Refugees in Germany: Invasion or Invention?

Abstract

Fifty youths (skinheads and heavy-metals) set out in November of 1990 rough up some niggers.' This terrorist attack in Eberswalde led to the death of Amadeu Antonio, a young Angolan refugee. A five day siege in September of 1991 on apartment buildings housing refugees in Hoyerswerda ended in the evacuation of all asylum seekers from the city while townspeople stood by, watched, and applauded. A year later, skinheads, commemorating their victory in Hoyerswerda, attacked asylum seekers in Rostock, corralled into collective targets, while the local population cheered them on. In November of 1992, three individuals of Turkish origin and ancestry were killed in a fire set in their home by someone who later identified himself to the police simply with the phrase Heil Hitler. In May of 1993, even after dozens of demonstrations against xenophobic violence, five women of Turkish descent in Solingen became the victims of yet another horrifying arson attack. On Ascension Day in May of 1994, dozens of armed hooligans2 and skinheads chased after five Africans who, after being refused a ride by a taxi driver, ignored by police, and denied entrance to a nearby MacDonalds, finally escaped through the back exit of a Turkish restaurant, which the riotous youths then demolished. The overall picture is certainly not as dismal as my opening index of