Religious Intolerance

Man Behind Grisly Holocaust Survivor Murders Finally Identified Decades Later

German police vehicle, Dickelbers, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

German investigators announced Thursday they have identified the perpetrator of a 1970 arson attack on a Jewish community center in Munich that killed seven Holocaust survivors, multiple outlets reported.

The attack on the community center is widely considered one of the most serious crimes against Germany’s Jewish community since World War II, according to the Bangkok Post. German police and prosecutors confirmed on Thursday that new evidence “clearly” points to a man who died in 2020 at age 75, having been 25 years old during the arson attack, German state-funded outlet DW News reported.

“A witness provided credible information on the suspect,” Prosecutors and Munich’s police precinct said in a joint statement released Thursday, DW News reported. “She said that the suspect had been in close contact with one of her close relatives in the 1970s. Shortly after the death of this relative, she revealed her knowledge on the matter.”

Though, investigators added that a definitive “legal determination” is unfeasible because German law does not allow charges to be brought against someone who is already dead, according to the outlet.

Police and prosecutors alleged that the suspect had a “Hitler fixation” and witnesses said he was an antisemite, the Bangkok Post reported. The seven individuals killed in the attack were all Holocaust survivors aged 59 to 71, and an additional 15 people sustained injuries from the fire, BBC News reported.

Investigators said the suspect allegedly claimed that “the Jews have everything” during the night of the attack, according to DW News.

“These allegations are based on credible statements from the witness, who in turn was relaying what her deceased relative told her,” the prosecutor’s office said, per the outlet. “Additional relatives confirmed these statements.”