We are more than just an exhibition. At the request of the families of the NSU victims, we see ourselves as a place of encounter and life. The entire front section of our exhibition is dedicated to this purpose: our welcome area.
Here, you can enjoy a free cup of Turkish çay before, during, or even outside of your visit to the exhibition, as well as fruit, snacks, or food you’ve brought along. You’re always welcome to just drop by—maybe because you really like our çay and want to strike up a conversation, or because you’d like to take advantage of one of our regular open events.
Here, you can paint ceramics, get help with your homework, and—in the future—easily organize a game afternoon—maybe you’ll even meet some new people along the way. Whether you’re looking to relax, read something, or find a quiet place for your lunch break: We’re here for that, too.
Why is this important to us? We don’t see remembrance as something that’s over and done with, but as something that needs a place in our everyday lives—in our interactions with one another, in the time we spend together, or simply in being able to be there.
That is why we are actively committed to ensuring that no one is excluded for financial reasons or because of disabilities. Through a roundtable discussion, we are working together to make our documentation center even more accessible and inclusive.
When you visit us, you’ll always meet a host who will welcome you, answer your questions, and be happy to chat. Because, as the name suggests, you’re always welcome here!
In May, the Documentation Center celebrated its first anniversary. To mark the occasion, we invited the relatives of those murdered and survivors of the attacks to learn more about our work and our team.
Even during the preparations for the documentation center, there was a lengthy participatory process (led at the time by Arlo Jung) in which trust was built and ideas for the design of the site were discussed in close collaboration with family members and those affected.
The demands featured in the exhibition—as well as on the exterior facade of the Documentation Center—were developed in collaboration with artist Felix Forsbach, who prepared the discussion on this topic. A core mission of “Open Process” is to bring to light these demands from the relatives of those murdered and the survivors of the NSU.
Now, one year after the opening, the goal was, on the one hand, to look back on the past year and take stock, but also to gather suggestions for the coming year and discuss them together.
Within this framework, the various departments of our organization introduced themselves and reported on their first year of work: The VerLernen department discussed how workshops and educational programs were received by various target groups; the “Collecting & Sharing” division discussed the progress in building the “Resistance Archive” and the current oral history project on the “Baseball Bat Years”; and the “Assembly” division focused on local networking with various groups of people affected by right-wing violence and racism.
Things got down to business during a group Critical Walk through the former Fritz-Heckert neighborhood. There were many positive reactions to the mural that marks the end of the Critical Walk. Praise was also given to the commitment of the residents, who took matters into their own hands after a paint attack and removed the graffiti from the panel that serves as the mural.
Lydia Lierke, the team leader responsible for the Participation Division and for maintaining contact with survivors and the families of those murdered, reflects on the meeting:
“I am very grateful for the visit by the relatives and those affected in Chemnitz; without their political struggles and demands, the Documentation Center would not exist.”
After three-quarters of a year, the second NSU trial concluded on July 17, 2026. The verdict: a 2-year prison sentence, suspended for 3 years on probation, for supporting a terrorist organization in three counts, one of which was in conjunction with aiding and abetting aggravated armed extortion.
Michalina Boulgarides: “A suspended sentence without conditions—to me, that’s clearly an acquittal. It’s very disheartening and deeply upsetting for us, the victims, and our families. We were hoping for justice for our fathers, but also for us, their daughters.”
The Dresden Higher Regional Court based its decision solely on the ruling of the Munich Higher Regional Court in the first NSU trial and adopted the key interpretations and assumptions made there. And this had consequences: For example, the NSU’s first attack in Nuremberg in 1999 was also ignored in this trial…
…the defendant herself remained silent throughout the trial and thus did not contribute to further clarifying the facts. Serkan Yildirim, a survivor of this first NSU attack, criticizes the verdict and the court’s conduct: “This is humiliating for us. How can a person have so many lives on their conscience and get off with such a lenient sentence? The trial was not fair.”
Serkan Yildirim was seriously injured in the bombing on Scheurlstraße in Nuremberg. However, the NSU was not held responsible for the crime—presumably an attempted homicide—until 2013, during the trial before the Munich Higher Regional Court. During his interrogation in 2013, he identified Susann E. in a photograph. However, this lead was not pursued further.
