The Daily - Day X, Part 3: Blind Spot 2.0

Episode Date: June 11, 2021

Franco A. is not the only far-right extremist in Germany discovered by chance. For over a decade, 10 murders in the country, including nine victims who were immigrants, went unsolved. The neo-Nazi group responsible was discovered only when a bank robbery went wrong. In this episode, we ask: Why has a country that spent decades atoning for its Nazi past so often failed to confront far-right extremism?

Today, Episode 3 of our series, Day X. The case of Franco A. was seen as a wake-up call for Germany. But the thing is, it shouldn't have been. Because Franco A. wasn't the first case to show that Germany has a blind spot when it comes to the far right. Years before him, there was another case. Another wake-up call. It was one of the biggest far-right terrorism cases Germany has ever seen. Germany has ever seen. And so, in December 2019,

I went to Frankfurt with producers Claire Tennis-Getter and Lindsay Garrison to meet a woman who was a part of that case. Her name is Seda Bajayildis, and she's a criminal lawyer. And something changes with me, with this case. Yeah.

When did you, before you were even involved as a lawyer, when did you first hear about the murders? It was in November 2011. I was on the road to a court or something like that. And I hear the radio, terrorism group, And they killed 10 people from 2000 to 2007. And most of the victims were Turkish people. And nobody realized that these people are killed from Nazis. So I can't believe that something like that,

that this can happen in Germany. What do you say? That it is possible that this kind of thing can happen in Germany. In Germany, yes. Seda told me that a couple of months after she hears about the case on the radio, she gets a phone call. The wife of the first victim called me and wants to, she wanted me to be her lawyer yeah and when she's asked to represent the family of one of the murder victims for me this was really personal she thinks about

her own family because my parents are from turkey and in my past, I was confronted with racism too. She said when she was just a little girl, her parents had finally scrounged up enough money to buy a used car. An old one, really, really old car. But when they tried to buy insurance, they say we don't want to make a contract with Turkish people. They couldn't get it. So I think about what can I do. Seda, unlike her parents, spoke fluent German. So on her own, she learned about a federal agency where she could file a complaint.

She did. And days later, an insurance contract showed up in the mail. And so I believed in our justice system, that everyone has the same rights in this country. And I think it was the decision for me to become a lawyer. and so when Seda gets that call from the woman whose husband had been murdered she knows she has to take the case and it was an honor for me yeah because they have to write to get answers and over the next six years Seda tries to get answers about how a far-right terrorist network went undetected for over a decade. Do you think that the blindness of the police towards the possibility of neo-Nazis being behind this, does this tell us that the police had sympathies in that direction

or is it just that they couldn't imagine it? This is the point that I want to understand. I would not say that these policemen are all Nazis. But they all make the same mistake so I want to understand why

why from the New York Times I'm Katrin Bernhold. This is Day X. The story begins in the year 2000 with a flower seller named Enver Simsek. Enver's 38 years old. He moved to Germany with his wife back in 1985 from Turkey, like more than 2 million other Turkish immigrants who came here in the decades after the war.

He and his wife had two kids, a son and a daughter, both born in Germany. He started out working in a factory, long hours. But in his free time, he sold flowers. And eventually, he quit his job in the factory to work in flowers full time. One September morning, Enver leaves his hometown near Frankfurt and drives a couple of hours east to Nuremberg to stand in for another flower seller who was out of town. Just before 9am, he parks his van along the side of a suburban road

and sets up shop. And around midday, he's shot multiple times, in his head and in his chest. He dies two days later. Police begin investigating. And very quickly, they come up with a theory. That Enver, who would drive to the Netherlands every week to get flowers, was transporting drugs.

And even though they find no traces of drugs in his van, they cling on to the theory that Enver was involved in some kind of drug ring. The case goes nowhere. And then, nine months later, another Turkish immigrant is killed. Abdurahim Özudoru's body is discovered at his tailor shop, not far from where Anver was killed. Police are quick to identify the murder weapon as the same one that killed Anver. A rare Czeska 83 handgun. Two weeks after that, there's another murder.

