On the „Pogromly“ boardgame

Three witnesses testified today, all federal police detectives. The first had written a report on the known addresses of “the Three” since their going undercover in 1998. Like other witnesses before him, this witness had not conducted any investigations, but simply summarized investigations by colleagues. His testimony showed quite clearly that, both in Chemnitz directly after going underground and later in Zwickau, “the Three” had the support of several “comrades” who allowed them to stay in their flats, rented flats for them or gave out their identities.

The Zschäpe defense seemed to be of the opinion that his testimony did not show that all three had lived together the entire time after going underground and that this threw into doubt the indictment as far as it concerns membership in a terrorist organization. This seems far-fetched as, particularly with regard to Zwickau, there exists a host of evidence concerning Zschäpe’s integral role in the structure of the group.

The second witness reported on the “Pogromly” board game which Mundlos had devised as a national Socialist and anti-Semitic variation on Monopoly and that was later sold by supporters of “the Three” to raise money. He detailed in depth the inhuman and Nazi content of this game – to give only a few examples, the railway stations of the original Monopoly game were changed to concentration camps, “Free Parking” was changed to “Visit with the Führer” and instead of building houses in Streets, players had to make cities “Jew free”.

The third witness had conducted investigations into the persons of witnesses Theile and Länger, who according to the evidence so far were involved in the sale of the Ceska pistol. His report showed that both knew Böhnhardt from early on and that both seemed and seem to hold right-wing views. It also showed that both had intensive contacts in criminal milieus, including to persons with access to firearms.