Fight

In silent night, alone in the dark,
Thoughts of the injustice accompany us,
suffered by those who are different from us,
Victims of hate, victims of indifference.

Thoughts of those who have been hurt,
Of those who died without receiving forgiveness,
To those who live on, yet bear their scars,
Who carry pain and sorrow in their hearts.

Yet in these thoughts we also find strength,
For we know that there is more than hate,
That there is love and compassion,
That we can stand together against injustice.

We think of those who rise up and fight,
Who raise their voices and do not bow,
Who stand up for the freedom of all,
Who fight for equality and justice.

The ones that leave with November

Too cold for snow
And too hot to put out the flames are you, November.

On a September day I opened my eyes in my mother's arms
On a November night I closed them, in the middle of the fire

First child of my mother and father
First granddaughter of the house, first of so many things,

My name is Yeliz, and that means enlightening, brightening, a breath of fresh air

for all hoped for a bright, fresh future like my mother and father for me.

November is cold and the last leaves fall from the trees
That day there were three.

On November 23, 1992
on a cold, dark night
BUT YOU WILL NOT FORGET

My grandmother came to a foreign land with only one suitcase and returned home
with three coffins
I had dreams
We all had dreams
I had joy
We all had joy
We had hopes that went away with
November
But don't forget: at the end of every winter
Comes a spring
We will surely see each other again one day

The Survivors

when someone asks you
how was your childhood
what comes to your mind?

It would have to be beautiful
but on November 23, 1992
for three children

everything changed
Emrah
Namık

and Ibrahim Arslan

A seven-year-old child
For hours in the middle of the flames
forgotten
in a corner of the kitchen
wrapped in a blanket by his grandmother
to her he owes his survival
as a child of seven years

But if someone preserves the life of one person,
it is as if he preserves the life of all people.
(Kur'an: Sura The Table, verse 32, translation Hartmut Bobzin)

Her own life respected
the grandmother in that terrible night lowly
but that of the seven year old
she saved
full of fear
clung to the table
and was found hours later
still wet.

What did this child experience that night?
Could it see the flames
the smoke and
and the screams?
forget?

He lost his childhood that night
and not only
the sister

the grandmother
and the cousin

and maybe also

the hope and the trust

in man.

Seven years,

seven

when it learned
that his sister would never come again
to go to the playground.

This seven year old child
has been missing

for ten thousand nine hundred and fifty seven days.
Sister
cousin

and grandmother

still meets people with love
fights with life
without feeling hatred or vindictiveness

The cowards run away
the brave on the other hand
fight for life
with their own heart.

The seven-year-old child
is a fighter in his soul
still,
and as long as this spirit remains
nothing can hinder it.

I wish

that other children in this world
not to lose their childhood
hope, joy
taken away.

Religion, language, origin, skin color,

may the people
the children
from each other.

To fight for the memory - of those who are missing, of what has happened, of what has been forgotten, of what has been concealed, of the causes and the consequences, of the before and the after. These demands are still relevant. This struggle is still important. This memory is still precious.

anıları canlı tutma mücadelesi ~ reclaim and remember ~ das erinnern erkämpfen

What does it mean to commemorate? What does solidarity mean? What does it mean to commemorate in solidarity? What does it mean to bring the perspective of those affected to the fore? What do self-designed, self-determined, visible, solidary and empowering commemorative practices look like? These are the struggles the Arslan and Yılmaz families have been engaged in for 30 years.

BACKGROUND

The Arslan family home was set on fire by neo-fascist perpetrators with Molotov cocktails on Nov. 23, 1992. In the attack, 10-year-old Yeliz Arslan, 14-year-old Ayşe Yılmaz and 51-year-old Bahide Arslan were murdered. Other family members were injured, some very seriously. Earlier, neo-Nazis had already carried out an arson attack on Ratzeburger Straße 13, where people of Turkish origin also lived. Nine of them suffered serious injuries.

The relatives and survivors of the attack have been campaigning for 30 years for a self-determined commemoration of victims and survivors of right-wing violence. They organize the Möllner Speech in Exile and the Day of Remembrance on November 23, they support other victims of right-wing violence in their self-chosen commemoration, they organize educational events and talks with contemporary witnesses, and they tell their stories. And they are not alone in this. Victims of right-wing violence bring their perspectives in their many voices to the fore. They focus on those we have lost and those who have been hurt. They are networking and creating multiple places of connection in our vulnerabilities. Memorial Day and the Möllner Speech in Exile are also meant to be such places of connectedness.

So far, the speech has been held in exile in Hamburg, Lüneburg, Bremen, Cologne, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main and Kiel. They were held by Kutlu Yurtseven, Adetoun Küppers-Adebisi, Argyris Sfountouris, Doğan Akhanlı, Esther Bejarano, İdil Baydar, Newroz Duman and Naomi Henkel-Gümbel and the Freundeskreis United. "In exile" is the speech because since 2013 it is no longer part of the "official" commemoration of the city of Mölln.

For us, commemorative politics is social criticism in action. For us, solidarity means asking the urgent questions about justice, about marginalized histories and about the violence of our current society. For us, solidarity means making answers, questions and demands from the perspective of those affected the starting point for action in solidarity. Solidarity means for us to ally with survivors and victims of this violence.

There are many experiences and stories. Many injuries. Many wishes and needs. Many perspectives. These need to be heard. To bring them together from isolation. To network. To multiply. To put them in the foreground. And thus to challenge commemorative politics. As a collective in diversity.

The "Circle of Friends in Memory of the Racist Arson Attacks of Mölln 1992" consists of members and friends of the Arslan family and associated persons from other memorial initiatives.

"WE WILL ALWAYS BE THERE AGAIN"

Circle of Friends in Memory of the Racist Arson Attacks of Mölln 1992
https://gedenkenmoelln1992.wordpress.com/