Suleyman Tashkopru, a produce seller, is killed in his father's shop in Hamburg. Same gun. Another two months later, a Turkish grocer named Habil Külüç is killed in Munich. Same gun. The families of the victims tell police that maybe this is a series of hate crimes. Maybe investigators should look to the far right. But police continue to suspect it has to do with drugs. Immigrants killing other immigrants, like some kind of Turkish mafia. And still, the case goes nowhere.

Then, in 2004, there's another murder. Mehmet Turgut is killed at a kebab shop in the northern city of Rostock. A year after that, Ismail Yajar is murdered in Nuremberg. Then Theodoros Bulgaridis in Munich. Mehmet Kubajic in Dortmund. Halit Yoskat, an owner of an internet cafe in Kassel. All the victims have an immigrant background. All are shot in the head. All with a Czeska 83. And even though witnesses at multiple murder scenes report seeing white men who look like Nazis, the police stick to their theory of a Turkish mafia.

And the murders come to be known as the kebab murders. For years, they go unsolved. Until one day, in 2011, when two masked men charge into a bank in an Eastern German town. Both have guns, and they steal over 70,000 euros. Then they run outside, get on bicycles and flee the scene. As they make their getaway, they pass an old man on the street who sees them shove their bikes into a camper van and then peel off.

When the police pass that way looking for the robbers, the old man tells them what he saw. Not long after, the police find the camper van. And as they walk towards it, the door swings open and two men open fire with a submachine gun. But the gun jams, so they shut themselves back inside the camper van. The police hear two more shots. Moments later, the camper van goes up in flames, black smoke billowing from it. black smoke billowing from it.

Once the police open the door, they find several weapons and the burned bodies of the two men with gunshot wounds in their heads. And as police are still securing the scene, there's an explosion at an apartment more than 100 miles away. The police get to that scene, and when the fire dies down, they start sifting through the rubble.

Eventually, they find a gun. A Cheska 83. They find a gun. A Czeska 83. They also find dozens of copies of a DVD. They're in envelopes, addressed to media and other organizations, with no return address. And when they press play, a bizarre cartoon plays out. It's the Pink Panther.

He carries a stack of posters to an easel in a spotlight. And he starts a kind of presentation. And he starts a kind of presentation. On poster after poster, there's newspaper clippings of the nine immigrant murders that had never been solved, with photos of the victims. There's also the photo of a tenth victim, a police officer whose death had never been linked to the other murders.

police officer whose death had never been linked to the other murders. And the video reveals who's responsible for it all. It's a group of neo-Nazis who took their name from Hitler's Nazi party. They call themselves the National Socialist Underground, the NSU. And they say their motto is actions, not words. A few days after the botched bank robbery, a woman turns herself in. Her name is Beate Zschäpe.

Investigators had been looking for her for a long time. They knew her as part of a trio along with two men, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt. All three grew up in the former communist East. They were teenagers when Germany reunified and became part of a growing neo-Nazi scene. When Uwe Mundlos was 21, he served in the German military. And during his time there, someone found an image of Hitler on a card in his pocket. The military let it go.

And during the course of the year, he was actually promoted several times. It's the kind of thing I've heard again and again in my reporting on Franco A. and far-right infiltration. I've heard again and again in my reporting on Franco A. and far-right infiltration. Where neo-Nazis use the military specifically to get training. Which is exactly what Uwe Mundlos did. When he returned home to rejoin Beate and Uwe Bernhardt, they built fake bombs in a garage. They mailed them out and placed them in public spaces to terrorize people.

