"The racist attacks have continued against us and those who look like us. It is more reasonable for us to listen to stories from the perspective of the victims, not just from the perspective of the racists or perpetrators," said Ibrahim Arslan, who survived the attack in Molln, Germany.
The attack in Molln went down in history as the first racist-fuelled arson in which people lost their lives after the reunification of the two Germanys.
It has been 30 years since the Molln attacks in which neo-Nazis killed three Turks, Bahide Arslan, Yeliz Arslan and Ayşe Yılmaz, by setting fire to a house on Nov. 23, 1992.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the German reunification in 1990, the country saw an increase in racist and xenophobic attacks against refugees and foreigners.
Many people were injured in the attacks on refugee hostels in Hoyerswerda in 1991 and Rostock in 1992 in Germany, where discussions on asylum policies took place during this period.
Far-right Lars Christiansen and Michael Peters first set fire to the house, where 32 Turks were staying, by throwing two Molotov cocktails at the building. After the attack, the neo-Nazis called the fire department and hung up, saying, "A house is on fire on Ratzeburger Street. Heil Hitler." Residents of the building escaped the fire. In the incident in which many people were injured, some jumped out of the window, while others climbed out windows with the help of sheets.
Half an hour later the extreme rightists set fire to the house on Ratzeburger Street. The Arslan family's 10-year-old Yeliz Arslan, 14-year-old Ayşe Yılmaz and 51-year-old Bahide Arslan, who tried to save the children, lost their lives in the house when the flames spread rapidly.
When the fire department arrived, they found Ibrahim Arslan, who was 7 years old at that time, in the kitchen after the fire was extinguished. Bahide Arslan wrapped him in wet clothes and saved him from the fire. Other members of the Arslan family survived by jumping out of the windows.
One of the two neo-Nazis was arrested and prosecuted after the incident and was sentenced to 7 1/2 years and the other to 15 years in prison.
After the racist attack, demonstrations were held in the country, while the prime minister of the time, Helmut Kohl, did not attend the funeral of the victims.
The Molln disaster was not the last attack by neo-Nazis in Germany, with a series of racist attacks made against Turks and foreigners in the following years.
On May 29, 1993, in the city of Solingen, North Rhine-Westphalia, a house of the Genç family on Untere Werner Street was set on fire by far-right extremists, and five family members were burned to death.
On Jan. 18, 1996, an attack on the refugee hostel in Lubeck killed 10 people, seven of them were children and most were of African descent. This attack has not been solved yet.
On Feb. 13, 1999, in the city of Guben in the state of Brandenburg, the far-right attacked three foreigners.
The attacks by the extreme right-wing National Socialist Underground (NSU) terrorist organization in the cities of Halle and Hanau followed in 2000-2007.
Arslan stated that racist attacks have been taking place in Germany since the 1980s and emphasized that he organizes events with the victims of other racist attacks, publishes books, makes films and prepares plays with their help. "We try to convey the perspective of the victims without any institutional help," he said.
He pointed out that it is very important for everyone not to forget such incidents and to ensure that it doesn't happen to more children. He also criticized the fact that when there is a racist attack, it is not described as a racist attack in the first place.
Namık Arslan was 8 months old when the racist attack took place in Molln and was saved by his mother, who threw him into the arms of neighbors from the second floor of the house. "When November comes, I feel the pain and so do my parents." He said, "You live with this. You have grown up with this. You are the victim of an extreme right-wing attack and you are a survivor. You cannot forget that," he said.
He also said he constantly thinks about the attack and his younger sister Yeliz who lost her life in the attack.
"When I see my sister's photo, I get a tingling in my stomach. I feel pain as I have a very different bond with my sister who is no more because I only know about her by what has been told to me from my family since my childhood," he expressed.
