German synagogue attack trial reveals police failures

Jewish survivors of the attack on the Halle synagogue have accused the police of failing to properly investigate the online far-right scene that is believed to have inspired last October’s deadly attack in the eastern German city.

28-year-old Stephan B. is on trialfor attempting to commit what would have been the worst anti-Semitic atrocity in Germany since the Holocaust. Only the perpetrator’s jammed weapons and the synagogue’s locked door prevented a massacre.

He has been charged with the murder of the two people who were killed that day — a passerby Jana L. and kebab shop customer Kevin S.

Some 43 people, all survivors or the relatives of victims, are co-plaintiffs in the trial of the case that shows parallels to crimes perpetrated in Christchurch and other places.

Anger and civic duty

Several witnesses from in and around the synagogue and kebab shop were called on Tuesday and Wednesday, the tenth and eleventh trial days, describing in powerful detail their impressions and fears.

Among them was a retired professor who was in the kebab shop, and who injured his shoulder as he escaped through a back window. He described seeing what he thought was a man in a Halloween costume holding a paintball rifle coming into the shop, and registering a “wild determination” in his expression. He was only alerted to the man’s intentions when another customer shouted a warning. A video of the attack appeared to show Stephan B. attempting to shoot the witness as he fled, though the gun jammed.

Read more: The myth of the lone wolf attacker

The 74-year-old anthropologist said he had decided to become a co-plaintiff in the trial out of a mixture of “anger,” civic duty, and his faith in the principles of equality in the German constitution. “You have earned what this court is likely to decide for you,” he told the defendant, who did not respond.

New footage

On Wednesday, the court was also shown a previously unseen second video of the attack that Stephan B. filmed from a bodycam attached to his jacket.

This footage — taken in addition to the helmet-cam view he streamed live during the attack — showed a new angle of him throwing several crude homemade explosives (glass bottles filled with chemicals, with a fuse hanging from the necks) over the walls of the synagogue grounds. It also showed a failed attempt to blow the hinges off a gate, as well as part of the shooting in the kebab shop.

Later in the 45-minute video, Stephan B. could be seen driving away in his car, injured in the neck from a firefight with police. In this sequence, during which he occasionally whimpered in pain, Stephan B. addressed his online “audience” in English, cursing himself and his failed firearms.

He also appeared to think he would be able to carry out more attacks in future, saying he could “fight” for another one or two days if he had a new car.

In July the door to the synagogue, which bore bullet marks from the attack, was replaced.

Holocaust memories

For many of the 52 survivors from inside the synagogue, the trial has offered a chance to give a voice to the Jewish community.

Describing her ordeal on Tuesday, co-plaintiff Rebecca Blady said she had drawn strength from her grandmother’s experience during the Holocaust — contrasting her own opportunity to testify about the Halle attack with the fact that her grandmother was never able to speak in a German court.

Blady’s testimony was summarized in a Twitter thread by the activist Valentin Hacken:

Survivor Naomi Henkel-Gümbel used her testimony to address Germany’s continued difficulties with Judaism.

“I would like to feel at home in synagogues,” she said. “But if you knew that you had to equip your home with bulletproof doors and windows, how comfortable would you be to call this place your home? The higher the security the more I have the feeling that there is something wrong in the discourse of the society.”

She had emigrated to Germany, despite misgivings about the country, to train to be a rabbi. “To most Germans even in this court, Jewish life in Germany seems to be something that died out. That is the past,” she said.

• Attacks on synagogues in Germany

  Cologne, 1959: Swastikas and hate speech

  In December 1959, two members of the Deutsche Reichspartei (DRP) right-wing extremist party painted swastikas and the words “Germans demand: Jews out” on the synagogue in Cologne. Anti-Semitic graffiti emerged across the country. The perpetrators were convicted, and the Bundestag passed a law against “incitement of the people,” which remains on the books to this day.

• Attacks on synagogues in Germany

  Lübeck, 1994: First arson attack on a temple in decades

  People across the world were horrified at the March 1994 attack on the synagogue in the northern city of Lübeck. For the first time in decades, a synagogue in Germany burned. Four right-wing extremists were eventually convicted of arson. The day after the fire, 4,000 locals took to the streets under the slogan “Lübeck holds its breath.” In 1995, the same synagogue was hit by another arson attack.

• Attacks on synagogues in Germany

  Essen, 2000: Stones hurled into Old Synagogue

  Armed with paving stones, more than 100 Palestinians from Lebanon attacked the Old Synagogue in Essen in October 2000. The incident occurred after a demonstration against “violence in the Middle East.” A police officer was injured. Mahmud Alaeddin, deputy head of the general delegation of Palestine in Germany, distanced himself from the attack.

• Attacks on synagogues in Germany

  Düsseldorf, 2000: Arson and stones

  A 19-year-old Palestinian and a 20-year-old Moroccan damaged Düsseldorf’s New Synagogue with incendiary devices and rocks in October 2000 as “revenge” against Jews and the state of Israel. “We need the respectable people to rebel” against anti-Semitism, then-German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder demanded. The federal and state governments and various NGOs launched campaigns to counter extremism.

• Attacks on synagogues in Germany

  Mainz, 2010: Molotov cocktail attack shortly after inauguration

  Shortly after being inaugurated in September 2010, an arson attack hit the New Synagogue in Mainz during the night of October 30. The spectacular Deconstructivist building by architect Manuel Herz was erected on the site of the former main synagogue that was set on fire during the Kristallnacht, the Nazis’ national night of pogroms, in 1938.

• Attacks on synagogues in Germany

  Wuppertal, 2014: Incendiary devices

  In July 2014, three young Palestinians hurled incendiary devices at the front door of the synagogue in Wuppertal. In a highly controversial decision, the court ruled there was “no evidence whatsoever” of anti-Semitic motives. Jews in Germany and the foreign media were outraged. The chairman of the Jewish Community Wuppertal declared the ruling as “an invitation to further crimes.”

• Attacks on synagogues in Germany

  Berlin, 2019: Knife-wielding attacker

  A man wielding a knife climbed over a barrier at Berlin’s New Synagogue on the eve of Shabbat on October 4, 2019, during the holy period between the holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Security personnel overwhelmed the attacker, whose motive remained unclear. Police released him afterwards, a decision Jewish leaders called “a failure” of justice.

• Attacks on synagogues in Germany

  Halle, 2019: Shooter on Yom Kippur

  About 80 people were in the synagogue on Wednesday afternoon to observe Yom Kippur, the Jewish calendar’s holiest day. The alleged attacker reportedly attempted to shoot his way into the synagogue but was prevented by a safety door. Two passersby were shot to death and two were injured. The suspect, who has a history of right-wing extremist, anti-Semitic, and misogynist rhetoric, was detained.

  Author: Bettina Baumann

Editor’s note: Deutsche Welle follows the German press code, which stresses the importance of protecting the privacy of suspected criminals or victims and urges us to refrain from revealing full names in such cases.

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