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with the Herero activist Israel Kaunatjike and the writer Doğan
Akhanlı.
On Sunday, April 15, 2018, the Cologne initiative “Remembering Genocide”, erected the memorial “This pain affects us all” on the left side of the Hohenzollern Bridge on the Rhine, opposite the equestrian statue of Kaiser Wilhelm II. It commemorates the Genocide of the Armenian Population during the period of the First World War and the responsibility of the Ottoman and German Empires for this crime.
At the opening, survivors or descendants of victims of the Shoah, the genocide of the Nama and Herero, the genocide of the Roma and Sinti, and the genocide of the Armenians reported on their very personal view of the history of state excesses of violence to which they themselves or their families were exposed.
Four days later, on April 19, 2018, just a few days before April 24, the worldwide day of commemoration of the genocide, the memorial was removed by the Cologne city administration and has not found a permanent, public place of remembrance in Cologne to this day, while city leaders have honored a mass murderer with the equestrian statue for over 100 years: Kaiser Wilhelm II.
On the three-sided steel pyramid, in Armenian, German, Turkish and English, the following inscription can be read:
“THIS PAIN AFFECTS US ALL“
“During World War 1 – between 1915 and 1918 – over a million Armenian women, men and children were driven from their homes, deported and murdered in what is now Turkey. The Ottoman Empire and the German officers involved, led by Kaiser Wilhelm II, bear responsibility for this genocide of the Armenian population. Only a firm outlawing of the degradation of minorities and the realization that there is no religious, national or ethnic superiority between people can prevent such crimes.”
In a resolution passed by the German Bundestag on June 2, 2016, the recognized the active involvement of the German state in the Armenian genocide.
The memorial is especially controversial in the Turkish community and has both strong supporters and many opponents. A look at the initiative’s website shows how broadly the demand for permanent erection of the memorial at the Hohenzollern Bridge is supported.
Links and literature:
- Genocide of OvaHerero and Nama: www.berlin-postkolonial.de
- Genocide of Roma and Sinti: www.romasintigenocide.eu