The court concluded that Susann E.’s actions strengthened the NSU and ensured its continued existence. However, mitigating circumstances, such as the length of the trial, were taken into account. A different verdict would have been possible:
The prosecution sought a four-year prison sentence for Susann E., while the defense sought an acquittal. Critics have taken issue not only with the lenient sentence but also with the refusal to allow the relatives of the murder victim and the survivors to file a civil suit.
The NSU’s crimes would not have been possible without a broad network of supporters. In the investigation that began in November 2011, the police identified 107 individuals suspected of having aided the NSU. These individuals were involved in various ways: they are alleged to have provided identification documents or health insurance cards, rented apartments or vehicles, or helped procure weapons or money.
Of these individuals, only four were charged in the first NSU trial in Munich and were ultimately found guilty. The rest have so far gone unpunished. In this regard, it is somewhat surprising that the second NSU trial, which began in November 2025, is focusing on one person from this group: The defendant, Susann E., is accused of supporting a terrorist organization and aiding and abetting a serious case of extortion involving robbery.
Even the decision to allow the indictment was controversial: The Dresden Higher Regional Court found there was insufficient evidence to support the charge of supporting a terrorist organization, but the Federal Court of Justice disagreed and overturned that decision. In fact, the indictment was a long time coming: The verdict from the first NSU trial has been final since December 2021. It took another three years for the indictment for the second trial to be filed. The course of the proceedings offers no explanation as to why the Federal Prosecutor General waited so long to do so.
What’s happening in the second NSU trial?
The trial centers on the question of to what extent the defendant was privy to the activities of the NSU’s core trio. This question will be examined over a total of 26 days of proceedings. The court has heard testimony from various witnesses: police officers, acquaintances and friends from the defendant’s circle in Zwickau, people she met on vacation, and employees of a dental practice.
The questioning of convicted right-wing terrorist Beate Zschäpe received extensive media attention over a total of three days of proceedings. However, the questioning yielded little new information—partly because the court did not press the issue decisively when obvious contradictions arose. For those involved in the NSU case, this situation was extremely difficult to bear.
“Then Tell the Truth!” – Gamze Kubaşık
Gamze Kubaşık, daughter of Mehmet Kubaşık, who was killed by the NSU, interrupted Zschäpe’s testimony on the second day: “Then tell the truth!” This outburst from the gallery draws attention to another fact: Joint plaintiffs are not permitted in this trial. The victims are actually only allowed to watch in silence, without the right to speak or ask questions. The trial is now nearing its end: the prosecution and the defense are presenting their closing arguments, and the verdict will be handed down on July 17.
In their book *Our Pain Is Our Strength: Neo-Nazis Murdered Our Fathers*, Gamze Kubaşık and Semiya Şimşek use personal accounts, phone calls, and chat messages to describe firsthand how these harrowing events tore them away from their previous lives. These young women, bound together by their shared fate, describe the period following the murders and how they experienced the events that followed, but also how they were able to draw strength from one another—a strength that continues to drive them to fight to this day: against forgetting and for a future free of exclusion. With their non-fiction book for young adults, they create a space for remembrance, reflection, and encouragement—and invite readers to get involved in solidarity.
Together with author Christine Werner and political educator Ali Şirin , they raise awareness —including in schools—about the NSU case from the perspective of those affected.
Authors: Gamze Kubaşık —daughter of Mehmet Kubaşık, Semiya Şimşek —daughter of Enver Şimşek, and Christine Werner.
Moderator: Ali Şirin (Kein Schlussstrich Dortmund)
This event is suitable for students in 8th grade or higher, or ages 14 and up. Admission to the event is free. Only schools from Chemnitz and the surrounding area are invited.
If you’re interested, please feel free to contact us directly via emailto discuss planning together atCynthia Zimmermann.
When Fri., September 25, 2:00–3:30 p.m. Where To be announced upon registration. More information about the visitHours & Directions – Open Process
On 19.05.2026, the start of a cooperation between Chemnitz University of Technology and “Offener Prozess – – a documentation center on the NSU complex in Saxony” took place in the form of a critical walk in the former Fritz Heckert area.
The Critical Walk is a neighborhood walk conceived by Offener Prozess that deals with the architectural, social and political history of the neighborhood – with a focus on the neighborhood as a place of residence, networking space and crime scene of the so-called NSU.
