Hundreds take to the streets of Berlin: No More racist Murders – No cover-ups

Five Year neo-Nazi NSU Trial – the fight for justice goes on, reports Nick Jones.

Since 1990 over 174 people have been murdered by neo-Nazis in Germany, of which 10 have been attributed to the National Socialist Underground (NSU). The life sentence handed out today to German neo-Nazi murderer Beate Zschäpe will in no way be an end to the scandal that has swept Germany for nearly a decade. The five-year trial of the National Socialist Underground may have come to an end but campaigners will not rest until they have all the answers to their questions.

Hundreds of people assembled in Berlin at the Platz der Luftbrücke and marched to Hermannplatz in Neuköln. They carried placards with the faces and names of the ten victims demanding an end to the NSU-Komplex. They chanted : “Die Nazis fordern, Die Staat macht mit, Die NSU war nicht zu dritt”. This translates roughly as : “Supported by Nazis, Assisted by the State – the NSU wasn’t just three.” Since the death in suspicious circumstances of two other NSU members in 2011 , Uwe Börnhardt and Uwe Mundlos, the investigation has focused on a neo-nazi cell of three operating in secret. The ‘three’ needed weapons, money, safe houses and identity cards. Evidence pointed to possible secret police collusion and support networks of hundreds of neo-Nazis in Germany, which are believed to remain intact.

Campaigners, ‘Kein Schlussstrich’ (We won’t draw a line),  demand the investigation continues after the trial until the neo-Nazi network is dismantled and its supporters are prosecuted. The German Left Party – Die Linke also calls for a ban on the use of police informants who infiltrate neo-Nazi groups obtaining money and protection for committing racist crimes and assisting murder. They call for the dismantling of the German internal secret police force. They are calling for a Parliamentary select committee to look into how racist hate crime was not recorded. Why did Police set up a ‘Task Force Kebab-Murderer’ and not ‘Task Force Zwickau’ or ‘Task Force Nazi Murderer’?

The growth of the far right in Germany and the atmosphere of intolerance encouraged by the AfD (Alternative for Germany) saw over 2,200 attacks on Refugees in 2017 according to the German Home Office figures (Die Zeit 28.02.18).

The problems that gave rise to the NSU remain – the NSU Komplex remains. There can be ‘no line drawn’ on the scandal following Beate Zschäpe’s life sentence. The far right are on the rise. We need to remember the victims and continue to fight.

Enver Simsek, Aburrahim Özüdogru, Süleyman Tasköprü, Habil Killic, Mehment Turgut, Theodoros Boulgarides, Halit Yozgat, Ismail Yasar, Mehemt Kubasik, Michèle Kiesewetter.

For more information:

Kein Schlussstrich: irgendwoindeutschland.org.NSU