Germany: Ex-airport Tempelhof Berlin Becomes Temporary Refugee Shelter

The city of Berlin opened a second hangar in the former Berlin Tempelhof Airport to house an additional 840 refugees on Monday. The hangars at the former Berlin airport are earmarked to house refugees temporarily for one-two weeks, until a better and more permanent housing situation can be provided.

Merkel Urges Anti-racist Action
Photo of Angela Merkel courtesy of the BBC
BBC: As Germany marks the 70th anniversary of the Kristallnacht anti-Semitic riots, Chancellor Angela Merkel said all Germans must act against racism.

At a ceremony at Berlin's largest synagogue, she said Germans "cannot be silent" in the face of anti-Semitism.

Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, is often regarded as the starting point of the Holocaust.

Nazis ransacked Jewish homes and businesses and burned synagogues as police and firefighters looked on.

More than 90 Jewish people were murdered and about 30,000 Jewish men were sent to concentration camps on 9 and 10 November 1938.

Millions were killed by the Nazi regime, including about six million Jewish people.

'Do something'

"Indifference is the first step towards endangering essential values," Mrs Merkel said at the commemoration service with the Central Council of Jews at the Rykestrasse synagogue in Berlin.

"Xenophobia, racism and anti-Semitism must never be given an opportunity in Europe again.

The Rykestrasse synagogue was damaged in the Kristallnacht rampage but has been recently restored.

The anniversary comes at a time of concern that far right sentiments are on the rise in Germany.

"There was no storm of protest against the Nazis, but silence, shrugged shoulders and people looking away - from individual citizens to large parts of the church," Mrs Merkel said.

"We cannot be silent, we cannot be indifferent when Jewish cemeteries are desecrated and rabbis are insulted on the street."

On Sunday evening, a concert entitled "Tu Was" [sic], or "Do Something", will be held at Berlin's Tempelhof airport. >>> | Sunday, November 9, 2008

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