All students and lecturers were very open and interested, but also very concerned: on the one hand, in view of the profound change in status that the Fritz-Heckert area (now Hutholz) had to undergo due to reunification and emigration, but on the other hand also very concerned in view of the open right-wing extremist dominance in the neighborhood at the time, which made it possible for the NSU members to continue committing their crimes undetected.
The walk ends with a commemoration of all the victims of the NSU terror at the mural of the Freiraumgalerie Halle “In Unserer Mitte”. The objects depicted are symbolic reminders of those murdered and a memorial plaque names them: Enver Şimşek, Abdurrahim Özüdoğru, Süleyman Taşköprü, Habil Kılıç, Mehmet Turgut, İsmail Yaşarar, Theodoros Boulgarides, Mehmet Kubaşık, Halit Yozgat and Michèle Kiesewetter.
This year, the “Collecting & Sharing” section of Offener Prozes, which is responsible for documentation, research and archives, is focusing in particular on coming to terms with right-wing violence in East Germany and is collecting, among other things, interviews with witnesses of right-wing violence in the 1990s in Chemnitz and south-west Saxony. The aim is to build up an oral history archive that will be made accessible to the public.
In the summer semester of 2026, Chemnitz University of Technology will also be examining the so-called “baseball bat years” from various perspectives in relevant seminars. To this end, students will visit the Offener Prozess permanent exhibition, research and work with materials from the archive and the research department and talk to the staff. In addition, the students analyze the interviews with contemporary witnesses from various perspectives and make the results available to the emerging archive:
Who owns memory in a society? What is remembered? What roles do racism and identity play in this? Dr. Manuel Peters (Intercultural Communication) explores these questions together with students in the seminar “Whose memory? Memory, racism, belonging in (East) Germany”. In doing so, they specifically look for gaps in prevailing memory discourses and continue to ask about the consequences of these omissions.
In the seminar “Growing up in the “baseball bat years” by Dr. Theo Döppers (also General Educational Science), Master’s students examine various groups of people who were victims of right-wing violence in Chemnitz in the early 1990s, with a focus on topics such as migration and youth cultures.
In “(Right-wing) youth violence and pedagogical professionalism”, Prof. Dr. Ulrike Deppe from the Department of General Educational Science addresses, among other things, the concept of “accepting youth work” – an approach that allows right-wing youths to stay in youth centers unconfronted and presumably radicalize each other. Unlike in the 1990s, the perspectives of the victims of (right-wing) youth violence should also be taken into account.
The cooperation between Chemnitz University of Technology and Offener Prozess combines research, teaching and documentary practice. It creates spaces for critical debate, strengthens the visibility of marginalized perspectives and contributes to making knowledge about right-wing violence publicly accessible.
“15 years on – remembering in the context of the NSU’s self-disclosure in Zwickau”
The year 2026 marks the fifteenth anniversary of the self-uncovering of the right-wing terrorist group NSU. On November 4, 2011, a residential building in Zwickau burned down in connection with a failed bank robbery in Eisenach.
What began as a routine investigation into the cause of the fire developed over the course of a few days into a turning point in post-war German history: the burnt-down house was the last hiding place of a neo-Nazi terrorist network that had been carrying out murder attacks and bombings unhindered for many years.
A few had suspected this for some time, but had hardly been listened to: The relatives of the murder victims had repeatedly pointed out that the attacks could have been racially motivated.
But instead of taking these tips seriously, the investigating authorities treated them as prime suspects in the crimes. It took the NSU’s self-produced confession DVD to make investigators, the media and mainstream society realize the seriousness of the situation.
1. target
The aim of the residency is to promote a critical examination of the NSU complex in Zwickau and the surrounding area. In particular, the focus will be on civil society approaches to dealing with the NSU. Solidarity with and the concerns of those affected and their families are important to us.
We are looking for proposals that succeed in anchoring a practice of remembrance on a broad basis while still putting a finger in the wound. We are looking for approaches for a living remembrance that takes local and regional conditions and requirements seriously and at the same time creates space for change. What we are looking for are building blocks for rituals that are both striking and yet recurring.
