Arsonist with ‘Hitler fixation’ identified 56 years after deadly blaze
Discovery too late for justice: 25-year-old neo-Nazi who set fire to a Jewish community centre in Munich in 1970 died in 2020
Investigators in Germany say they have finally identified the neo-Nazi who set fire to a Jewish retirement home in Munich in 1970 which killed seven Holocaust survivors and injured another 15 people, four of them seriously.
The revelation, made after officials reopened the case last year when a witness came forward with new evidence, comes too late for justice for the victims as the suspect died in 2020.
Whilst not naming the 25-year-old, Der Spiegel magazine has partially identified him as “Bernd V.”
Prosecutors say that at around 20:40 on 13 February 1970, the arsonist poured petrol into the wooden stairwell at the home inside the Jewish community building on Reichenbachstrasse, and then set it alight. The fire spread quickly to the top floor of the building.
While many residents managed to escape to the roof or were rescued by firefighters, four of the victims died in the stairwell and another died after jumping from a window.
In a joint statement, police and prosecutors said: “The new investigations conducted after the reopening of the case strongly indicate that the suspect was the perpetrator,” adding that “a witness provided credible information on the suspect,” who “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.”
The statement says that a conclusive “legal clarification” wasn’t possible as charges cannot be brought against a deceased person under German law.
The alleged arsonist, the statement said, belonged to the “right-wing milieu,” and witnesses described him as an antisemite with a “Hitler fixation”, who was heard claiming near the community building that “the Jews had everything” and he wanted to “set them on fire”. Fifteen minutes later, the building was engulfed in flames.
The investigation into the arson attack, which took place three days after an attempted hijacking at Munich airport by ‘Action Organisation for the Liberation of Palestine’, who denied any involvement, was closed in 2017 because of a lack of conclusive evidence, before being re-opened last year.