German Terrorism Trial Puts Racism Fears in the Spotlight
Germany’s biggest terrorism trial in decades begins Monday. The case centers on a 38-year-old Beate Zschaepe, the surviving member of a right-wing extremist group called the National Socialist Underground. The group is accused of killing ten people, most of them of Turkish descent.
Although the families of the victims fear the trial will drag on for years, they hope it will shine light on the racism they believe is still prevalent in German society.
During a recent meeting filmed by public broadcaster ARD, Ismail Yozgat wept as he described the murder of his only son, 21-year-old Halit Yozgat, to the German president.
Halit was fatally shot seven years ago at the family’s Internet café in the central German city of Kassel. His is just one of ten murders blamed on the NSU.
At the videotaped meeting, German President Joachim Gauck put his arm around the elder Yozgat’s shoulders, trying to show his government’s solidarity with the mostly Turkish victims of the racist murder spree.
Yozgat, however, is not comforted. He shouts: “If the government offered us millions, I wouldn’t take it!”
Ismail Yozgat’s frustration is shared by many among the three million people of Turkish descent living in Germany. They want to know why German authorities failed to uncover, let alone stop, a decade-long Neo-Nazi terror campaign against them.
Instead, police blamed the victims, linking them to foreign criminal gangs.
More: German Terrorism Trial Puts Racism Fears in the Spotlight : NPR