Then they started collecting real explosives. The police eventually raided their garage. But by the time they found the explosives, the trio had gone underground. But by the time they found the explosives, the trio had gone underground. And it wasn't until 2011, when that bank robbery went bad, that it all started to click in place. And investigators realize that the two Uvis were the bicycle bank robbers, that Beate had set fire to their hideout, and that all of them were behind one of the biggest series of terrorist attacks

Germany had ever seen, which introduced an entirely new puzzle. How did they miss it? The right-wing terror group from Thuringia... The right-wing terror group... The worst acts of neo-Nazi terrorism since the end of World War II. When the NSU story breaks... How the neo-Nazi group got away with the killings, the whole country was asking, how could this have happened? Chancellor Angela Merkel makes a promise to the families of the victims. That Germany would do right by them and that their questions would be answered.

The parliamentary panel responsible for monitoring their work met in special closed-door sessions. And Parliament commissions an investigation to figure out what went wrong. But before the findings are even released, it's obvious the Domestic Intelligence Service did not do its job properly. But before the findings are even released, stories start coming out about Germany's domestic intelligence agency. It's called the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and was created after World War II to protect the country against anti-democratic threats.

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution destroyed relevant documents just one week after the scandal broke. Authorities apparently shredded documents relevant to the case. The country's intelligence agency may have been infiltrated by double agents loyal to the far right. And in light of these stories about how the office had failed, some people call for the agency to be totally dismantled. dismantled. One of those people is a man named Stephen Kramer. At the time all this was happening, he was the public face of Germany's Central Council of Jews. And in a sign of how big a crisis this was, he was later appointed to run the regional intelligence agency in the same state where the NSU was from. So I called him to hear

what the scandal looked like from the inside. What do we know about what they actually knew inside the intelligence service about this NSU group? Look, the National Socialist Underground was very much known by the Domestic Intelligence Agency. And even worse, some of the members of the scene were information sources of the domestic intelligence. Stephen says that one of the biggest problems was how much intelligence agencies came to rely on informants from inside the far-right scene. But he says it was more than that. But also, information that was passed on to the police was not followed up on. Like what, for example? up on. Like what, for example? For example, we knew about the garages that were used by the trio to cover up stuff. And we delivered the information about the garages and exact locations to the

police. He says that when the agency did have reliable information to pass along, they did not go into the garages and they did not follow up on that leads. The police just sat on it or they were directed by the superiors to ignore it. And rather investigate in other directions that were useless. As for the agency's own intelligence failures, specifically how it handled its far-right informants, there are still more questions than answers. its far-right informants, there are still more questions than answers. One week after the terror cell was uncovered... Some staff member

took some paperwork and just destroyed it. An intelligence official shredded files on seven NSU informants. And there are other files that include information about an agent who handled informants. And it was at one of the NSU murder scenes in an internet cafe while the owner was shot.

And the simple question was, how come that somebody like him sits in the internet cafe, but he didn't take any notice of the killing inside the cafe, and that when he left the cafe, he did not see the body? When investigators looked into this particular agent, they found evidence he had far-right views. Papers where he quoted Mein Kampf. And according to one of his neighbors, people called him Little Adolf. That is one of the questions to solve.

Why was he there? What was he really doing there? And was there any connection between the state domestic intelligence and those events taking place against the owner of the internet cafe. The state government sealed away files about that agent until 2044. And even as the head of a state intelligence office, Stephen says he can't get answers. For its part, the federal intelligence agency has admitted to making many mistakes,

and the head of the agency had to resign over the scandal. But it rejected the idea that anyone inside the agency had been helping the NSU. The parliamentary investigation was less certain. It didn't find sufficient evidence to prove that the authorities were helping the terrorists. But it said they could and should have known enough to stop the murders. Stephen goes further than that. Stephen goes further than that. Look, it's like the big elephant in the room, but I'm naming it.

