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The horror can still be seen in the witness Roman R. The 32-year-old works for a Jewish youth organization and is the singer for the Jewish community in Halle. He wears a kippah and a dark suit in front of the court, describes the dramatic events in the synagogue: how there was a loud roar outside, how he saw the murderer dressed in martial clothes and looking at a weapon from his elevated position as a singer on the monitor of the camera of surveillance in front of others and then the image, which you will never forget: “I saw how Mrs. Jana L. fell”, recalls Roman R. “When I saw that, I knew it was serious.”
It is the eighth day of the trial for the assassination attempt at the Halle synagogue, when the people who were the target of the terrorist attack express their opinion for the first time. On October 9, 2019, 27-year-old former chemistry student Stephan Balliet, with all his riot gear and a self-made arsenal, tried to break into the church to kill as many Jews as possible.
The self-proclaimed defender of a “white Europe” failed at the door of the synagogue, out of frustration he shot Jana L. de Halle, who was passing by, and then in a kebab shop the painter Kevin S.’s day laborer, who thought that he was a Muslim.
The charges are double murder and 68 assassination attempts, Holocaust denial, sedition, predatory extortion and more. The State Security Senate of the Higher Regional Court of Naumburg meets in the largest chamber of the Magdeburg Regional Court, for security and space reasons.
“Then it became clear to me that it was a terrorist attack,” continues Roman R. “Get down,” he yelled at the older parishioners. The door has begun to be barricaded: “There were also some who said: let’s go out and fight.” Today I couldn’t stop thinking: if they had known the killer was alone, they could have come out and stoned him and somehow had overpowered him. “Then it would be over.”
But as it was, they remained inside the building until police officers could be seen on the monitor. They would have opened the door carefully and discovered bottles of champagne filled with liquid in the grass, incendiary devices that had not ignited. Out on the street, says Roman R., it looked like “a war.”
The smell of smoke spread
Ilona B. *, 30 years old, declared in the morning. She lives in Berlin, has a master’s degree in international law, was part of a Jewish group from Berlin that traveled to Halle to celebrate Yom Kippur with the local community there, the most important Jewish holiday. “We wanted to give the community a bit of life, almost all of them are older people. And we wanted to get out of the big city and celebrate Yom Kippur in peace and quiet, ”says the witness. “Unfortunately it didn’t work out.”
The woman with the red-blonde ponytail reports in a practical tone: When one hears an “extremely loud bang” from outside in the synagogue around noon, the prayer initially continued normally, then came the second hit. From the women’s gallery she registered that there had been emotion on the surveillance camera monitor. She saw the fear on the singer’s face: “Then she said to herself: someone is shooting at the synagogue.” The smell of smoke spread.
The women tried to get to safety: “The gallery only had one path down, which went through the entrance. If he had entered, we would not have had the opportunity.”
“What was happening in you?”, Asks the presiding judge Ursula Mertens. “Honestly,” the witness replied, “I really couldn’t imagine it. The idea that someone in Halle of all places was trying to shoot the synagogue seemed absurd to me.”
She contacted the mother of the dead
Inside, they didn’t know what had happened outside for a long time, even when the police had already arrived. Communication with officers was poor, says the witness. Through other channels they finally received “reports from outside that someone was shot, that there was a second crime scene, that the perpetrator had fled,” says B. “That was the moment you realized that it really was He passed.”
The next day he got in touch with the mother of the murdered Jana L. “Now I know what she was like as a person and not just as a dead person,” says Ilona B. “That doesn’t make it any easier.”
“How did you feel afterwards?” Asks the presiding judge. “Actually, so far, pretty good,” says Ilona B., mentioning that after the attack she even bought a bouquet of flowers on the way to her apartment in Berlin. “But I can’t forget the fact that two people are dead because I’m Not am I’d rather you shoot me. I can forgive him for trying to kill me, but not for killing two other people who had nothing to do with it. I don’t know if I can get rid of the guilt for it. ”
“I firmly believe in the future of Jewish life in Germany”
For a moment, there is an awkward silence in the hall. Then the presiding judge asks, “What do you think and feel about the Jewish community in Germany?” B. responds: “I think that, as shocking as it was for us, Jewish life has endured longer. We will continue as before.”
“I strongly believe in the future of Jewish life in Germany,” Rabbi Jeremy Appelbaum Borovitz said during his testimony that morning. Borovitz had accompanied the group of young men to Halle. He has lived in Berlin for a year and a half, said the witness, who fell in love with the city: “Before this event we did not know how long we would stay. Now I can say that Jewish life in Germany will continue. My privilege to be a part of it “.
Witness Mollie S., 32, spoke in front of the rabbi: she said she worked for a Jewish non-governmental organization across Europe and around the world. The grumpy laughter of the accused is heard and the presiding judge immediately calls her to order. The witness continued: Their job is to put people of different religions in contact. A synagogue, Mollie S. said, had always been a place where she felt safe, until “the event,” as she calls the attack, connected her to this aspect of her origins: “My grandfather was in My family was the only Holocaust survivor. More than a hundred of her relatives died in the Holocaust. He held me in his arms. Every year on Yom Kippur he made me cry. “
Now she herself is one of the survivors: “She didn’t want that, but now she is.” And after a phase in which she was traumatized and unable to work, she felt strong again. “She’s messed with the wrong person, the wrong family, the wrong people,” Mollie S. says of the defendant: “After today, it won’t cause me any more agony. It ends here and now.”
The witness addresses the murderer directly.
At the end of his testimony, the witness Roman R. turned directly to the murderer: Only days after the attack he returned to the synagogue: “I was on the street where you were,” says Roman R., “and I want you to know: there were many people there, and very few Jews. They were young, old, residents of Halle. They were singing “Shalom”, “Peace”. They said that we will not leave this place, that we will protect them. And then I understood: this is the Germany that I know. “
Roman R. looks the killer straight in the face: “I’ll stay, build my family here. And you have to live with what you did the rest of the time. It didn’t work.”
* Name changed at the request of the witness
