They killed nine men with immigrant backgrounds as well as a German female police officer. Many more survived their bomb attacks but were left physically and mentally scarred. In 2018, Beate Zschäpe, the only surviving member of the terror group that called itself the National Socialist Underground (NSU) was condemned to life in prison and subsequent preventive detention for the crimes.

NSU trial did not go far enough

Still, that merely represents the juridical handling of a string of murders that took place between 2000 and 2007. The probe never went beyond a narrow judicial reckoning — and even that did not go far enough. Many questions remain.

Many more right-wing extremists should have been in the dock in Munich — not only Beate Zschäpe, the main defendant, and four other enablers. Yet, federal prosecutors either could not, or would not, bring themselves to put them there despite ample clues and evidence.

Why the reluctance? Were they afraid they did not have enough proof to convict them? Or because they wanted to cling to the theory that the NSU solely consisted of the trio Beate Zschäpe, Uwe Böhnhardt and Uwe Mundlos? A young woman and two friends who decided to go underground together in 1998, and shortly afterward, embark on murderous forays across Germany, living out their xenophobia with sadistic pleasure. 

German domestic intelligence files remain under wraps

But such an existence over a long period of time was only possible because the three had plenty of supporters and sympathizers across Germany. Four of them were prosecuted as accomplices and given sentences of varying lengths. Yet this circumstance alone disproves —  in a grotesque manner — the prosecution's untenable default theory of the "NSU trio."

Now, 10 years after the discovery of the NSU's existence, a review of this wholly unsatisfactory chapter of German judicial history remains essential. A look back at missed opportunities and myriad other policing lapses illustrates what a hard time Germany still has dealing with far-right extremism. Unfortunately, the wrong conclusions were drawn and lessons still remain unlearned when it comes to the shocking series of murders that the media long referred to as the "kebab murders."

One example from the year 2021: In the German state of Hesse, governing conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Greens overruled the opposition — which even included the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) — and blocked the opening of domestic intelligence files relating to NSU crimes. 

Those files will now remain under lock and key for the next 30 years. And that's in Hesse, a state with more than enough reason to ensure transparency and help restore trust in the rule of law.

Trail of blood in Hesse: Halit Yozgat, Walter Lübcke, Hanau

In 2006, NSU victim Halit Yozgat was shot dead in his internet cafe in Kassel, a city located in the central German state. The murder was shown to have been committed while a German intelligence officer was in the room.

In 2019, CDU politician Walter Lübcke was killed with a gunshot to the head just a few kilometers away. Lübke had been actively engaged in helping refugees in Germany. The external circumstances of the murder resembled to a frightening degree the methods used by the NSU.

Lübke's far-right killer has been sentenced to life in prison — of that we can be thankful at least. And likewise, in Hesse, a right-wing extremist murdered eight men and a woman in Hanau city center in 2020.

The crimes of Beate Zschäpe and her two killer companions, who were found dead in a burning camper on November 4, 2011, are not directly related to the murder of  Walter Lübcke nor the Hanau massacre. But there is a common thread that closely links this horrifying, deadly trail of blood: right-wing extremism.

A danger, the scope of which remained long underestimated by politicians throughout Germany for years, even after the NSU was uncovered, it has taken far too long for right-wing extremism to be recognized as the biggest threat facing the rule of law and democracy in the country.

Now, it has finally become a consensus. German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) has said so repeatedly, as has Thomas Haldenwang, the head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency.

Merkel's words sincere, but ineffectual

Yet what remains is the bitter aftertaste that words are rarely followed by necessary and appropriate action. This is true of the German chancellor, too. At the central memorial ceremony commemorating the victims of the NSU in Berlin in 2012, Angela Merkel said: "We will do everything to solve these murders and uncover those who aided and abetted and those pulling the strings, and ensure that all perpetrators are brought to justice."

This promise was, no doubt, sincere, but it proved impossible to keep.

Too many of those in positions of political responsibility and in the police and intelligence communities still sometimes lack requisite courage and conviction. A country that continues —  10 years after the NSU was uncovered and after many subsequent copycat killings — to keep important files under lock and key is doing far too little to fight right-wing extremism where it is most needed.

This article was translated from German