2. support services & framework conditions
Budget for the residency: 12,000 euros (gross), including all production and presentation costs, travel and accommodation costs
Implementation period: 01.08. – 30.11.2026
Working spaces & infrastructure: Access to the facilities of Offener Prozess – a documentation center on the NSU complex in Chemnitz, connection to the working team and local networks in Zwickau and Chemnitz Consultation and exchange with the team of Offener Prozess on the concrete design of the residency.
3. application & selection process
Application deadline: June 14, 2026
Sifting & selection: until June 26, 2026
Application documents: Project outline including methodological approach and financial planning (max. 1.5 A4 pages), references (scientific, artistic, curatorial or activist work), CV
4. expected results
A contribution to the discussion of the NSU complex on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the NSU’s self-disclosure (especially in the context of the “November Days” between November 1 and 8, 2026 in Zwickau) in coordination with Offener Prozess an event or a public presentation of the contribution in Offener Prozess- a documentation center on the NSU complex in Saxony.
5. notes on the application
Applications can be made in German or English, alternative qualifications (creative, activist or personal experience) will be considered on an equal footing with academic qualifications. Applications from people with marginalized perspectives and from people with a connection to East Germany, whether through their background, studies, life path or the focus of their work, are particularly welcome.
6. contact & submission
Please send the applicationwith the subject “Residency 2026” by e-mail to
residency@offener-prozess.de If you have any queries , please contact: Nathalie Senf, n.senf@offener-prozess.de or Jörg Buschmann, j.buschmann@offener-prozess.de
Attention:
There will be an open Q&A session about the residency on Monday, June 8, 2026 at 4:00 pm.
You are also welcome to submit your questions in advance by email. After registering by e-mail to n.senf@offener-prozess.de you will receive the link to the call.
Open process – a documentation center on the NSU complex views the planned restructuring of the federal “Live Democracy!” program with great concern. According to recent reports, around 200 projects could lose their current funding by the end of 2026 as a result of the reorganization.
Since 2015, “Demokratie leben!” has been a key instrument for strengthening civil society engagement against racism, anti-Semitism, right-wing violence and other forms of anti-democratic ideologies. The program thus touches on key issues that continue to shape society’s reappraisal of the NSU complex to this day.
The NSU series of murders has revealed in a shocking way how serious the consequences of institutional failure, racist misjudgements and a lack of sensitivity to right-wing terror can be. This is precisely why a strong, independent civil society is indispensable – a civil society that strengthens the perspectives of those affected, keeps memories alive and promotes democratic resilience.
If established funding structures are weakened or terminated in this situation, it is not just a budgetary policy signal. It is a political decision with far-reaching consequences for prevention, educational work and the protection of democratic culture on the ground.
It is particularly worrying that these cuts come at a time when right-wing extremist threats are on the rise and racist discourse is gaining visibility. Those who weaken democratic infrastructure now risk strengthening the very forces that are fighting against an open and united society.
We therefore urge the Federal Government to withdraw the announced plans for cuts and restructuring, to await ongoing evaluations and to fund the federal “Live Democracy!” program permanently, reliably and in line with requirements. The memory of those murdered by the NSU obliges us to create the social conditions to ensure that such crimes are not repeated.
Saxony took over the chairmanship of the 36th Conference of Gender Equality and Women’s Affairs Ministers and Senators of the Federal States (GFMK) at the beginning of the year. As part of the cultural program of the pre-conference on 23. – 24 April 2026 in Chemnitz, equal opportunities officers from the federal states visited the documentation center on the NSU complex “Offener Prozess” together with other GMFK delegates from various federal states.
As part of a guided tour of the exhibition, the visitors explored the biographies of the people murdered by the NSU and the role of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
Saxony Ministry of Social Affairs
Sarah Schulze, State Commissioner for Women’s and Gender Equality Policy in Saxony-Anhalt, comments:
“I find it impressive that those affected and their families are given the space they were often denied.”
Dr. Nora Krzywinski, one of the two managing directors of the Documentation Centre, thanks the visitors:
“We would like to thank the equal opportunities commissioners of the federal states and all representatives of the GFMK for their visit. Dealing with the NSU complex is not a closed chapter. It is a political task, today more than ever. The fact that equality politicians from all over Germany are visiting this location makes it clear that anti-discrimination in all its forms and protection against right-wing violence are an inseparable part of working for a just society.”
