About 1,700 people gathered at Berlin’s Bebelplatz on Wednesday, October 7, 2026, to mark three years since the Hamas led terrorist attack on Israel, according to a police estimate. German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt and Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor used the memorial to call for action against antisemitism alongside remembrance of the victims.
The ceremony formed part of a day of commemorations that included empty chairs and an interfaith service. The German Jewish newspaper Jüdische Allgemeine reported on those events and the separate demonstrations held in the city.
Prosor calls for action to protect Jewish life
Prosor challenged the gap between ceremonial speeches about murdered Jews and protection for Jews living in Germany today. He called for action against antisemitism regardless of the political camp from which it comes.
Dobrindt said each antisemitic attack strengthened his commitment to stand with Jews in Germany and with Israel. Their remarks brought a present day concern into the anniversary gathering: whether remembrance translates into safety for Jewish communities.
The appeals followed antisemitic incidents in Germany in September 2026, covered by IsraelNews.io in the month before the anniversary.
A family’s loss at a place of historical memory
Noga Friedmann, whose husband Ido Rosenthal was killed defending Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, 2023, recalled their final farewell. Her account shifted the ceremony’s focus from political declarations to the personal loss that continues three years after the attack.
Bebelplatz carries its own history of persecution. Nazi students burned roughly 20,000 books there on May 10, 1933. Israeli artist Micha Ullman’s underground memorial, with its empty bookshelves, now commemorates that destruction. That history formed the backdrop to the 2026 calls to protect Jewish life.
Empty chairs and an interfaith service
At Pariser Platz, near the Brandenburg Gate, the Jewish Student Union of Germany installed 500 empty chairs beside tables displaying photographs of attack victims. An interfaith memorial service took place that evening at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, and the Israeli flag was projected onto the Brandenburg Gate.
These were separate commemorations from the Bebelplatz ceremony. Its official program also included Berlin House of Representatives President Cornelia Seibeld and identified Dr. Melody Sucharewicz as the initiator.
Police end a separate march in Kreuzberg
A pro Palestinian march attended by Greta Thunberg took place in Kreuzberg alongside the day’s commemorations. Police ended it, citing repeated violations and attacks on officers, according to reporting. The police intervention concerned that march, held separately from the Bebelplatz memorial. At the square, remembrance of the victims and protection for Jews today remained the central themes.
