Syrian jailed for stabbing man at Holocaust Memorial

A German court sentenced a Syrian man to 13 years in prison for stabbing and seriously wounding a Spanish tourist at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin a year ago.

The 20-year-old defendant, whom authorities identified only as Wassim Al M under German privacy laws, was convicted of charges including attempted murder and attempted membership of a foreign terrorist organization.

The Berlin district court found that he traveled from Leipzig to Berlin on February 21, 2025, to carry out an attack on behalf of the Islamic State group.

Chief judge Doris Husch said Thursday that she chose the Holocaust Memorial because she “believed she would find people of the Jewish faith there” and stabbed the Spanish tourist in the throat before shouting “Allahu akbar” or “God is great.”

The 31-year-old victim survived but remains unable to work and receives psychological treatment.

During his trial, the defendant said he immediately regretted the attack and claimed that he went to Berlin under pressure from an acquaintance he met online while watching ISIS videos.

Investigators said the defendant arrived in Germany as an unaccompanied minor in 2023 and successfully applied for asylum.

He lived in Leipzig. He was arrested about three hours after the attack when he approached police officers with blood on his hands and clothes.

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, consisting of 2,700 gray concrete slabs near the Brandenburg Gate in the heart of Berlin, commemorates the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.

The attack came two days before national elections in which immigration has become a critical issue and highlighted by a series of deadly attacks involving immigrants in the months leading up to the vote.