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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Enver Şimşek, aged 38, was the fist victim of the far-right terrorist group Nationalist Socialist Underground (NSU). He was found on the side of an arterial road in Nuremberg with several bullets in his body. He died two days later. Regina Schmeken started photographing the sites of the NSU crimes at the beginning of 2013 and returned to them several times until 2016.

The grocer Süleyman Taşköprü, 31, was found here by his father, lying in a pool of blood. He died shortly afterwards. Photographer Regina Schmeken said her camera felt drawn to the ground when visiting the sites. The floor covering is still the one that was there at the time of the crime, 14 years ago.

This is where 25-year-old Mehmet Turgut died. He was a temporary worker at a döner kebab stand and was shot by the NSU murderers. Through her exhibition project, Regina Schmeken sought to remember the victims through the crime scenes, by exploring the fact that they at first sight no longer offer any trace of the violent crimes that occurred there.

A nail bomb which exploded on Keuptstrasse in Cologne injured 22 people - many of them seriouly. The street in the Mülheim district is known for its many Turkish and Kurdish shops. The police believed for a long time that the attack was related to a family feud.

The seventh NSU murder victim was Theodoros Boulgarides. The 41-year-old Greek man was shot three times in the head. Regina Schmeken didn't leave out manifestations of daily life in her pictures, as she wanted to demonstrate that these murders happened in animated areas.

The 21-year-old Halit Yozgat, born in Kassel, ran an internet café in this house, until the NSU shot him twice. Like the other NSU victims, he was found lying on the ground, executed by the far-right terrorists. He died in the arms of his father.

The police officer Michèle Kiesewetter, aged 22, was shot in her patrol car in Heilbronn. She was the 10th and last murder victim of the NSU terrorist group. The memorial exhibition pursues discussions on the events and coexistence with migrant communities.