German synagogue attacker given 7 more years for escape bid
February 27, 2024
Already serving a life sentence for his attack on a German synagogue in 2019, the 32-year-old has been handed a further seven years after taking two prison staff hostage and threatening them with a self-made firearm.
The 32-year-old used everyday materials to construct a rudimentary firearm and threatened to use it on two prison guards unless he was allowed to leave the facilityImage: Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert/dpa/picture alliance
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Stephan B., the man who was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of two people during an attempted attack on a German synagogue on Yom Kippur in 2019, has been handed a further seven years after using a self-made firearm to take two prison officials hostage in a bid to escape from prison.
He was sentenced to life behind bars in 2020 and was being held in a penal facility near Magdeburg when he used a self-made firearm to take two prison attendants hostage on December 12, 2022.
According to presiding judge Simone Henze-von Staden, the 32-year-old demanded that one of the hostages open doors and gates to allow him to escape, threatening a "countdown" with his firearm – which she said he had "constructed from various everyday objects" – and even firing a "warning shot."
He gave up on the attempt once it became clear he had no prospect of leaving the facility, even with assistance from his pair of hostages.
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Compensation for prison guards' psychological harm
Judge Henze-von Staden handed him an additional seven years and ordered him to pay compensation totaling €25,262 ($27,382) to the two prison employees who, while physically unhurt, had suffered psychological harm. She said the two men were not in any way compliant in the hostage-taking.
In passing down the sentence, the judge spoke of the defendant's "substantial criminal energy" and referred to an assessment that B. was "a seriously psychologically disturbed person," but one who was nevertheless deemed fit to face criminal trial.
After he had reacted with smiles during the trial, she said she considered him to be lacking in empathy and said the only aspect of the trial which had interested him were different camera angles of the prison. She said he had made it clear that he had not given up his aim of escaping.
During his time in jail, B. is said to be generally silent and still before breaking out in occasional rage. There is said to be effectively zero communication between prisoner and prison staff, psychiatrists, social workers or doctors. Officials have described him as untreatable and not amenable to treatment.
Attacks on synagogues in Germany
The attempted attack on a synagogue in Halle is not the first in recent years. Even after the horrors of the Nazi era, anti-Semitic incidents occur in Germany — on individuals, memorials and Jewish places of worship.
Image: Imago Images/S. Schellhorn
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.
Image: picture-alliance/Arco Images/Joko
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.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Büttner
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.
Image: picture-alliance/B. Boensch
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.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Weihrauch
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.
Image: picture-alliance/akg/Bildarchiv Steffens
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."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Seidel
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.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Avers
Halle, 2019: Shooter attempts mass murder 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.
