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Neo-Nazi NSU attacks exposed 15 years ago
Fifteen years after the National Socialist Underground (NSU) was exposed, families of its victims still have unanswered questions and say justice remains incomplete. The neo-Nazi group murdered people in a racist campaign, but the circumstances of some attacks, including the killing of police officer Michèle Kiesewetter, were never definitively explained.
The NSU killed nine men with immigrant backgrounds between 2000 and 2006, then Kiesewetter in 2007. Beate Zschäpe revealed the group’s existence on 4 November 2011; she remains imprisoned, while other convicted members have been released and investigations into suspected supporters have been dropped. A second trial ended with Susann Eminger receiving a two-year suspended sentence for supporting the group, prompting anger from relatives. Planned memorial projects in Nuremberg and Cologne are also making slow progress.
In short
- The NSU’s crimes were exposed 15 years ago.
- Families still seek answers and justice.
- Memorial projects are progressing slowly.
Explained simply
The National Socialist Underground, or NSU, was a neo-Nazi terrorist group in Germany. From 2000 to 2006, it murdered nine men with immigrant backgrounds; in 2007, it also killed police officer Michèle Kiesewetter.
The group’s members included Beate Zschäpe, who was convicted of belonging to a terrorist organisation and remains in prison. The crimes prompted questions about how the NSU operated for years and whether authorities recognised the racist motive behind its attacks.
The case matters to victims’ families and to Germany’s efforts to account for racist violence. Some details, including the circumstances of Kiesewetter’s killing, have not been definitively explained, and relatives continue to seek answers.