BERLIN—On Dec. 19, the bells of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church went off at 8:02 p.m., the exact time last year when a Tunisian migrant rammed a lorry into the Berlin Christmas market near the church, killing 12.
The demonstration organized by a grassroots group, “Berlin Against Islamism,” temporarily stopped its programming on Kurfurstendamm, the German capital’s ritzy boulevard. An Israeli flag draped over the equipment truck and a sign in Hebrew (among other languages) that read, “They love death, we love life,” attracted passerby Menora Vaknin, a tourist from the Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona.
“I identify with the pain,” she said as the bells rang. “We also lost a brother to a suicide attack in 2001 during the second intifada. We feel a part of it. It’s the same pain, no matter what language, no matter where it takes place.”