The Society of Friends of Halit
Unraveling the NSU Complex!

In May 2006, nearly four thousand people attended demonstrations in Kassel and Dortmund under the slogan “No 10th Victim,” which had been organized by the families of the victims of a series of murders, the first of which occurred in 2000. Until the crimes of the neo-Nazi NSU (Nationalsozialistischer Untergrund) were uncovered in 2011, police investigations had largely focused on the victims’ families and communities. Yet these families and communities had already identified the murders as motivated by racism—both in their statements during the 2006 demonstrations and even earlier.

The Society of Friends of Halit situates the shots that killed Halit Yozgat within a long history of racist violence that is deeply rooted in German society. We use the term “NSU Complex” to describe this combination of neo-Nazi terror and institutional and structural racism.

We mourn the victims of the NSU: Enver Şimşek (2000 in Nuremberg), Abdurrahim Özüdoǧru (2001 in Nuremberg), Süleyman Taşköprü (2001 in Hamburg), Habil Kılıç (2001 in Munich), Mehmet Turgut (2004 in Rostock), İsmail Yaşar (2005 in Nuremberg), Theodoros Boulgarides (2005 in Munich), Mehmet Kubaşık (2006 in Dortmund), and police officer Michèle Kiesewetter (2007 in Heilbronn).

With the exception of the last murder, the NSU targeted those who comprised the very fabric of daily life in migrant communities in Germany. They were small business owners: proprietors of a flower shop, a locksmith’s shop, restaurants, kiosks, an internet café.

The Society of the Friends of Halit is an alliance that renarrates histories and addresses institutional and structural racism through self-organized investigations. The Society consists of various groups, initiatives, and individuals whose work is devoted to antiracist and antifascist research and activism. It has taken shape within the working context of the People’s Tribunal “Unraveling the NSU Complex” and it is part of the documenta 14 Parliament of Bodies.

The Society hosts a series of presentations and discussions during documenta 14 in Kassel. The Society also presents documentation of their investigtions, research, and activism at the Neue Neue Galerie (Neue Hauptpost), with contributions by Forensic Architecture, Initiative 6. April the People’s Tribunal “Unraveling the NSU Complex,” and spot_the_silence. The presentation specifically addresses the killing of Halit Yozgat in Kassel and the presence of secret service agent Andreas Temme at the scene and time of the murder.