They traveled again to the Dresden Higher Regional Court. Semiya Şimşek, whose father Enver was shot by the NSU in Nuremberg in September 2000. Serkan Yildirim, who survived a right-wing terrorist group bombing in the city a year earlier. Michalina Boulgarides, whose father Theodoros was murdered in Munich in September 2005. Elif and Gamze Kubaşık, whose husband and father Mehmet was shot in Dortmund in April 2006. They all came in the hope that this woman who took part in this terror will clarify something: Beate Zschäpe.
On Thursday, Zschäpe was again summoned as a witness to the Higher Regional Court, for the third time, again brought in handcuffs from the Chemnitz prison, where she is serving her life sentence. In the trial against the Saxon Susann Eminger, her best friend from the time when the NSU trio lived underground in Zwickau. Until November 2011, Zschäpe’s cronies Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt shot themselves and Zschäpe exposed the “National Socialist Underground” by sending out the confessional DVDs.
Susann Eminger is accused in Dresden of being a terrorist supporter because she gave Zschäpe a health insurance card and her personal details for documents, because she was there when she rented the mobile home for the last NSU attack and gave Zschäpe clothes while she was still on the run. The trial is a final attempt to convict one person from the NSU’s extensive network of helpers. The proceedings against all other former accused have now been discontinued.
But the question in Dresden remains: Did Susann Eminger know about the terrorist acts when she helped?
Zschäpe doesn’t want to be able to remember a lot of things
Zschäpe denied this in her first two statements – and she remains so on Thursday. In the hall, both women avoid each other’s glances. Zschäpe emphasizes again that she only met Susann Eminger in 2007. After her husband Andŕe had previously provided the people in hiding with apartments or rented mobile homes for them. And it was only later that she informed “Sus” about the attacks – but never about the murders and attacks, Zschäpe claims. She was only told that they had gone into hiding in 1998 because of the discovery of pipe bombs and were therefore in hiding.
But judge Simone Herberger asks, at least a little. In 2007, when Zschäpe claims to have just met Susann Eminger, she posed as “Susann Eminger” when summoned to the police in Zwickau and also presented her identity card. The maneuver was not discovered and was a great show of trust from Eminger – even though the two only just knew each other? Zschäpe asserts that it was like that.
Herberger also shows registration forms for a video store or a campsite that were found in the NSU shelter, also entered with Susann Eminger’s data. As with many other questions, Zschäpe can no longer rememberwhether she filled them out. But then she admits: Yes, she once got Eminger’s ID card while on vacation. When and how exactly? She doesn’t know that anymore.
Herberger also shows photos again that prove how close Zschäpe and Eminger were back then. For example, one of the two women with cocktails at a performance by the comedian Cindy from Marzahn. We spent some free time together, explains Zschäpe. But they supposedly never had a political conversation. When asked, Zschäpe admits that Eminger’s husband André noticed the tattoo “Die Jew Die” on his stomach. She “didn’t like it that much” because it was “so big and striking”.
Central questions remain open
However, the questions that interest the bereaved remain unanswered at the end of Zschäpe’s third survey. Who other NSU helpers were or how the victims were chosen. Again and again Zschäpe had pretended to have a lack of memory – or only mentioned names that were already known. “I really have a lot of blur,” said the 51-year-old on Thursday. At midday, Judge Herberger released Zschäpe as a witness, wished her all the best – and told her: “Take the emotions of the victims and relatives with you.”
Gamze Kubaşık, on the other hand, doesn’t believe Zschäpe. “She lied, lied, lied. The question is whether the court will accept it again.” Kubaşık recalls that Zschäpe also tried to downplay her role in the first NSU trial in Munich. The court sentenced Zschäpe to life imprisonment, but co-accused helper André Eminger got off lightly with two and a half years. This still hurts Kubaşık to this day. “For me he was an accomplice.”
In Dresden, Zschäpe would now have had a motive to unpack. Because in the fall, after 15 years in prison, it will be decided how many remaining years she still has to serve. Zschäpe recently purified himself and went into an “exit program”. However, her lack of memory in Dresden should not give her a discount on her sentence. And the Dresden court also needs further clarification and now wants to summon André Eminger and other former helpers of those in hiding.
Ultimately, the survivors didn’t really believe that Zschäpe would actually unpack in Dresden. “We are there to show that we are not giving up,” says Gamze Kubaşık. “And that we continue to fight for enlightenment.”