NSU trial

By Carolyn Yeager

What is the "Holocaust" theme? To make the Germans feel guilty! The media coverage of the NSU trial since the court in Munich reconvened in September after their month-long summer holiday seems to have dried up. I just found this article at Deutsche Welle from Oct. 1, 2013, from which I have liberally quoted.

Ismail Yozgat, father of Halit Yozgat who was murdered in his Internet cafe in Kassel in 2006, puts on a great show of emotion, Turkish-style, as he talks about his son.

Family members are now testifying in the Munich court and being given every consideration and opportunity to express their feelings. For instance, the father of slain Halit Yozgat calculatedly used his testimony to give an emotional account of how he found his 21-year-old son dead in his Internet cafe 7 years ago. He even went as far as to get out of his seat and lie down on the courtroom floor to demonstrate the position in which he found his son.

"Why did they kill my son?" He asked the courtroom, his voice choked by tears.

Then he looked towards the five accused and, addressing them directly asked: "What gave you the right to do this?"

August 12, 2013

A review of the chapter “War Crimes Trials” from Carlos Porter’s new book of the same name – which details how the Allies’ International Military Tribunals that began in 1946 in Nuremberg used illegal standards of judgement. A reading of the Hague Conventions of 1907 reveal that the accusations leveled against the National-Socialists were what the Allies were actually guilty of in every instance.

Similarly, today the so-called NSU Trial (National Socialist Underground) is being conducted via sensational headlines and pitifully little evidence for the purpose of reinforcing the verdicts at Nuremberg. That is what it’s all about: convincing the public that Nationalism attracts criminals and leads to the terrorizing of society.

Image: Public poster in German city with pictures of the Turkish "victims" reads: "Murdered by the NSU-Nazi-Murderers!" - even though the trial has just gotten started. Guilt is assumed; the trial is just a formality.

  Overseeing the NSU trial, presiding judge Manfred Götzl (3rd from left), is said to have control of the proceedings in spite of the chaotic presentation of evidence.

The following report is loosely taken from  http://www.dw.de/nsu-trial-adjourns-for-summer-with-many-unanswered-ques... and http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/nsu-neo-nazi-terror-trial-ad... -carolyn yeager

The trial of four suspects, accused of aiding a "neo-Nazi" terrorist cell, has adjourned for a month-long summer break after being in session for 32 days. So far, the accused have largely refused to answer questions.

The opening of the trial, which was first announced would begin in January 2013, was delayed until May for various reasons of incompetency. In three months time (May through July), the Munich court only managed to be in session for a single month of days. That is being called satisfactory advancement by the media, who are careful not to criticize Judge Manfred Götzl or the state.

By Carolyn Yeager

A few people attend the state-sponsored "unveiling" of a monument memorializing one dead Turk in the city of Dortmund, Germany on July 13th. Family members of Mehmet Kubasik are given white roses to place on the ground. Would any self-respecting nation do such a thing as this? No, only the Germans have been reduced to such a pitiful level.

_________________________________________

The trial of Beate Zschäpe and three other alleged "accomplices" to the murder of 9 foreigners (8 Turks and 1 Greek) from 2000 to 2007 is in progress. Though it's been going on since May of this year, in truth it has barely started. We are told that it will not not wrap up until the end of next year - late in 2014.

Two deceased young men who are suspected of being the murderers have been tried and convicted in the court of public opinion, i.e. the German media, already ... and also by the state and Federal prosecutors offices, and even the Chancellor's office. As soon as Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt were found dead in their burning van on Nov. 4, 2011, in what is being called a joint suicide, they were declared to be the perpetrators of 10 unsolved murders in widely separated locations throughout Germany that inexplicably ended in 2007.

Though their guilt has not yet been proven, it has been assumed by the entire country--including the court in Munich that is trying Beate Zschape as the third member of the NSU "murderous trio."

That is background. The point of this post is that, with everything decided well in advance of the complete evidence being presented, and before the defense has done any serious rebuttal, no one minds that stone monuments memorializing the deaths are being erected stating that the men are the victims of right-wing terrorism.

First Turkish victim Enver Simsek at home with his wife. A flower seller?

The following article is taken from a Deutsche Welle report published on July 10, 2013 (http://www.dw.de/witness-testifies-on-first-nsu-murder/a-16943666).

The Munich court probing a neo-Nazi murder series has heard testimony on the first killing in 2000. A passing motorist said he saw two men dash from a roadside stall where flower seller Enver Simsek was fatally shot.

Germany's trial of alleged neo-Nazi accomplices begun in May switched on Wednesday [July 10] to hearing witnesses on nine murders of small-business proprietors of mostly Turkish origin and a policewoman.

