Survivor of NSU neo-Nazi hate crime: 'I won't stay silent'
Dana Alexandra Scherle
January 20, 2019
Arif Sagdic survived a nail bomb attack perpetrated by NSU right-wing extremist terrorists in 2004, but what he went through in the aftermath was far worse. Now he is spreading awareness so that things will change.
Sagdic: Even today, I relive the attack when talking about itImage: DW/Alexandra Scherle
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Who were the victims of the neo-Nazi NSU murder spree?
From 2000 to 2007, the notorious National Socialist Underground (NSU) neo-Nazi cell killed 10 people in Germany. After five years, the trial of the group's sole surviving member has come to a close.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/N.Försterling
10 victims, 10 tragedies
Nine of the 10 victims were of foreign heritage, but they had all made Germany their home when they were killed. The 10th victim was a German police officer. Every one of them was shot in cold blood.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Enver Simsek
On September 9, 2000, the florist Enver Simsek, pictured with his wife, was shot eight times. The 38-year-old father of two sold flowers near a small parking lot in the southern city of Nuremberg. Simsek, who migrated from Turkey to Germany in 1986, is believed to be the first murder victim in the NSU series of racially motivated killings.
Image: privat/Ufuk Ucta
Abdurrahim Ozudogru
Also in Nuremberg, Turkish-born tailor Abdurrahim Ozudogru was shot on June 13, 2001 in his alteration shop. He was 49 years old with a daughter who was 19 at the time of his murder.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
Suleyman Taskopru
Later that month, on June 27, 2001 Suleyman Taskopru was shot dead in his father's fruit and vegetable shop in Hamburg. He was 31 years old and had a three-year-old daughter.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Habil Kilic
On August 29 of the same year, 38-year-old Habil Kilic, who was also a fruit and vegetable grocer, was killed in his shop in Munich. Like Taskopru, he was shot in the head. His wife and his 12-year-old daughter later left Germany.
Image: picture alliance / dpa
Mehmet Turgut
Mehmet Turgut lived in Hamburg, but was visiting a friend in the eastern German city of Rostock and helping out at a Doner kebab fast food restaurant when he was shot on February 25, 2004. He was killed by three bullets to the head.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
Ismail Yasar
Ismail Yasar was shot five times in his doner kebab restaurant in Nuremberg on June 9, 2005. A customer found him behind the counter. The 50-year-old had three children.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
Theodoros Boulgarides
Just a few days later, on June 15, 2005, Theodoros Boulgarides was shot dead in Munich in his lock and key service shop. He was the only victim with Greek heritage. The 41-year-old father of two was the NSU's seventh murder victim.
Image: DW/I. Anastassopoulou
Mehmet Kubasik
On a busy street at noon on April 4, 2006 in the western city of Dortmund, Turkish-born Mehmet Kubasik was killed by several shots to the head in his small convenience store. The 39-year-old left behind a wife and three children.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
Halit Yozgat
In Kassel on April 6, 2006, Halit Yozgat was also shot in the head. He was killed in the internet cafe he ran with his father. Twenty-one years old, Turkish-born but with a German passport, Yozgat was taking night school classes to graduate from high school.
Image: picture alliance / dpa
Michele Kiesewetter
Michele Kiesewetter, a 22-year-old police officer, was shot dead on April 25, 2007 in the southwestern city of Heilbronn. She was the NSU's 10th and final murder victim.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/N.Försterling
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Fear should never have the last word. "I feel the vibrations of the explosion and relive the moment when talking about it," says Arif Sagdic, apologizing for his nervousness with a slightly lowered gaze.
But Sagdic nevertheless still finds the strength to talk about the attack he survived, which was perpetrated by the National Socialist Underground (NSU), a neo-Nazi terrorist group. The audience at the commemorative event in Cologne is on the edge of their seats listening to Sagdic speak.
"When I heard the explosion, I threw myself on the ground," recalls the Turkish-born Sagdic, the owner of a hardware store on Keupstrasse in Cologne. "The shop window was shattered, just like those at the hairdresser's opposite — it was as if there had been an earthquake. People were lying in their own blood. People were screaming. I could pick that up even though I could barely hear from my left ear."
NSU trial: Many questions remain unanswered
More than 20 people were injured in the bomb attacks on Keupstrasse in 2004 and Probsteigasse in 2001 in the western city of Cologne. Ten murders and 15 robberies are also part of the cruel chronicle of the extreme-right terrorist NSU. The group was not caught until 2011.
The trial against the NSU ended in the summer of 2018 in Munich. Group member Beate Zschäpe was given a life sentence; her co-conspirators Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt had died in an apparent murder-suicide in 2011.
