Forty-year-old Jana Lange and 20-year-old Kevin S. were identified as the victims of the attack on Wednesday on the synagogue in Halle in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.
On Yom Kippur, a heavily armed 27-year-old, identified by German authorities as Stephan Balliet, tried to blast into the building were some 80 Jews were worshiping. When he failed to breech the door, the gunman shot Lange - who had scolded him for being noisy near the synagogue during Yom Kippur services. He then targeted a nearby kebab restaurant.
Balliet was motivated by antisemitic hatred and neo-Nazi ideology. Shortly before the attack, he posted a video online denying the Holocaust and blaming Jews for the world’s problems.
Dozens of Lange’s friends posted condolence messages on her Facebook page, remembering her passion for music.
German singer and TV personality Stefan Mross called her a music lover and one of his most loyal fans.
Saxophonist Kathrin Eipert posted a picture featuring Lange holding a cheering banner at one of her concerts, and thanked her for bringing joy and support.
The gunman then went on to the nearby kebab shop, where he apparently randomly shot and killed Kevin S., a 20-year-old who worked as a painter in a nearby construction site and who was a fan of the local soccer team Halleschen FC.
His mother told the German TV station RTL that her son had his whole life ahead of him, and that the attacker murdered him in cold blood as he begged for his life.
A German federal prosecutor said Balliet would be charged with two counts of murder and nine counts of attempted murder in what he called a “terror” act that had been planned as a “massacre.”
Saxony-Anhalt Premier Reiner Haseloff joined the vigil on Friday evening as some 2,000 people gathered outside the synagogue in Halle and formed a human chain. Vigils were also held across Germany that night for the two victims of the Halle synagogue terrorist attack.
A German federal prosecutor said Balliet would be charged with two counts of murder and nine counts of attempted murder in what he called a “terror” act that had been planned as a “massacre.”Saxony-Anhalt Premier Reiner Haseloff joined the vigil on Friday evening as people gather outside the synagogue in Halle. Vigils were held across Germany that night for the two victims of the attack on the Halle synagogue. In Halle, some 2,000 Germans formed a human chain in front of the synagogue.