Gökhan Gültekin. Sedat Gürbüz. Said Nesar Hashemi. Mercedes Kierpacz. Hamza Kurtović. Vili Viorel Păun. Fatih Saraçoğlu. Ferhat Unvar. Kaloyan Velkov.

Four years ago, they were murdered by a racist in Hanau, Germany, a town I have never heard about before. Children lost their mother or father. Parents lost their children. Siblings lost their others. And of course friends lost their friends. Their lifes are broken and they are suffering to this day.

The cowardly attack happened on February 19. Since then, every year, when February comes close, the memory of the tragedy creeps coming back to my mind. It makes me sad – young people robbed of their lives, their families' and friends' lives destroyed, for nothing, but crazy shit insanity.

It makes me angry and furious about the sludge in which such a monster can grow, fueled by conspiracy tale-tellers, terrorist parties like the AfD, but also politicians taking over their words, and racist structures e.g. in the police.

While this is nothing remotely close to what the victims and their dear ones experienced, the murderer (with all his accomplices, direct or not) also ruined the joy i should have at my birthday.

It was not the only assault in the recent past, and there are far too many. The bloody trail of the NSU, the unretaliated murder of Oury Jalloh in police custody, the racist and antisemitic shooting in Halle, and you could go on and on.

Nowadays, people in Germany are going to hundreds of thousands, millions altogether, on the streets, taking stands against racism and lighting beacons of hope against the political atmosphere. Anti-constitutional, neo-fascist parties like the AfD must be banned, and racist structures in police and other official bodies have to be smashed and dissolved.

Gökhan Gültekin. Sedat Gürbüz. Said Nesar Hashemi. Mercedes Kierpacz. Hamza Kurtović. Vili Viorel Păun. Fatih Saraçoğlu. Ferhat Unvar. Kaloyan Velkov.

Say their names.