Even after the yearslong investigation and trial, there are many unanswered questions: Who supported the NSU trio on the ground? Why did it take investigators so many years to link the victims? Were they ignored due to their immigrant origins? Why did it take investigators so long to discover the right-wing extremist group?
"We were not even allowed to be victims," said Semiya Simsek, daughter of the murdered florist Enver Simsek, at a memorial service for the NSU victims held in Berlin in 2012.
"It was like an earthquake": The scene of the 2004 Keupstrasse bombing in CologneImage: picture-alliance/dpa
'The investigation was worse than the attack'
Sagdic also speaks of strain and false suspicions after the bomb attack in Keupstrasse: "Of course the attack was bad, but we thought the wounds would heal again, and we were glad that nobody died."
But during the police questioning, he felt intimidated: "I said that I think neo-Nazis were behind the attack. The officer then just held his finger to his lips, and he didn't seem to want to hear anything more about it," recalls Sagdic.
For months, he felt haunted by the memory of the attack on his way home from work. "Fear became my constant companion. I could not even talk to my wife about it until five years later."
Arif Sagdic (r.), survivor of an attack by NSU neo-Nazi terrorists, with Kutlu Yurtseven and Charlotte Schwalb of the "Keupstrasse is everywhere" remembrance initiativeImage: DW/Alexandra Scherle
Even after the attack in Cologne's Probsteigasse on January 19, 2001, it was still the victims of the NSU attacks who were initially suspected as perpetrators, says Kutlu Yurtseven, an actor and musician who is one of the founders of the initiative "Keupstrasse is everywhere," which held the commemorative event for victims of the NSU. The event coincided with the anniversary of the January 19 attack, when a bomb exploded in a grocery store of an Iranian family, seriously injuring the then-19-year-old daughter of the shop owner.
"The father very quickly became the focus of the investigation. Suddenly the blame seemed to be pointed at him. Even his brother was brought into the picture. There was talk of gambling debts, extortion for protection money and so on," recalls Yurtseven.
The Keupstrasse initiative campaigns against racism and xenophobia, and supports NSU victims and their families. Yurtseven knew the Iranian family well after "three years of eating from their store," he says, and the office of his music label was directly above the shop. But the family quickly moved away. It was not until many years later that it became known that the NSU was behind the attack.
Signs reading "For a society without racism" and "NSU Terror: The state and Nazis hand in hand" at a 2015 Munich demonstration organized by the "Keupstrasse is everywhere" initiative Image: picture-alliance/dpa/T. Hase
Openness and courage against racism
The ghost of the NSU lives on, even after the end of the lengthy trial. Yurtseven says that Turkish-born lawyer Seda Basay Yildiz, who represented one of the victim families in the NSU trial, received threatening letters signed "NSU 2.0."
The lawyer told DW in an interview that one of the threatening letters read: "What you did to our police colleagues will have consequences for you" — a clear indication of the involvement of the authorities.
The "silence of the mainstream" about such threats is dangerous, warns Yurtseven, as is the "silence about the criminalization of victims."
But "I won't stay silent," says Sagdic as his listeners break into applause. "That I have learned in Germany: As long as you say nothing, nothing changes." Even if talking about the attack and the consequences is painful.
When the audience asks him about his family, he has tears in his eyes: "My son was three years old at the time; I'm sorry that I couldn't really be there for him then as I would have liked." He leaves the room for a few minutes, then returns and says in a resolute voice: "Today my son Orhan is 1.9 meters tall (6 feet, 2 inches). He takes me into his arms — with my mere 1.6 meters — and says: 'Everything is OK; I am fine.' I can talk openly with him about what happened."
Orhan, now almost 18, often accompanies his father to events where he speaks publicly about the Nazi terror and warns of the consequences of racism and xenophobia. Because for Arif Sagdic, fear must not have the last word.
Chronicle of the NSU murders
The crimes of the neo-Nazi terror cell and the way state authorities dealt with them, still reverberate today. DW gives you the background to an affair that has shaken Germany.
Image: picture alliance / dpa
A mysterious string of murders
For years, neo-Nazis of the right-wing organization National Socialist Underground (NSU) killed people across Germany. The suspects: Uwe Mundlos, Uwe Böhnhardt (center) and Beate Zschäpe. Their victims: eight people of Turkish origin, one Greek man and a German policewoman. Their motive: xenophobia. Until 2011, the German public was not aware of the scope of their crimes.
