Germany
Beatings and harassment of foreigners and members of racial minorities remained a problem throughout the country.
In November and December, police arrested five persons with links to a right-wing extremist group, the National Socialist Underground, for the killings of nine persons with Turkish or Greek backgrounds as well as one policewoman over a period of 13 years. On November 22, the parliament passed a resolution with the support of all five parties represented in parliament expressing "deep shame that a neo-Nazi underground group was able to
perpetrate these crimes. In a November19 video podcast, Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the crimes, calling them a "disgrace for our country." She added that "Hatred, racism, neo-Nazism, and anti-Semitism have to disappear from the heads of certain people. ... [W]e will reply with humanity, human dignity, and the rule of law."
On June 25, four unidentified persons attacked an apartment complex housing several Sinti and Romani families in Leverkusen. The attackers threw several Molotov cocktails into the ground floor of the building. Authorities were unable to determine whether the act had a xenophobic motivation. None of the 19 persons living in the building was injured.