There's a lot of complicity. Even among people in agencies and in public security institutions. So people with far-right leanings who are acting to protect neo-Nazis? Yes. This is a cancer that goes to the roots. In May 2013... It's described as one of the most important criminal trials in post-war German history. 600 witnesses could be called to Germany's largest neo-Nazi trial, which has just started.

the NSU trial starts. And for all the failures of Germany's security agencies, they aren't the ones on the stand. All eyes on the woman accused of being the one survivor of a neo-Nazi cell which killed 10 people. It's Beate Scheper, the only surviving member of the NSU trio. For Germans, this is the woman who represents the latest challenge in their country's long battle with right-wing extremism. A woman known as the Nazi bride. Beate Scheper faces life in prison if convicted. She's there along with four accomplices. Seda Bajaj Yildiz is one of about 80 lawyers

representing the families of the victims. And she's aiming for tough sentences. I think that this organization was not just these five people. She's hoping that through the trial, she can figure out how big the NSU network really is. They have to be more. And about these people, we know nothing. And why the intelligence services failed to stop them. They knew that they were very dangerous. They want to kill people. And it was not possible to catch them. So, why?

But as hundreds of witnesses filed through the courtroom, it was not possible to get the files from the informants. It becomes clear. And so it was not possible to ask them the right questions. That many of Seda's questions will not get answered in court. The trial has barely touched on the authorities' failings, nor has it examined the role of German domestic intelligence, which had contacts in their soul. And year after year, the trial drags on.

I was never in a case that takes such a long time. Until eventually... Germany has just registered its one millionth refugee. It fades from the headlines. Resentment of migration is growing in Germany. The AFD, the next far-right party on the rise here in Germany. And other stories. The case of the soldier Franco A., who allegedly planned to...

Take its place. Authorities say the suspect was conspiring to assassinate top politicians and then put the blame on refugees. It was five years. 438 days. And by July 2018, after most of the country has moved on, the judges finally reach a verdict. Were you in the room when it was pronounced?

Yes. Beate Zschäpe is convicted of 10 counts of murder, arson, the formation of a terrorist organization, and membership of a terrorist organization. She's sentenced to life in prison. One of the accomplices

is sentenced to 10 years in prison. The others get three years or less. And all four are released on bail, pending appeal. When the sentences are announced, the Nazis were clapping and loud. Seda says there's actually applause in the courtroom from NSU sympathizers.

Cheering, yes. Yeah. It was a good day for them, and so our clients were really shocked. They punished them too lenient. Like Seda, federal prosecutors had hoped for far tougher sentences. And so it was a not good day for the German justice. Angela Merkel, she gives a promise to my clients. She say that, I promised you that I will do everything to solve the NSU.

And my clients thought that when Angela Merkel says something like that, we can't trust her. So now we know she didn't keep her promise. There is no justice at the end of this case for our clients. Despite the promises of the government, multiple investigations, and her own attempts to unseal the NSU files, Seda never gets the answers she wanted. So my clients ask me, why? Why is this such a problem? Yeah? So we have so many questions.

Who knew what at what point? And they didn't give us the answers. Why do you think? Because they are involved. This is the only possible answer. By the end of the trial, Seda's left in the same place as Stephen Kramer. She says she's come to believe that far-right extremism has infiltrated the very institutions that are supposed to protect against it. And that belief only intensifies three weeks after the trial.

I was at this time in Tunisia. When she's traveling for another case. And I was late night in the hotel and I checked my emails and faxes and so, but one fax was different. What did the fax say? Do you remember the words exactly? Yes.

Your dirty Turkish pick. Du machst Deutschland nicht fertig. You won't finish off Germany. You won't finish off Germany. We will slaughter your daughter. And we know your private address. And at the end they say nsu 2.0 i'm not a hysteric person but i was in tunisia and thousands of kilometers far away from my child. And so I think about it, how serious is this now?

Because these people, he has information about me. So for me was the question, how they get this information from me? How it is possible that they have my address and the name of my daughter? It's not publicly available. And so I call the police. Seda reports the threat, flies home, and an investigation gets underway. A few months later. A few months later. So I was on the road again and I heard on the radio some police officers in Frankfurt are suspended.

