Commemoration of Enver Şimşek and the victims of the NSU

Zum Gedenken an Enver Şimşek und die Opfer des NSU versammelten sich in Jena Winzerla ca. 60 Menschen.

© Stadt Jena

On the occasion of the commemoration of Enver Şimşek and the victims of the National Socialist Underground took place on 11.9.2024 at Enver-Şimşek Square in Jena Winzerla on September 11, 2024, which was attended by around 60 people, including schoolchildren.

The Mayor's speech is attached (the spoken word prevails):

"11 days ago, the state elections took place in Thuringia. The feared and unfortunately expected result has come true. The AfD has not only become the strongest parliamentary group, but has also managed to win more than a third of the seats and thus the blocking minority. Nobody can yet predict how the state of Thuringia will be governed in the next five years.

It is to be feared that it will be as complicated as in the past five years, but now with even greater influence of the AfD in all decisions that require a majority of two thirds of the state parliament.

In 2017, Björn Höcke called for "a 180-degree turnaround in remembrance policy" at an event organized by the AfD youth organization "Junge Alternative". He referred to the Berlin Holocaust memorial and accused the Germans of having "planted a monument of shame in the heart of their capital".

The trivialization of the crimes of the Nazi dictatorship through to historical revisionism, the politically motivated reinterpretation of history, on the part of AfD functionaries is part of the party's everyday program. I think I am right in assuming that this commemoration would no longer exist here in this place in this city if the AfD were in charge.

In view of the Thuringian election results, the question arises more than ever as to what kind of society we want to live in. What values guide our actions? What motivates us? Where do we want to develop?

We - that includes around a third of Thuringians who voted for the AfD, which is classified as right-wing extremist, and 16.2% in Jena.

What motivates them to vote for a party classified as right-wing extremist that has virtually nothing to offer in terms of its program to solve the current challenges, apart from an anti-migrant policy? What drives them to vote for a man who openly advocates concepts of the New Right, who seeks an alliance of ultra-nationalist groups with the aim of ethnically homogenizing Germany and Europe?

This is not about the fact that this country has enormous problems with regard to migration and integration policy, to which federal policy is gradually responding. Nor is it about questioning the individual's right to asylum as such, that Germany is bound by European treaties which it must comply with and whose implementation it must demand.

Rather, I am concerned with how we want to live together as a society that has been shaped by migration for many decades and has derived considerable benefits, particularly economic benefits, from the immigration of people.

It is therefore not surprising that in the current debates about the shortage of skilled workers, the immigration of people is repeatedly seen as one of the main solutions.

For me, it's about what values we want to prioritize for our society and our coexistence. My primary concern here is the dignity of each individual.

Just a few days ago, the wide-ranging exhibition project "Würdemenschen" by Berlin artist Jörg Amonat, which was created to mark the 75th anniversary of the Basic Law and was shown in many places here in Jena, came to an end.

The perspectives on human dignity collected in the exhibition are as diverse as our society. What they have in common is that human dignity, as written in the Basic Law, should be inviolable.

However, human dignity is vulnerable. Is that what we want? No, we don't want that. That is why we who are gathered here are fighting for our pluralistic, cosmopolitan and democratic society, for a cosmopolitan Thuringia.

I will continue to work for this, we will continue to work together, especially in light of the Thuringian election results from the Sunday before last.

I am grateful that you have come together here again this year to commemorate the victims of the National Socialist Underground, the NSU.

Remembering the victims of the NSU and coming to terms with what happened, how the murders came about and why the subsequent investigation and prosecution of the perpetrators was so flawed, threatens to fade into the background.

Yet coming to terms with the past is important in order to gain and maintain a clear view of developments and conditions in our country, even in these difficult times.

The square here is named after Enver-Şimşek-Platz, the man who was the first victim of the NSU murderers to die. Because a name, a specific person, a personal fate allow us to better understand and empathize with what happened back then. Enver Şimşek was murdered in Nuremberg on September 11, 2000, 24 years ago today.

However, the local memorial plaque and the naming of the square stand for all ten murdered people, nine with a migrant background and the policewoman Michele Kiesewetter.

When we come together here today, we remember all the victims of the NSU. After Enver Şimşek, the murders continued.

• in 2001 Abdurrahim Özüdoğru, Süleyman Taşköprü and Habil Kılıҫ had to die,
• In 2004, 20 years ago, Mehmet Turgut was killed by three shots fired by the NSU murderers.

He was not yet 25 years old, of Kurdish descent and had moved to Rostock a few weeks before his death. Here he worked in a kebab snack bar in Rostock-Toitenwinkel, where he was also murdered.