Offener Prozess and Alter Gasometer e.V. are cooperating to connect the remembrance work in Zwickau with the documentation center and to support the local actors. Nathalie Senf has been employed by Offener Prozess since January 15, 2026 with an office in the association house of the Alter Gasometer e.V.
A lot has happened since the citizen participation process in Zwickau: Ten memorial trees for those murdered by the NSU were inaugurated on the Ziegelwiese in Schwanenteichpark in the fall of 2019. All of the memorial trees at Schwanenteich now have a sponsor. Among them are several schools:
Pestalozzi School, DPFA Schools, Käthe Kollwitz Grammar School, Peter Breuer Grammar School, Humboldt School, KOMPAKT School. The other sponsorships were provided by the Ev.-Luther. Kirchspiel Zwickau Nord, IG Metall Jugend, Roter Baum e.V. in conjunction with the star decorators and the youth advisory council.
For several years now, schools have had the opportunity to ask the Alter Gasometer e.V. education officer, Tim Sachse, about the NSU complex. He offers several formats on the topic. The sponsors carry out the “crane commemoration” on their own responsibility. This means that they commemorate the birthdays of those murdered by gathering at the memorial grove and attaching origami cranes to the tree. The decorations around this gesture vary.
There was criticism of the implementation of this memorial and the inauguration; for example, the bereaved were not included. It is possible that this will change in the future thanks to better networking with the Documentation Center and the subsequent networking meetings with the relatives of those murdered by the NSU.
The Alliance for Democracy and Tolerance in the Zwickau region, which is supported by the Alter Gasometer e.V., has played a key role in shaping remembrance work in Zwickau. Since 2012, the alliance has organized an annual series of events entitled “November Days“, which deals with the pogrom night of 1938, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the NSU’s self-disclosure.
In Zwickau’s urban society, the remembrance of the victims of the NSU and the reappraisal of the NSU complex is largely shaped and supported by civil society. Actors from parishes, various associations, the Plauen-Zwickau Theater, the West Saxon University of Applied Sciences, various parties and trade unions are involved, and the city administration and district are providing support.
The Sternendekorateure, an initiative from Zwickau’s cultural scene, created the memorial benches as mobile objects of remembrance for the 5th anniversary of the self-unmasking. A bench was designed for each murder victim, on which the names and biographical details of the victims and the circumstances of their death can be read.
Photo: Mark Frost
An 11th bench draws attention to the continuities of right-wing violence and poses the question of who still has to become a victim before anything changes. This bench is part of the exhibition Open Process. Every year, the benches are part of the commemoration of the victims of the NSU in Zwickau. The city of Zwickau has commissioned an exhibition to be shown in the Priesterhäuser in 2024: “Zwickau and the NSU. Dealing with right-wing extremist acts”
It is already clear from the circle of participants that there are various offers with different approaches in order to reach as many population groups as possible. From a lecture to an artistic discussion to a workshop or a panel discussion, many things are conceivable. Publicly accessible formats have so far mainly been realized in or near the city centre.
Ideas and suggestions for perpetuating remembrance and realizing joint (educational) events in Zwickau – but also in the surrounding area – can be addressed to Nathalie Senf.
On March 10, the President of the Saxon State Police, Jörg Kubiessa, visited the
Heads of Unit and the Head of the Management Staff of Department 3 – Public Security and Order, State Police Headquarters in the Saxon State Ministry of the Interior,
the heads of departments or their representatives,
the Rector of the Saxon Police University of Applied Sciences (FH)
and the officers of the Coordination Office for the Prevention of Extremism and Democracy Work , the Documentation Center on the NSU Complex.
They were welcomed by the management, Dr. Nora Krzywinski and Esther Gerstenberg, as well as the team leaders Jörg Buschmann and Elisabeth Desta and the education officer Marie-Theres Lewe.
Continuous networking, exchange and educational work
Since 2024, Lewe has played a key role in networking Offener Prozess with trainers and specialist teachers, as well as police and administrative staff of various ranks. The aim is to establish a dialog with institutions and use the educational modules developed in our company to come to terms with the NSU complex. Through this educational work, police officers, for example, are to be sensitized to various forms of discrimination in order to prevent prejudice in their professional activities and to strengthen a discrimination-sensitive approach.
