Going underground with „Blood and Honour“, Part II

Today the questioning of Mandy Struck, an early supporter from Chemnitz, was continued. (We reported on her earlier testimony in our posts of 26 February and 27 February 2014). Struck again tried to downplay the Nazi ideology and violence of the scene and to represent herself as unimportant. However, persistent questioning at least revealed a few details. A positive development is that the presiding judge told the witness not to evade the questions of victims’ counsel and also asked several critical questions concerning “Blood and Honour.”

At the end of Struck’s questioning, victim’s counsel Hoffmann made a statement regarding her testimomy, which we reprint below:

Witness Mandy Struck, whose questioning was continued today, was an integral part of the Nazi scenes both locally in Chemnitz and in Germany. She was a member of the “Blood and Honour” network in Chemnitz and/or of the “No. 88s” in Chemnitzer – we know from other witnesses that both groups were practically identical.

Struck had an influence over the scene due to her work in the “Organization for the aid of national prisoners” [an organization devoted to supporting Nazis in prison, which was dissolved by the German government in 2011] and her involvement in the “Franconia Action Front” from Nuremberg. She was thus able, among other things, to have an article calling on the Nazi scene to move beyond internal differences, published, under her own name and together with an imprisonment “comrade”, in the zine “Landser” which was read all over Germany. She initiated the building of a woman’s group and the posting of posters.

In her testimony, she tried to downplay her importance, the quality of her contacts and her involvement in various Nazi networks. To give only one example, she claimed that the license plate of her car – ending in “BH 88” – stood for “Bike holder Honda Hornet”, despite it being obvious that these numbers and letters are used in the Nazi scene to signify “Blood and Honour” and “Heil Hitler.” She did, however, have to admit how she came upon her nickname “White Power Mandy” – she had always carried a “White Power” pin on her jacket, thus signifying her commitment towards an extremely militant form of racism

As part and on behalf of the „Blood and Honour“ group in Chemnitz, Struck organized the housing for Zschäpe, Böhnhardt and Mundlos shortly after they had gone underground. As she stated herself, all known persons supporting “the Three” in going underground in Chemnitz were part of “Blood and Honour”. This shows that this support was provided by an existing structure, that it was not, as claimed in the indictment, composed of individual acts of support by various persons.