According to the police, the fire at a refugee accommodation in Groß Strömkendorf near Wismar on Wednesday evening was probably set. The investigators suspect a political background, as the Rostock police headquarters announced on Thursday. State security took over the lead in the investigation. A fire investigator is on site.
Politicians reacted with horror to the incident. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) called the fire terrible news. “People who found protection in Germany from Putin’s war had to be rescued from the flames,” she said in Berlin.
At the time of the fire, there were 14 refugees from Ukraine in the accommodation, including four children and young people. There were also three attendants in the house. Nobody got hurt.
The fire was discovered on the outside of the home late Wednesday night. Home director Andrei Bondarchuk himself, according to his own words, first tried to extinguish the fire on the lower roof of the thatched former hotel. “There were no more embers to be seen,” he described his impression of the evening of the fire when the fire brigade arrived. He had used three or four fire extinguishers by then, he no longer remembered exactly.
Memories of very dark times
During a visit to the scene of the fire on Thursday morning, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Minister of the Interior Christian level (SPD) pointed out that swastika graffiti had been discovered on the building on Monday. Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) emphasized: “People fleeing war need our protection and our support. We do not tolerate hate speech and violence!” The SPD parliamentary group leader in the Schwerin state parliament, Julian Barlen, said that the swastika finds on site 30 years after Lichtenhagen and Mölln brought back memories of “very dark times”. Whether there is a connection between the swastika graffiti and the fire in Groß Strömkendorf is unclear.
The mayor of the Blowatz community, to which Groß Strömkendorf belongs, Tino Schmidt (SPD), explained that so far there have been no signs of right-wing activities in the region. You have a very good relationship with the war refugees. At times, up to 170 people from Ukraine were accommodated in the former hotel. In the summer, a happy summer party was celebrated together with the refugees and the DRK, which looks after the facility.
The Vice President of the Rostock Police Headquarters, Michael Peters, was also dismayed. “Any attack on refugees or their shelters is also an attack on our core values. Such an attack is both shocking and unacceptable,” he said. The investigation into the fire has top priority.
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