Initiative Pogrom 91 is a website that functions as an archive documenting the racist pogrom in Hoyerswerda and aims to promote a critical examination of the facts. At the same time, an exchange forum is to be created for emancipatory groups and individuals.
Only 5 years ago, the former mayor of the city had publicly confirmed the local consensus of collective repression with his statement “We Hoyerswerda residents reserve the memory of these 15 years for ourselves”, according to the operators of the initiative.
The website explicitly aims to provide space for opinion and experience to those affected by the racist pogrom, who were forcibly expelled from the city.
The initiators of the website write about the background to the creation of the Pogrom 91 initiative as follows:
“When the 20th anniversary of the 1991 attacks on asylum seekers and contract workers is remembered in Hoyerswerda, Saxony, this September, it unfortunately has little to do with a serious discussion and a resulting reappraisal and culture of remembrance. For 20 years, the consensus here has been that the city and its residents are not yet ready for these debates and that there are ‘other problems’ than dealing with this unsightly history that has brought this city into disrepute around the world. And yet, once again this year, some city representatives will probably gather on Lausitzer Platz or some other place far away from the action to commemorate the ‘extremist riots’, as it was said on a stele on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the events, of that time.
In our view, this commemorative policy is not just a misclassification of what happened. Rather, this practice seems to be a constant continuation of attempts to deflect blame and to relativize the situation, as was already being repeated at the time by the local media and representatives of the city in order to make up for the damage to the city’s reputation.
Against this background, we consider it urgently necessary, even after 20 years, to take a stand against this continuing distortion of facts. Our consideration of the events in Hoyerswerda at that time clearly names them for what they were. Namely, a racist pogrom the likes of which had never been seen before on German soil since the Second World War.” Self Description of Initiative Pogrom 91
The operators also have a clear demand for their project: a memorial in memory of the racist pogrom should stand as a reminder against the previous suppression and forgetting of the perpetrators.