The first murder, when Enver Simsek was fatally shot in Nuremburg in 2000, was followed by nine further killings until 2007. Only in late 2011 did German authorities attribute the spree to far-right extremists and were criticized for following false theories.

Carsten S. enters Munich courtroom wearing hooded jacket.

German news service Deutsche-Welle reported on June 21st (one month ago, and which I missed) that Carsten S., the government's top witness in the NSU murder trial, said his exit from the far-right scene was due to his homosexuality, which he said had caused him difficulties in those surroundings.

At the beginning of 2000, Carsten S. left Thuringia to study social work in Dusseldorf. Until his arrest in late 2011, he had been working at an AIDS support organization.

The following article is taken from http://www.dw.de/credibility-of-nsu-defendant-called-into-question/a-168...

Defendant Carsten S. is accused of complicity in the NSU murders for allegedly supplying the gun with which nine of the 10 victims were killed. At the end of his testimony, S. apologized to the families of the victims.

By Carolyn Yeager

All-glass facade of the new Kaufhof Department Store in Chemnitz, Germany.

Co-defendant in the bizarre NSU (National Socialist Underground) trial and also the prosecution's star witness, Carsten S. gave his testimony in early-to-mid-June in the Munich courtroom.

Update! see below

I have posted what's been said in the news media, for example here and here, but some details I only managed to talk about on a radio program, not recognizing at that time how important they would become.

The Der Spiegel International article of June 12, 2013 gave these details:

The NSU stands accused of murdering 10 people between 2000 and 2007.

Carsten S. had already admitted to procuring a gun for the murderous neo-Nazi trio known as the NSU.

[...]

the meeting referenced by Carsten S. took place in a café in the Galeria Kaufhof department store in Chemnitz. It was, in fact, during that meeting that Carsten S. handed over the Ceska handgun he had obtained for the trio -- a weapon that was used to kill nine of the 10 murder victims.

 [...]

He told the court that Ralf Wohlleben, a co-defendant who stands accused of providing material support to the NSU, knew that the trio had committed serious crimes. Wohlleben, S. said, spoke on the phone with the NSU trio in his presence and afterwards chuckled and reported that the three had shot someone.

July 13, 2013

Günter Deckert is Carolyn’s guest to talk about Germany-related issues, after he tells us all about his recent five months (Jan. 2 to May 31) spent in Mannheim Prison for “questioning the holocaust.” 

• Majority of prisoners are foreigners, but one has an individual cell-room of one’s own;
• Political prisoners are “bullied” by top administrators with restrictions on or denial of preferred reading material, letters and visits on the grounds of “rehabilitation”;
• Angela Merkel’s strong stand against Brussels new shared banking proposals in eurozone will probably dissipate after the general elections in September;
• Merkel’s complaints about the NSA spying by the U.S. are weak, but Social Democrat says spying on the EU is for economic advantage, not terrorism;
• Less likelihood of an NPD ban, but the NSU will be used against the NPD beginning in September;
• NSU bombshell? – Prosecution’s star witness inadvertently revealed the gun that allegedly killed the eight Turks was purchased after the first four were already dead (according to Compact magazine);
• Thoughts on a world-wide pan-European movement based on White unity;
• Günter recommended the article “Unruly Europe” by Mark Bruigh, in two parts at American Renaissance;
• Hadding Scott calls in to ask about reports that Adenauer was forced by Eisenhower to agree to pay reparations to Israel.

Image: Günter Deckert speaking in Denmark in 2008.

The following article was published on June 7, 2013 in Der Spiegel Online.

Right-Wing Terror: Neo-Nazi's mother sheds light on his disappearance

By Julia Jüttner in Erfurt, Germany

Uwe Böhnhardt's mother testifies before the NSU Parliamentary Investigative Committee on Thursday.

The murderous (how do they get away with this?) neo-Nazi group National Socialist Underground vanished from sight in 1998. On Thursday, the mother of one of the group's members told investigators her version of the events leading up to her son's disappearance.

Peter Böhnhardt was just 17 years old when his lifeless body was deposited outside the door of his parents' house in the eastern German city of Jena. The circumstances surrounding his death have never been completely solved. Jürgen and Brigette Böhnhardt suspect that their son fell while climbing on castle ruins nearby and that his friends, afraid of any consequences, dropped his body off on the asphalt during the night.

That happened in 1988. On Thursday, a quarter-century later, Brigitte Böhnhardt sat in Room 101 of the parliamentary building of the eastern state of Thuringia, in the capital city of Erfurt. A tall woman, she speaks in a soft but surprisingly high-pitched voice. The 65-year-old teacher is the first relative of a suspected member of the National Socialist Underground (NSU), the neo-Nazi terror cell that killed 10 people from 2000 to 2007, to be questioned in public.