In August 1984, a residential building burned down in the migrant district of Duisburg in which only migrants from Turkey and the former Yugoslavia lived. Seven members of the Satır and Turhan families died there in the night of August 26 and morning of August 27. Many additional family members as well as other inhabitants of the building were severely injured. Two members of the Satır family were only able to save their lives by jumping from the third floor. Life changed from one day to the next and the attack has shaped the lives of the survivors and their relatives through to the present day.
Activists learned about the arson in Duisburg through a coincidence in 2018. Their in-depth research and analysis of the historical-sociopolitical discourses of the 1980s uncovered numerous inconsistencies, indications of racism as well as a lack of explanation and reappraisal. As a result of this, the initiative Duisburg 1984 was founded in 2018.
Duisburg 1984 was forgotten after a short time – forced to be forgotten. A shelter for those seeking refuge was set on fire in Duisburg in 1994. Over the course of the investigation of this case, a woman was first arrested ten years later who also admitted to setting the 1984 fire. Both in 1984 as well as in 1994, there were structural failures in taking indications of racism into consideration and investigating a political motive. The perpetrator was committed to an institution for mentally ill people as a pyromaniac.
This characteristic ignorance became a lived reality for the families over the following decades. For 35 years, the survivors and their relatives were abandoned to their fate with their physical and psychic pains, struggles for survival as well as their fears – they were neither listened to nor believed or helped.
The first worthy memorial to the victims took place in 2019, 35 years after the event. This brought the decades of silence to an end. Since the founding of the initiative, the affected family members dare to speak about racism out loud. Together with the affected parties, memorials and events have been organized and attention has been called to Duisburg 1984 through a variety of formats such as a film, a podcast, publications, exhibitions and web documentation. These also allow attention to be called to racist structures in the society.
It was first through attentive listening to the perspectives of those affected and through civil society self-organization that a coming to terms with and a sensitization to the case could be achieved as well as a worthy anchoring of memorial culture in Duisburg. As a sign of the political recognition, a memorial plaque was dedicated to the families at their former residential building (Wanheimer Str. 301) on August 26, 2023. This memorial plaque is intended to remember the victims of the racist arson attack Ferdane, Çiğdem, Ümit and Songül Satır as well as Zeliha, Rasim and Tarık Turha and serve as warning in the future.
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