Unknown man sends threatening letter with swastika and white powder to Jewish community

After receiving an anti-Semitic threatening letter, there is uncertainty in the Jewish community in Giessen. “The act is very frightening and frightening,” said chairman Dow Aviv of the German Press Agency. In addition to a swastika, the letter contained direct threats.

It also contained a powder which, according to the Hessian State Criminal Police Office (LKA), proved to be harmless after investigations. However, for tactical reasons, the authorities did not want to provide any further information about the substance and content of the handwritten anti-Semitic threatening letter.

There were more than 20 people in the building at the time of the incident. They had to leave the synagogue. The place was cordoned off and the emergency services took “threat-avoidance measures”. “Further investigations will be carried out intensively in order to identify the previously unknown perpetrator or perpetrators and to fully clarify the background to what happened,” it said.

Above all, a possible connection with a similar incident in October in Speyer is being examined. There was also a threatening letter there. In it, the author threatened to blow up the synagogue. There was also a powder in this letter.

For the four people who were in the room when it opened on Thursday, the situation was psychologically stressful, said Aviv. Community life should continue as planned, and the service planned for Friday evening will also take place. “My great hope and wish is that the community members who take advantage of these services do not hold back and stay at home out of fear or other reasons,” said Aviv.

The police and the city offered psychological help. Depending on the needs, the community may make use of this.

The community feels well protected by the security measures taken so far, said Aviv. Fences and walls are also a burden, but they are necessary.

The church president of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau, Christiane Tietz, expressed solidarity with the Jewish community in Giessen. “It makes me angry how often Jewish people have to experience something like this today,” she said, according to a statement from the regional church. Tietz called for the incident to be seen as a call to “show even more clearly that Jewish life has its place in Germany.”