News, Movies, Collection
The documentary “The Moelln Letters” by director and author Martina Priessner will celebrated its world premiere at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival on February 14, 2025 - and was awarded two prizes: the film won in the 'Panorama Dokumente' series and received the Amnesty Film Prize of the Berlinale, endowed with 5,000 euros. The film was also shot in our archive, where the Moelln letters are permanently stored.
In November 1992, three people were killed by German neo-Nazis in the racist arson attacks in Mölln: ten-year-old Yeliz Arslan, 13-year-old Ayşe Yılmaz and 51-year-old Bahide Arslan in an attempt to save the two girls. Before that, she managed to wrap her seven-year-old grandson İbrahim Arslan in wet cloths and save him from death. Numerous people were injured.
In the aftermath, hundreds of people wrote letters to the bereaved. Many children drew pictures and even Holocaust survivors wrote to the families to express their solidarity. But the letters went unnoticed for decades. By chance, they were rediscovered a few years ago in the archives of the town of Moelln. After the letters came into the possession of the bereaved, the familiy handed them over to DOMiD as a migration archive for safekeeping.
The award-winning director's documentary opens up a new perspective on remembering - one that focuses on the stories of the survivors. The film follows İbrahim Arslan and his siblings and paints a complex picture of the enduring trauma that shapes their lives. Through his fight against racism and his commitment to the victims, İbrahim Arslan has found a way to channel his pain. His brother Namık, on the other hand, is still struggling with the scars of the past.
“The Moelln Letters” not only gives the survivors and victims a better voice, but also reveals the hidden solidarity that they were unaware of for decades. Today, İbrahim Arslan says: “If we had known about the sympathy and solidarity in society, it would have helped us back then and given us a little comfort.”
The DOMiD team added the first letters to the collection at the beginning of 2021 and digitized them completely. A further bundle discovered later was inventoried in 2023. In total, there are 908 documents. Researchers can search the DOMiD archive by appointment.
A selection of the Moelln letters will be on display in the permanent exhibition at the Selma Museum. DOMiD will open the nationwide migration museum in Cologne in 2029.
A film by Martina Priessner
96 min / Germany 2025 / Documentary film
Inselfilm Produktion, Real Fiction Filmverleih
Theatrical release: September 25, 2025
The film will be shown in theaters in over 40 cities in Germany. Premiere events attended by the director and/or family members will be held in over a dozen theaters.
News, Movies, Collection, Moelln
The documentary “The Moelln Letters” celebrates its world premiere at the 75th Berlinale. The bereaved of the 1992 Mölln attack only found out about the many hundreds of letters of solidarity decades later. They are kept at DOMiD.
News, Collection, Moelln
27 August 2024
A moving object that embodies the history of the racist arson attacks in Mölln in 1992 is being added to the DOMiD collection today. The family presented the memento to DOMiD in order to keep the memory alive.
News, Collection, Moelln
Three people died in the racist arson attacks in Moelln in 1992. Hundreds of people then wrote letters of sympathy to the families affected. These important contemporary documents of recent German history are now fully digitized in our collection.