On the third day of the prosecution\u2019s closing statement, prosecutor Greger continued to explain why accused Zsch\u00e4pe is to be punished as a co-perpetrator of the NSU\u2019s crimes, but only partially fulfilled the standards she had set for herself. As to the political background of the crimes, she referred to short statements in the \u201cNSU letter\u201d as well as several precursors to the video in which the NSU claimed responsibility for its crimes. One such statement was that \u201cwe, the NSU, will not gain attention with many words, but with deeds. As long as there are no far-ranging changes in the press, political institutions and with respect to freedom of speech, we will continue with our actions.\u201d However, as the prosecution is proceeding from the assumption that the NSU as an isolated was not influenced by others at all, it could not convincingly portray the group\u2019s ideology, its origins and its developments.<\/p>\n
The least that could have been expected in this regard was a short reference to the ideological bits and pieces floating around in the neo-Nazi scene surrounding the accused. The simple hatred against people of Turkish origin, as presented in the anti-\u201cAli\u201d poem known to the group since their \u201cThuringia Home Guard\u201d days, is a clear representation of racism, but not in itself sufficient explanation for an ideology of destruction which lead the group to assassinate ten persons and set several bombs, including a nail bomb.<\/p>\n
The ideology of racial war, symbolically represented in the NSU\u2019s videos with their reference to the parole of the \u201c14 words\u201d propagated by militant proponents of that ideology, was spread in the 1990s by groups such as \u201cBlood and Honour\u201d, the very groups which provided Mundlos, B\u00f6hnhardt and Zsch\u00e4pe with shelter from 1998 to 2000 in Chemnitz. The \u201cWhite Brotherhood in the Iron Mountains\u201d led by co-accused Eminger also propagated that parole (\u201cWe must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children\u201d). For sub-cultural Blood and Honour activists, this parole was to be understood in connection with \u201cleaderless restistance\u201d, i.e. the buildup of decentralized armed groups who were to begin with armed activities immediately.<\/p>\n
The Nazi party NPD, reference point for accused Wohlleben and Schultze, was a bit more hesitant in its publicized statements, but at the same, organized book readings with the author of one of the most famous books propagating this kind of \u201cracial war\u201d in the time prior to the trio going underground.<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly, Greger came to the conclusion that Zsch\u00e4pe had been a full member of the NSU, fully involved in the planning of the group\u2019s crimes, tasked with keeping the \u201ccommand base\u201d in the Fr\u00fchlingsstra\u00dfe safe while the men committed the actual crimes, and involved in preparing the NSU video, which she later also spread.<\/p>\n
Greger continued by discussing in detail the murders and bombing attacks committed by the NSU, as well as Zsch\u00e4pe\u2019s setting fire to the house in the Fr\u00fchlingsstra\u00dfe in Zwickau. This part again was rather superficial, without any detailed examination of the evidence and often simply referring to the fact that Zsch\u00e4pe had confessed that the crimes had been committed by B\u00f6hnhardt and Mundlos.<\/p>\n
Greger did not spend any time dealing with the many doubts, voiced time and again above all by victims\u2019 counsel, concerning the prosecution claim that the NSU had been an isolated group of three people. Instead, after simply sweeping aside any doubts concerning the role of witness and secret service officer Andreas Temme, Greger squarely and brazenly attacked the victims and their representatives in the trial:<\/p>\n
\u201eThe existence of right-wing backers at the crime scenes, which has apparently been promised to the victims by some attorneys, has found no confirmation in six years of investigation, in 360 days of in-court evidence, which considered all possible angles, or in the large body of evidence considered in the many parliamentary inquiry commissions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thus, the prosecution now tries to present the doubts concerning its theory of an isolated group and concerning the role of secret service agencies \u2013 doubts presented by victims and their counsel based on a solid foundation of facts \u2013 as a wild theory of ambulance-chasing and self-aggrandizing attorneys. The prosecution does does this after having spent most of its energy during the trial arguing precisely against the taking of evidence requested by victims\u2019 counsel, while doing nothing to challenge the many lying Nazi witnesses. Today the prosecution\u2019s closing statement has fully become part of the fight for the prerogative of interpretation concerning the NSU, directed squarely against the full elucidation of the facts and thus against the interests of the NSU\u2019s victims.<\/p>\n