Man jailed for knife attack on tourist at Berlin Holocaust Memorial

A Syrian man has been sentenced to 13 years in prison over an attack on a Spanish tourist at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin last year, the Berlin Higher Regional Court said on Wednesday.

The 20-year-old was found guilty of attempted murder and attempted membership in a foreign terrorist organization over the incident on February 21, 2025.

The court described the act at the site, which commemorates the 6 million Jews killed by Nazi Germany in the Holocaust, as motivated by radical Islamism and anti-Semitism.

"He assumed he would encounter people of the Jewish faith there," said presiding judge Doris Husch.

The attacker approached the Spanish tourist from behind and cut his throat with a knife approximately 14 centimetres long with the intention of killing him. He then shouted "Allahu Akbar," Arabic for "God is greatest."

The victim, now 31 years old and a joint plaintiff in the proceedings, barely survived the attack.

"It must be considered a miracle that he survived the cut to his throat," said the judge. However, the Spaniard suffered serious "psychological scars" and remains unable to work while he undergoes psychological treatment.

The defendant, a Syrian refugee who came to Germany in 2023 as an unaccompanied minor refugee, was detained with blood-stained hands in the vicinity of the memorial following the attack after handing himself in.

He travelled to the capital from his home in the eastern state of Saxony in order to carry out the attack, and offered to join the Islamic State terrorist group via a messaging app.

Asking for forgiveness, the 20-year-old admitted in court that he "attacked a person" and inflicted a large cut on them.

"I regretted it just a second after the act," he said, arguing that he was under pressure from a messaging partner he had come into contact with while watching extremist videos.