BERLIN: Germany’s leaders admitted on Tuesday that the government failed to provide adequate support and comfort to relatives of victims in last year’s devastating Christmas market attack, and acknowledged security gaps in the run-up to the atrocity.

A year after rejected Tunisian asylum seeker Anis Amri rammed a truck into the crowded market at the Breitscheidplatz, killing 12 people and wounding 70, the authorities have come under fire over security failings and their clumsy handling of the aftermath of the assault.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, accused of failing to reach out personally to families of victims, had met with them for the first time only on Monday.

“The talks were very open, and from the part of those affected, no holds barred, and pointed to the weakness of our country in this situation,” Merkel said as Germany held a day of solemn commemoration for the victims. “Today is a day of sadness, but also a day of our will to make better things that did not work well,” she vowed, adding that she had offered to meet the bereaved again in a few months’ time.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also told the bereaved and emergency workers at a private church memorial for the victims that “it is true that some support came late and remained unsatisfactory”. “Many family members and injured — many of you — felt abandoned by the state,” he said, recalling the words of a mother who had lost her daughter and said no one had comforted her after the attack.

“I can’t get those words out of my head,” he said, saying that the relatives’ appeal to be heard had “triggered something and set it in motion.” In the hours following the assault, which was claimed by the militant Islamic State group, politicians had put on a brave front and repeated the mantra that Germany would not be cowed by terror. But Steinmeier said such rhetoric had done little for the victims.

“So soon after the attack... these words don’t sound simply defiant and self-confident, but also strangely cold and detached,” he said.

To mark the anniversary, the popular Christmas market at Breitscheidplatz will stay shut all day out of respect for the victims. At midday, Merkel joined relatives in inaugurating a memorial — a 14-metre (46-foot) golden crack in the ground engraved with the victims’ names. And during the evening, there will be a public ecumenical prayer at 8:02pm — the exact time when Amri rammed his truck into the crowded square — when people can light candles and the church’s bells will chime for 12 minutes.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2017