One year ago he was killed by a Nazi in Berlin-Neukölln!
We are calling for a rally to remember and remind of Luke Holland. One year ago, on Sept. 20th 2015, he was killed in Ringbahn Street near S-Bahn Neukölln. The murderer shot him at close range with a salve fired from a shotgun with no chance for Luke to react or run. Luke Holland was a British citizen, 31 years of age, who had moved to Berlin not long before being murdered. On the night, he had just left local bar “Del Rex“ – a place where a mostly young and international crowd assembled.
This was not to the liking of neighbor Rolf Z., who had frequented the former right wing rock club at the same location. In the bar, Del Rex, Rolf Z. had complained about the many foreigners and that there was hardly any German spoken there any longer. Two months ago, in July 2016 Rolf Z. was sentenced to 11 years and 7 months for murdering Luke Holland. After the murder he had hidden the shotgun used for the killing at a relative’s apartment. In Rolf Z.’s apartment the police found a room filled with Nazi materials, Hitler posters, a flag of the illegal Neo-Nazi band “Landser”, various weapons and two pounds of black powder.
In the neighborhood Rolf Z. had talked in fowl language about foreigners. Witnesses mentioned his leanings toward the neo-fascist NPD
party.
Neither the state prosecutor nor the judge wanted to recognize a racist motivation of the deed. During the process they refused to see any political content of the killing, made a habitual drinker and collector out of Rolf Z. and thus in the court hearings a „murder without motive“ evolved. Also, the connections to a second, unsolved, possibly racist murder in Neukölln, the murder of Burak Bektas in April of 2012, was not followed up on.
The bar of “Del Rex“ closed permanently some months after the murder. It’s owner could not get over the murder. It is easy to recognize that right wing violence leaves marks not only on the murdered, the beaten up, but also on everybody around witnessing the deeds and feeling the fear and terror. We have to stand up and raise our voices against such
deeds. Among us, in the midst of the Neukölln party-going, leftist, international crowd in front of one of our bars a brutal murder has happened – and the killer was a Nazi. This is not only a right wing murder against somebody completely innocent, but also an attack on our way of living, against an open, anti-racist society. This can not be ignored nor forgot about!
Let’s take to the streets – against racism and right wing violence here in Neukölln and everywhere! Let’s show our solidarity with the attacked and murdered Luke Holland, his friends and relatives! Let us show, that they are not alone!
Stand up against ignorance and silence!
No forgiveness, no forgetting! No more murders!
Bring flowers along!