“Didn’t we say 500 euros yesterday?” asks the small man with a receding hairline and a belly, who is wearing a dark blue polo shirt with short jeans.
He bursts into a conversation with an Algerian who, as he says, has only been living in the Solingen refugee home on Goerdeler Strasse, which is also a social housing unit, for a month and a half. His wife has left him. He has moved out of the family apartment because he “didn’t want any stress”. The city has assigned him the room on the first floor. Issa al Hasan lived on the floor above him.
In the video: Solingen woman angry at Scholz’s visit: “Ridiculous number, I’m lost for words”
Residents of the refugee home offer videos “and much more” for money
He doesn’t get any further. The man in the polo shirt barges into the conversation and introduces himself as the Algerian’s “manager”. We could have “videos” of the attacker’s room, of the SEK operation on Saturday night, when the police are said to have taken at least one man from the accommodation, “and much more”. “500 euros.” After we decline, he offers himself to other media.
On Sunday morning, he sounded even less confident: he would be “glad when I get out of here,” he told FOCUS online. He was from Poland, he had been “cheated,” he had lost his apartment and therefore had to live here now. A few hours earlier, the SEK had stormed the accommodation. He was in the washroom at the time. He had to sit there for two hours, he says. He was “scared to death.” “It could be that someone will shoot.”
The refugee home on Sunday morning after the operation: Security makes it clear that they are not giving any information. The request to speak to the head of the accommodation is unsuccessful. Only a few journalists try their luck.
“I became afraid of this building”
Ali Khalaf from Syria is ready to speak. A polite young man, he carefully puts his black Airpods in their box before turning on Google Translate. “I’ve become afraid of this building.” He doesn’t know what’s going on here, he writes. During the night, “the entire police were on our floor and in the building. Then I went online and was sure that it was the murderer.” All of this scares him; he knows nothing about “this terrorist,” he “loves Germany” and is “grateful” that he is being helped as a refugee from Aleppo.
While only a few residents left the building on Goerdeler Strasse on Sunday, the day after, the former tax office was bustling with activity which is only a few hundred meters away from the crime scene where the attacker murdered three people and injured eight, some seriously, on Friday evening.
Since early Monday morning, journalists have been stationed with cameras, microphones and notepads in front of the five-story, gray refugee home, whose faded facade fits in with the dreary surroundings in the center of the city of 160,000 inhabitants.
In Solingen city centre, the “Day of the Knife” is advertised
Many shops and houses have seen better days. The blade city is still world-famous for its knives – of all things. Posters in the city center advertise “Knife Day”. On Saturday, Solingen residents were able to have their knives sharpened for free.
Shortly before the interview with FOCUS online for 70 euros, Kadri, the Algerian from the accommodation, had told a private broadcaster that the police had confused him with the perpetrator during the night and that his picture had been “in the media”. His wife and friends had called him and asked him what was going on. After all, he has been living in Solingen for nine years, he is married to a German woman, and he knows “a lot of people”.
He said he had not spoken to the attacker personally, but he had a video from his room. He wanted 100 euros for it.
Whether his story is true and what can be seen on the video remains unclear.
Other residents of the accommodation are more reserved: Yes, he knows Issa al H., says a young Turk who also lives in the house on Goerdeler Strasse. He has also “spoken” to him, he doesn’t want to say anything more and quickly goes to the other side of the street when the traffic light turns green.
