Since May 2013, the so-called “NSU trial” against five defendants from the right-wing extremist scene has been underway at the Munich Higher Regional Court. A racist, brutal series of murders with a total of ten people killed is being tried. Five years after the start of the criminal proceedings, there are still a shocking number of unanswered questions, especially with regard to knowledge, (in)activity, information policy, and the institutional racism of state institutions such as the Federal Office/Land Offices for the Protection of the Constitution. We have presented an example of the cinematic reappraisal of a probable misrepresentation on the part of the Hessian Office for the Protection of the Constitution here.
Since the first day of the trial, employees of the NSU watch initiative have been present in the courtroom to record the proceedings. The transcripts, in German and Turkish, can be downloaded free of charge from their website as an e-book or individually. The initiative is an association of about a dozen anti-fascist and anti-racist groups and individuals from all over Germany, its work is financed by donations.
In addition to the transcripts, which provide the basis for many other critical engagements with the process (an example on the issue of miking the process we have presented here ), writes and publishes NSU watch background analyses and research on the overarching themes of NSU & Networks, Racism, Right scene, right-wing terrorism, authorities, media and material and supports the nebeklage.
A podcast is also being produced under the title “Aufklären & Einmischen” (“Enlighten & Interfere “), about whose approach the creators are writing:
“For us, the NSU complex is more than just a neo-Nazi trio. We investigate the neo-Nazi network, the racism in society as a whole and the involvement of the state authorities, without whom the NSU would not have been conceivable.(…) Every two weeks, we talk about current developments in the NSU complex but also current developments in right-wing terror and the social shift to the right.”
“In the name of clarification, in the name of justice, in the name of the victims and their relatives,” on the other hand, accuses the NSU Tribunal, to which here have written a contribution. This indictment “is in deliberate contradiction to the criminal charges of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, which trivializes the NSU as the work of a few.”