Although the original pilot project ended last December, the collaboration with the authorities will continue in 2026. So far, there has been a lot of positive feedback from participants in the workshops and lively interest in continuing the collaboration.
This was also confirmed by the visit of the state police president to Chemnitz on 10 March: the methodology and content of the exhibition were praised and the focus on the perspective of those affected was seen as an important basis for educational work. The focus of the cooperation is precisely this: the change of perspectives, the dialog between civil society and the police, as well as the joint learning from this – with the aim of learning from past mistakes.
Continuation of a successful series
The event is the continuation of a series of networking meetings. Back in September 2025, Carsten Kaempf (Head of the Chemnitz Police Directorate) joined Marie-Theres Lewe, Zeran Osman and Valentin Lippmann on a panel to discuss the consequences of the NSU complex and the implementation status of the recommendations for action from the investigation committees.
After the Capital of Culture year, the Documentation Center on the NSU complex in Chemnitz is realigning itself. Under new management, the center will in future see itself more as an open place of discourse for the city and region: with adapted opening hours, extended educational offers and the aim of remaining a relevant point of contact beyond the event year.
The new management team of Dr. Nora Krzywinski and Esther Gerstenberg has opened up the museum in terms of content. The aim is to make the documentation center better known as a meeting place that is used by different population groups – both within the city of Chemnitz and in the surrounding area, for example in the Ore Mountains.
Esther Gerstenberg has been involved in the project since 2024 and is now Managing Director of Offener Prozess gGmbH. She formulates her goal for the project:
“The documentation center is to become a meeting place for the city’s population. A so-called third place where people can come together, discuss and exchange ideas.”
In order to facilitate this opening, the opening hours have been adjusted so that working people can also attend events. At the same time, the educational and event program is being further developed and thematically broadened. The Chemnitz resident continues:
“Our aim is to bring together different perspectives. Older people from the region as well as young people, local initiatives as well as guests from beyond the region.”
A first example of this thematic and social opening is a reading on February 7, 2026 at the Documentation Center. Here, “the elders” from Chemnitz’s urban society will talk about their lives.
The event exemplifies how the house sees itself as an open space for exchange and different social experiences.
Memories of the baseball bat years in the context of the NSU are also to be examined as part of an oral history project by the Collecting + Sharing department. In cooperation with the Alter Gasometer e.V. in Zwickau, joint approaches to reappraisal and remembrance work are also being pursued in Chemnitz and Zwickau. A special office has been set up for this purpose. Cooperation with the relatives of the murder victims is also being expanded as part of a series of events.
“In addition to this opening, the documentation center will remain a place for political education and professional discussion of the NSU complex,” says Dr. Nora Krzywinski, who has already accompanied the project as managing director of the local association ASA-FF e. V. She describes further tasks for the young year 2026:
“Accompanying the second NSU trial, which is currently underway, is part of our ongoing work to pool local expertise and make it accessible to the public. At the same time, we continue to invite school classes and other groups to visit the house, learn from history and remember the victims and survivors.”
Petition by Semiya Şimşek, Mandy and Michalina Boulgarides and Gamze Kubaşık To: The Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, to the Federal Ministry of Justice, to the dropout program “EXIT”
Ten people – Enver Şimşek, Abdurrahim Özüdoğru, Süleyman Taşköprü, Habil Kılıç, Mehmet Turgut, İsmail Yaşar, Theodoros Boulgarides, Mehmet Kubaşık, Halit Yozgat and Michèle Kiesewetter – were murdered by the right-wing terrorist National Socialist Underground (NSU).
We are the daughters of Enver Şimşek, Theodoros Boulgarides and Mehmet Kubaşık.
For us, it is a scandal that we have now learned from the media that NSU terrorist Beate Zschäpe has been accepted into an exit program for neo-Nazis.
We were there when she was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2018 for, among other things, ten counts of joint murder. That was just eight years ago – and now we have to witness how Beate Zschäpe is apparently being helped to keep her prison sentence as short as possible.
We lost our loved ones and were criminalized, ignored and abandoned by the state and society for more than a decade. Now we are being ignored again.
