Lies and Trivialization, Part VI – Jana J.

Today, Jana J., who was a close friend of André Kapke and also friends with Carsten Schultze from 1996 to 2000 and thus closely related to the Jena Nazi scene (see the report of 13 March 2014 on the first part of her testimony).

The witness states that she began to distance herself from the Nazi scene beginning in 2000. However, she mostly kept to her strategy, begun during the first round of questioning, of trivializing her own activities and those of her friends from the Nazi scene and/or of claiming not to remember. She tried to paint a picture of herself as insignificant – despite having been present, together with Kapke, at a number of important meetings. The witness still sees the Jena Nazi scene first and foremost as victim of “persecution” by the government and left wing activists.

2000 she had moved from Jena and worked as a summer worker on the island of Borkum. While in Borkum, she had received a visit from members of the domestic secret service, who had wanted information on Kapke. She stated that she refused all cooperation and immediately informed Kapke.

The witness was confronted with several secret service documents and witness statements concerning her role back then – in all cases, she either denied everything or claimed not to remember. She denied having spoken to Schultze about his contacts with “the Three”; she denied having distanced herself from Kapke in 1998 after he was accused of pocketing money meant for “the Three”; she claimed not to remember having been visited in Borkum by Kapke and Wohlleben; she claimed not to remember a meeting with “Thuringia Home Guard” leaders Kapke, Tino Brandt and Mario Brehme discussing an interview request concerning “the three fugitives from Jena”; she claims not to remember having stood watch in 1996 when Beate Zschäpe attacked and injured a young woman.

J. was also asked question concerning the “birthday newspaper” for Kapke. On 13 March, she had described it as a satirical reaction to persecution by the state. Today, she had to admit that many of the articles are not even close to being explainable that way. Most importantly, the paper contained an article on the concentration camp memorial Buchenwald being made into a “gas station” and Mundlos, Gerlach and Kapke being presented as the new and “sympathetic” owners of “gas for everyone” – in German, this is a clear reference to the gas chambers of the Holocaust.

The witness was also shown snippets of a BBC interview with THS leaders in 1998, at which she was also present. In that interview, one of her “comrades” explained that multiculturalism was a form of “annihilation of the people” – a statement which she still brings into connection with Kapke. She claimed, however, not to remember that the journalist was given a copy of the “Pogromly” board game at the end of the interview, as shown in the TV excerpt.