A place of remembrance for the victims of the NSU
Between 1999 and 2007, the far-right Nationalsozialistischer Untergrund (“National Socialist Underground”, NSU) murdered ten people, nine of whom with racist motives, and committed three bomb attacks, injuring numerous people. The three terrorist perpetrators came from Jena and were supported by an extreme right-wing network. The fact that the NSU remained undetected for so long was largely attributable to failures on the part of the police and the domestic intelligence services.
Following the exposure of the terrorist cell in November 2011, the Thuringian state parliament dealt intensively with the NSU complex. Due to the special responsibility of the Free State of Thuringia, the parliament decided in September 2017 to erect a memorial to the victims. This was followed by an artistic competition in which the bereaved were involved.
The Schattenwurf installation (meaning “shadows cast”) commemorates the victims of the NSU's unprecedented series of murders and attacks and invites you to listen: QR codes on the respective pillars of the memorial provide access to audio contributions with memories of the relatives of the individual murder victims on site. These can be played on visitors' mobile devices (with or without headphones).
On this website you will find all the contents of the place of remembrance, the audio contributions can be heard in the memories section. The transcribed texts are available in the respective audio contributions. They are taken from the book by Barbara John entitled "Unsere Wunden kann die Zeit nicht heilen" and can be used thanks to the kind permission of Verlag Herder GmbH, Freiburg i. Breisgau.