Something on the news catches her attention. There are some details and I think it can be my case. So I contact the police officer and say, is something you want to tell me? Because I heard on the radio there are investigations against police officers. Is this my case? So he said, everything is okay, we investigate. two days later journalist write me an email about this suspended police officers in Frankfurt he wants to talk with me and so I call the police officer again and say he is a journalist he wants to talk with me about this suspended offices. Is something you want to tell me? I ask you again. And finally, and he say, okay. The police give her an answer.

He came to my office and say, one hour before this fax sent to me, and say, one hour before this fax sent to me, my address and the name of my daughter, the name of my whole family, my parents and my husband, are accessed in the police computer in Frankfurt. Since NSU, I knew that there are some problems in our institutions in Germany. But for me, it was new that police officers maybe have something to do with threatening my two-year-old daughter.

was threatening my two-year-old daughter. Seda learns that the officer who had been locked onto the computer when her private information was accessed was discovered to be part of a far-right WhatsApp group. The group shared neo-Nazi memes mocking drowned refugees and showing Hitler on a rainbow with the caption, Good night, you Jews. That officer and a handful of others in that group were suspended and the whole police station was searched.

So they suspended these police officers, but they did not prove that they are responsible for the facts. And the investigations continue. In the following months, they will investigate against 38 police officers. The number of suspended officers grows to 38 in just one precinct. I think if you have 38 persons, you have a structural problem. And it's not until May 3rd, 2021, nearly three years after Seda got that fax, that police arrest a man they believe was behind it,

as well as 114 other messages, all signed NSU 2.0. Police say he's never worked for them, that he was probably acting alone, a single case. But how exactly he got access to information on police computers remains unclear. to information on police computers remains unclear. What is clear is that hundreds of officers across the country have come under investigation on suspicion of far-right extremism. Germany has suspended a number of officers suspected of sharing extremist content in online chat groups. In one state, 31 officers were suspended

for sharing images of a refugee in a gas chamber and the shooting of a black man. In another, 25 officers were discovered to be in a racist chat group. Six cadets were kicked out from a police academy after playing down the Holocaust and posting swastikas online. I have long thought that these were only single incidents,

but these are not single cases. Some officers were even found to be hoarding ammunition and Nazi memorabilia, just like Franco A. and the network he was a part of. And it's this kind of thing that investigators are worried about. More than threat letters celebrating the NSU name, they're worried about people actually plotting terrorism.

People who like the NSU are focused on actions, not words. We did not learn from this case. Nothing changes, everything is the same. So now we have Franco R. And so now, SEDA sees another case the institutions missed. And another trial. But this time, the defendant is an officer in the German military who's being accused of plotting an attack

meant to take down the Federal Republic of Germany. And on the same day the news breaks that Franco A. would actually be tried for terrorism, I get a call. It's Franco A. Katrin, tell me what's going on. We're going to go see Franco. Franco A. I don't know what's going on. We're gonna go see Franco.

Franco A. Ah, look! Oh! Okay, let's go. Day X is made by Lindsay Garrison, Claire Tennisgetter, Caitlin Roberts, Larissa Anderson, Michael Benoit, and Katrin Benhold. Additional reporting by Chris Schutze. Thank you. To hear more, search for DayX Matt Purdy, and Cliff Levy. Here's what else you need to know today. Eighty years ago, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt signed an agreement known as the Atlantic Charter. On Thursday, President Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson signed a new version of the Atlantic Charter, the 80-year-old document signed during World War II, outlining both countries' goals for the post-war world. It was a statement of first principles, a promise that the United Kingdom and the United States

would meet the challenges of their age and they would meet it together. the challenges of their age and they would meet it together. The new charter is designed to highlight the growing divide between Western democracies and their autocratic rivals led by Russia and China. In a direct rebuke of both Russia and China, the new charter calls on the U.S. and the U.K. to, quote, oppose interference through disinformation or other malign influences, including in elections. That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Barbaro. See you on Monday.