Lies and Trivialization, Part IV – Mandy Struck

Today’s trial day began with the report of weapons expert Nennstiel of the federal criminal police. He had already identified the Ceska and Bruni pistols found in the Frühlingsstraße apartment as those used in the NSU’s murders of migrant men. Today he reported on the two guns used in the murder of Michèle Kiesewetter and attempted murder of Michael Arnold in Heilbronn. Again, the expert witness identified two guns found in the Frühlingsstraße as those used in the crime.

Nennstiel was also asked to once again detail the identification of the Ceska and Bruni pistols found in the Frühlingsstraße as those used in the series of NSU murders – a few weeks ago, expert witness Pfoser, who had presented a convincing written report, had caused some confusion due to an unclear oral report (see the report of 4 February 2014). Nennstiel showed painstakingly detailed the accordance of the tracks in the ammunition which led him to conclusively identify the two weapons found as the murder weapons, thus clearing up any confusion.

Victims‘ counsel moved that several documents concerning witness Tino Brandt, which are part of the files of the parliamentary enquiry of the Thuringian parliament, be made part of the Munich files. Brandt, who was leader of the “Thuringia Homeguard” and informer for the domestic secret service, will testify in court in the next few weeks. Further motions concern evidence for the involvement of Zschäpe both in the surveillance of potential targets of NSU attacks and in the production of the “Pink Panther”-video with which the NSU claimed responsibility for its crimes.

In the afternoon, witness Mandy Struck began her testimony. There is an ongoing investigation against Struck who is suspected of supporting the terrorist organization NSU. Accordingly Struck would be allowed to refuse to testify. However, Struck has decided to testify, apparently she wants to tell her story. She testified for about three hours, to be continued tomorrow. What became apparent already today is that Mandy Struck systematically tries to downplay her own role, claims memory gaps and tells obviously unbelievable stories.

According to Struck, she had been introduced into the Nazi scene via her boyfriend beginning in 1994, first into the somewhat apolitical Nazi-Skinhead scene. Lateron, the entire scene had become politicized, inter alia because only those who attended demonstrations were told the locations of concerts. However, she claims to have started attending demonstrations only in 1999/2000.

One evening, a “comrade” had come to her apartment and had asked whether three “comrades” could stay there for a while. Those three, two men and a woman, were “in trouble”, there was no need for her to know more. Struck related that she allowed them to stay in Max Florian B.’s apartment, feeling that this was “aid among comrades.” However, she also claimed to have never been given the names of the three persons and to not have recognized Zschäpe, Böhnhardt und Mundlos as those persons later on.

As „aid among comrades“, then, she did not hesitate to help with finding them a place to stay, with requesting and picking up a new identity card for one of the two men and someone else’s personal details, and gave Zschäpe her health insurance card for a doctor’s visit.

Despite several rumors circulating in the Chemnitz scene that Nazis from Jena were in hiding in Chemnitz, and despite even asking the woman to intervene in her relationship troubles with B., Struck claims to never have been given the names of her “guests”. A few weeks after their arrival, she had ended her relationship with B. and, according to her, had never heard from the three guests until the police started questioning her.

Struck is obviously attempting to portray herself in as unimportant a role as possible. The case file, however, shows her playing quite an important role in the scene in Chemnitz. It was quite clear that presiding judge Götzl did not believe everything Struck said. It will be interesting to see how her testimony continues tomorrow.