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NAZI

After deadly attack in Halle, owner gifts kebab shop to survivors

The owner of a kebab shop targeted in a deadly far-right attack in the German city of Halle last month has gifted the eatery to the two brothers who were working there during the shooting.

After deadly attack in Halle, owner gifts kebab shop to survivors
Photo: AFP

Siblings Ismet and Rifat Tekin received a framed letter transferring the ownership of the Kiez-Doener to them in a ceremony on Saturday as the restaurant reopened for the first time since the October 9 attack.

“I wish my successors much strength in processing the terrible events of October 9, 2019 and hope they have many customers of different cultures and religions,” their former boss Izzet Cagac (pictured below) wrote in the letter, which was accompanied by a key.

A 20-year-old customer was shot dead when a gunman opened fire on the kebab shop after earlier trying and failing to storm a synagogue. He also killed a female passer-by.

The assailant, a suspected neo-Nazi, was arrested and later admitted that the attack was motivated by anti-Semitism and right-wing extremism, fuelling concerns about an increasingly violent far-right scene in Germany.

At the reopened kebab shop, a colourful memorial wall paid tribute to the victims and all customers could eat for free over the weekend, local media reported.

Der Spiegel weekly praised Cagac’s gift as an act of hope.

“In a society increasingly plagued by brutality and hatred, this gesture of solidarity and humanity offers a small ray of light,” it wrote.

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LITHUANIA

New army scandal: Germany vows to punish soldiers caught singing anti-Semitic songs

Germany's Defence Minister on Tuesday vowed to severely punish soldiers stationed in Lithuania who were accused of singing racist and anti-Semitic songs, if the allegations turned out to be true.

New army scandal: Germany vows to punish soldiers caught singing anti-Semitic songs
German soldiers training in Saxony-Anhalt in May. credit: dpa-Zentralbild | Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert

“Whatever happened is in no way acceptable,” said Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.

Those implicated would be “vigorously prosecuted and punished”, she added.

The Spiegel Online news site had on Monday reported that German soldiers in Lithuania sang racist and anti-Semitic songs during a party at a hotel in April.

One had also sought to sexually assault another soldier while he was asleep, a scene which was caught on film, said Spiegel.

According to Spiegel Online, the scenes took place at a party at which soldiers consumed large quantities of alcohol. They are also alleged to have arranged a “birthday table” for Adolf Hitler on April 20th and to have sung songs for him.

It is unclear to what extent more senior ranked soldiers were aware of the incidents.

Three soldiers have been removed from the contingent stationed in the Baltic country and an investigation is ongoing to identify other suspects, said the report.

The German armed forces have been repeatedly rocked by allegations of right-wing extremism within their ranks.

Kramp-Karrenbauer last year ordered the partial dissolution of the KSK commando force after revelations that some of its members harboured neo-Nazi sympathies.

SEE ALSO: Germany to compensate gay soldiers who faced discrimination

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