The commission that investigated the murder in the following months announced in a press release just one week after the murder: "A xenophobic background can currently be ruled out". The owner of the snack bar later reported that he had been treated as a suspect by the investigators. It was only after the NSU unmasked itself that the authorities had to admit the racist motive for the murder.

This memorial plaque is also in honor of

• İsmail Yaşar and Theodoros Boulgarides, murdered in 2005 and
• Mehmet Kubaşık and Halit Yozgat, murdered in 2006.
• One year later, on April 25, 2007, policewoman Michèle Kiesewetter was shot dead.

None of them were guilty of anything. They, I am now talking about the migrant victims, had immigrated to Germany years ago, had migrated here to build a better life for themselves. Most of them were self-employed, with all the special challenges that entails. Many had already started families and had children. Mothers and fathers lost their sons, wives their husbands, children their fathers.

As if that wasn't terrible enough, the bereaved had to fend off suspicions that the murders were due to involvement in organized crime, the red light district or drug trafficking.

These allegations very often came from the state, while indications that the crimes might have a xenophobic, right-wing extremist background were not pursued seriously or at all.

The suffering inflicted on the families can hardly really be comprehended.

This makes it all the more important that we as a society come to terms with this failure, evaluate it self-critically and ask for forgiveness.

Six years ago, the criminal proceedings against the perpetrators who are still alive ended with guilty verdicts and, in some cases, long prison sentences. It is important to continue to remember what happened afterwards, to remember the victims and the suffering inflicted on their relatives, including the way in which the murders were handled by the state authorities.

For far too long, you did not pursue the possibility of a right-wing extremist background to the murder of the ten people seriously enough, as would have been necessary and in some cases obvious.

We must keep the events of that time, the murders and the subsequent failure to investigate and come to terms with the crimes today and in the future in mind and in our thoughts so that what happened does not happen again.

I do not want to speculate on how governments, administrations, authorities and courts that are permeated by right-wing populists would deal with incidents such as those described. However, the rhetoric used against migrants raises very serious fears that double standards would be applied to the dignity of the individual.

The failure of the authorities after the murders in the first 10 years of this century alone suggests that many actors in the rule of law were blind in the right eye here. Why did they act in this way?

In order to learn from the past and prevent a repetition of the terrible events, we in Jena must also continue to address the question of how the National Socialist Underground was able to emerge here.

Remembering the victims can be done in many different ways and is important to keep an alert eye on the present and the future.

The NSU memorial year 2021 was an important start. In Jena, we must continue to work on the scientific reappraisal and communication of the history of the NSU and its victims. We must continue to tell the story of Enver Şimşek and the other victims of the NSU and show both young and older people where extreme and inhuman ideologies lead.

With this aim in mind, the Rosenthal Scholarship for Fine Arts has been rededicated as a scholarship for political education and will be used for academic research into the time and environment in which the NSU was able to develop in Jena. The results of this work will be translated into an educational concept that can be used in Jena's schools.

Our local focus must continue to be on clearly countering a climate of xenophobia. We as an urban society must work on further improving the overall atmosphere for people with a migrant background in everyday life.

It is often small projects and signs of humanity and civil courage that make it clear that people with a migrant background belong to us and that we will not allow this social consensus to be destroyed.

This also means that we as a city must send out visible signals that we will not tolerate a climate of fear, intimidation and violence in our city.

By this I mean publicly visible signs such as our commitment to the "Weltoffenes Thüringen" alliance as well as non-public meetings and discussions with those affected, with the victims, so that they know that they are not alone and who they can turn to if necessary.

We must all take a stand against these and all other right-wing extremist and misanthropic acts!

The naming of the square Enver-Şimşek-Platz here four years ago was an important and visible sign that is here to stay. The continued honest examination of the NSU issue is a way of hopefully healing open wounds from the past and raising awareness of the need for vigilance in the present.

We want to preserve the memory in the city's consciousness and accept our own responsibility in coming to terms with the past.

In view of the pressure on our society, it is essential that the democratic constitution of our country, human and civil rights and the dignity of every individual are preserved.

We want people of migrant origin to feel safe in Jena, to feel comfortable and to find a home, even if it is only a temporary home.

This applies equally to people who have lived with us for a long time, who have come to Jena for family or professional reasons or who have received or applied for asylum. The same applies to refugees from Ukraine, for example.

I am glad that the struggle for our human coexistence is supported by the breadth of Jena's urban society. The commitment of the citizens' initiatives is essential here, as they have made a decisive contribution to advancing the process of our internal debate within the city. We will continue to work together constructively in this spirit.

Let us now lay a wreath in memory of Enver Şimşek and all other victims of the NSU.