Image: privat/dapd
Unsuccessful bank robbery
The murder spree was uncovered on November 4, 2011, when Mundlos and Böhnhardt robbed a bank in the east German town of Eisenach. For the first time, they failed. Police officers surrounded the caravan in which the two men were holed up. A later investigation concluded that Mundlos first shot and killed Böhnhardt, then set the caravan on fire and killed himself.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Zschäpe turns herself in
Shortly after the death of Böhnhardt and Mundlos there was an explosion at Frühlingsstraße 26 in Zwickau, in the state of Saxony. Beate Zschäpe lived at that address together with the two bank robbers. Zschäpe allegedly set the house on fire to destroy evidence. Four days later, she turned herself in to the police. The terror suspect has been custody since that day.
Image: Getty Images
The truth comes out
In the ruins of the Zwickau flat, police officers found a self-made video in which the terror cell claimed responsibility under the name of the NSU, the National-Socialist Underground. The 15-minute video shows crime scenes and pictures of the victims killed by the right-wing terrorist group between 2000 and 2007.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
NSU claim responsibility
Famous cartoon character The Pink Panther hosts the amateur video, which is full of slogans of hatred against people with an immigrant background and which mocks the murder victims. Before her arrest, Zschäpe allegedly sent out copies of the video in which the NSU claimed responsibility for the crimes.
Image: dapd
Verbal slip-ups
Until 2011, the term "döner murders" was frequently used when reporting about the killings. Nothing was known about the connection between the individual cases, nor about the motive. There were rumors the victims were linked to the drug scene. But the NSU's video left no doubt. The term "döner murders" was chosen as Germany's "Unwort des Jahres" (doublespeak of the year) in 2011.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
NSU also behind Cologne pipe bomb
"The findings made by our security authorities so far show no indication of a terrorist background, but of a criminal milieu," said German Interior Minister Otto Schily on June 10, 2004. A day earlier, a pipe bomb explosion in Cologne left 22 people injured and many shops damaged. In 2011, it became clear: the NSU’s right-wing terrorists were also behind the Cologne bombing.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
Memorial service in Berlin
On February 23, 2012, Germany commemorated the victims. At the ceremony at a Berlin concert hall, the focus was on the relatives of the victims. Semiya Simsek (right), the daughter of the murdered flower stand owner Enver Simsek, gave an emotional speech. German Chancellor Angela Merkel made an official apology to the victims and promised them that all questions would be answered.
Image: Bundesregierung/Kugler
Memorial for Mehmet Kubasik
"Dortmund is a colorful, tolerant and welcoming town – and opposes right-wing extremism!" This statement was made by mayor Ullrich Sierau at the unveiling of the memorial stone for NSU victim Mehmet Kubasik in September 2012. The memorial was set up just meters away from the kiosk in which Kubasik was killed on April 4, 2006.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Solidarity with the victims
On November 4, 2012, exactly a year after the terror cell was uncovered, people in many German cities staged solidarity demonstrations against right-wing extremism. The protesters called for thorough investigations into the racially motivated murders - which in their view was not happening fast enough.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Beate Zschäpe lone survivor
Believed to be the last survivor of the NSU trio, Beate Zschäpe went on trial in May 2013.Over 800 witnesses were heard. Zschäpe did not speak for the first two and a half years of the trial.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Schrader
Life sentence
Beate Zschäpe was given a life sentence. She was found guilty of joint complicity in 10 counts of murder, arson, robbery, extortion, the formation of a terrorist organization and membership in a terrorist organization. Though there was no evidence that she herself was present at the scene of the crimes, the judges felt that the "particular severity of guilt" required for a life sentence applied.
Image: Getty Images/A. Gebert
The co-accused
Ralf Wohlleben received 10 years for procuring weapons for the NSU, co-accused Holger G. got three years for providing false identity papers. Another co-accused, Andre E, received two and a half years for providing the NSU with rail passes in his and his wife's name. He also allegedly rented a mobile home which the cell drove to Cologne to carry out a bombing.
Image: AFP/Getty Images/C. Stache
Long lasting impact
When conservative politician Walter Lübcke was murdered by a neo-Nazi activist in 2019, his name was also found on the 'list of enemies' for targetted killings. Lübcke had come under attack from the far-right following a speech he made in 2015 defending the decision to take in refugees from the Syrian war.
Image: Swen Pförtner/dpa/picture alliance
Securty agency failings
The federal and the state parliaments launched investigations to shed light on the security authorities' failures in the NSU case: The role of paid informants, the lack of cooperation between the various intelligence agencies and state interior ministries, which are responsible for police in the respective states, and allegations of systemic racism on the part of German authorities.