The following interview with a 17-year-old girl and her friends provides a first-hand account of what happened in the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) in Cologne on New Year’s Eve. Needless to say, these young women unambiguously identify their tormentors as being immigrants from North Africa or the Middle East, despite the denials of Mayor Henriette Reker and her compliant chief of police.

Many thanks to Nash Montana for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

0:01 The men who… they were standing surrounding us, from the front, from behind, from both sides

0:05 they touched us everywhere, our butts, our crotch, just touched us everywhere

0:10 and they tried to hold us up, so they could molest us more…

0:15 These were moments filled with fear and humiliation.

0:18 Moments that the 17-year-old Linda will never forget. She came to Cologne

0:21 especially for the spectacular fireworks.

0:24 But it didn’t stop with the physical attacks of these men.

0:27 The student was also robbed, and after the attack, her bag was gone.

0:31 Linda doesn’t want to be recognized. She is ashamed and she’s in fear for her life.

0:36 I was afraid that I would never make it out alive out from this mob.

0:40 I was afraid that someone would pull a knife on me, that I would

0:44 get raped right out in the open street,

0:47 and worse, there wouldn’t have been any witnesses.

0:50 According to the police, the mob that molested and attacked

0:56 around eighty women were North African and Arab men who

0:59 previously assembled on the plaza in front of the main train station.

1:02 Here is a photo of possible suspects.

1:05 These four friends are also victims, they were surrounded and molested.

1:10 I tried to defend myself somehow, flailed with my arms, I almost fell down the stairs,

1:16 because there were so many people there, you just lost control over your own movement,

1:23 and what to hold on to, how to protect yourself.

1:26 The perpetrators were in groups of up to twenty men surrounding women and molesting them,

1:31 and then robbing them. It is no wonder that the shocked women didn’t dare

1:35 to put up much of a fight, but that is exactly what they should have done.

1:39 I would have to advise you to defend yourself, verbally as well as in body posture,

1:44 but of course it depends on the perpetrators. If they are highly aggressive

1:47 and they are under the influence of alcohol and drugs, and you defend yourself too much,

1:51 it could escalate to the other extreme.

1:55 In Cologne this happened in at least one instance. One woman was even raped.

1:59 Thank God it didn’t go this far for Linda, but the young student is traumatized.

2:03 Since the traumatic experience, she has been thinking of getting psychological help.

2:07 I have nightmares, I can’t sleep anymore, I don’t dare leaving the house anymore.

2:13 And of course I am in fear of going back to a big city.

2:17 Especially the city of Cologne, she won’t be visiting any time soon.