The alleged exit is a tactical maneuver: so far, she has not answered a single one of the more than 300 questions that we have put to Beate Zschäpe during the trial and that concern us as surviving relatives. Why were our fathers, of all people, murdered by the NSU? Who are the – still unpunished – helpers of the NSU in Saxony and at the crime scenes? Who belonged to the NSU and its network? Were there contacts to the security authorities by members of the NSU and those of the network?
A credible exit includes the disclosure of all knowledge of the perpetrators to those of us affected, our lawyers and the law enforcement authorities. Backroom talks with investigating authorities and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution are not proof of an exit.
Nevertheless, the “Exit” program accepted Beate Zschäpe – without any apparent remorse, without breaking with the right-wing scene, without contributing to the investigation.
We demand:
Immediate exclusion of Beate Zschäpe from the “Exit” program as long as she does not fully disclose what she knows.
Clear priorities! Support the surviving dependants and survivors of the NSU’s series of murders and attacks and all victims of right-wing violence – legally, financially, psychologically and institutionally through permanent, appropriate victims’ pensions.
Why is this important?
Between 2000 and 2007, ten people were murdered by the right-wing terrorist “National Socialist Underground” (NSU) – nine of them for racist motives. They were loved ones: Fathers, husbands, sons – and a daughter. They were brutally torn from their lives. The NSU also committed three racist bomb attacks and 15 robberies.
The relatives and victims were then left alone, suspected, humiliated and silenced by the German state and society. Instead of support, they experienced years of humiliation. The police did not investigate the right-wing milieu, but rather the families of the victims and the survivors of the attacks. Homes were searched, humiliating questions were asked and the bereaved and those affected were turned into suspects.
The public regarded the murdered, their families and the survivors as criminals. They could not grieve, their pain was ignored, their dignity trampled underfoot. At the same time, they were exposed to systematic institutional racism, which manifested itself in preconceived negative assumptions, discriminatory investigative practices and a fundamental mistrust of those affected.
Even after the NSU unmasked itself in 2011, the injustice did not stop:There was hardly any real clarification, numerous files were destroyed and there was no political responsibility.Instead of recognition and support, those affected once again experienced coldness, silence and rejection. Many are still struggling with the psychological, social and financial consequences to this day – without sufficient help from the state.
And now the NSU terrorist and convicted ten-time murderer Beate Zschäpe has been accepted into an exit program for neo-Nazis. A woman who has shown no real remorse to this day. Who, in her testimony in the NSU trial, gave more space to a sad Christmas due to arguments with her accomplices than to the families that were destroyed by her crimes. Beate Zschäpe has maintained contact with the right-wing scene and protects it to this day because she testifies but does not provide any information. She demonstrably lies or allegedly cannot remember. For the relatives, this is not resocialization – it is a new betrayal.
It is unbearable: perpetrators are given perspectives, support and care – the victims and their families are not taken seriously.
A state and a society that seriously oppose right-wing extremism must no longer protect perpetrators and ignore those affected.
Justice begins with listening – and with real action.
“A culture of remembrance is important. Please fight for the continuation of the project.”
This request comes from an anonymous feedback form after one of our first workshops with (some prospective) members of the Saxony police force. The educational offers are funded by the Federal Agency for Civic Education and are based on the fifty recommendations for action of the second committee of inquiry into the NSU crimes. On this basis, the aim of the project is to further expand the dialogue between civil society and the police and to sensitize the aforementioned target groups not only to the social interconnectedness of the NSU crimes, but also to racism and right-wing terror.
In the first few weeks, we already had around 100 (partly prospective) civil servants with us. Not only did they rate the service positively, they also repeatedly emphasized how important it is to establish it in the long term in order to reach many staff members. In the anonymous feedback, they wrote that they liked the “time and opportunity to approach the topic individually, to deal with it and to draw personal conclusions”.
When asked what they had missed, they not only asked for cookies, but also for more clarification of the facts from a police perspective. This feedback is important to us so that we can adapt our training programs to the challenging everyday lives of police officers and work together to combat the dangers of right-wing violence and racism. This is in response to the demands of the relatives of the ten murder victims, which can be read in the windows of the Documentation Center.
We are currently planning the next offers until the end of the year. The pilot project is only funded until the end of the year and its personnel resources are limited. That’s why we are already fully booked. We are currently planning further inquiries for 2026.
