic incidents – also in English, Hebrew or Russian.
