Dachau: The smear campaign continues – Dachau

The anti-Semitic smear campaign in the district of Dachau does not stop. Since September 2020, a letter with exactly the same content, in which the Holocaust is denied and incited against Jews, has been sent to randomly selected recipients. It has been quiet since February of this year – until a week and a half ago. The stranger has now chosen the Carmel Holy Blood at the Dachau concentration camp memorial site as the addressee. Since its founding in 1964, the nuns of the monastery have commemorated the victims of National Socialism in a special way.

“To put it mildly, the content of this letter is impossible,” Sister Katharina told the SZ. Among other things, it claims that Zyklon B, which was used to gasse children, women and men in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, was only used to combat lice or that the number of Jews before and after the Second World War was the same. Sister Katharina is certain: “You can’t just leave something like that or throw it in the wastepaper basket. People have to be informed about it so that they become vigilant.” The monastic community has reported the anti-Semitic attack on the Jewish community and the memory of the Holocaust through the district home nurse Norbert Göttler.

There are now 203 hate letters

“These letters are disgusting, disgusting and inhuman,” says Fürstenfeldbruck detective chief Manfred Frei, whose state security commissioner is investigating the case. The letters constitute a crime of Holocaust denial. Chief public prosecutor Andreas Franck, the central anti-Semitism commissioner of the Bavarian judiciary, took over the proceedings. The police are now aware of 202 identical letters – plus the current ones, which all went to the whole of Bavaria via letter center 82 in Starnberg.

Addressees also received identical mail in northern Germany and in cities such as Frankfurt and Berlin. 1.5 million letters pass through the distribution center every day. Frei assumes that the number of hate letters is much larger, since many recipients would throw away the letters. In the summer of 2021, before the general election, the campaign really picked up speed. After employees of the Evangelical Church of Reconciliation at the concentration camp memorial, other institutions and local politicians, boys’ clubs in particular were targeted by right-wing extremists – especially in the Dachau district. Clubs in the communities of Odelzhausen, Sulzemoos and Bergkirchen received this mail. But the anti-Semitic and racist diatribes also hit the Fürstenfeldbruck district, for example in Eichenau and in the town of Puchheim.

A lone culprit is probably behind it

The Fürstenfeldbruck investigators have so far not had a hot lead to the author – despite an intensive search, in which, for example, profilers were used to create case analyzes to solve serious violent crimes. The officials suspect that only one person, a woman or a man, is behind the campaign because the letters and envelopes are identical down to the last detail.

It is likely an older person, since the hate letters are delivered by post and not by email. The forensic investigation yielded no results. The perpetrator(s) handled the envelopes and contents with gloves. Only self-adhesive envelopes were used, which did not contain any saliva samples that could be used for DNA analysis.

Over time, eight alias names were used as senders – all related to the Nazi era. At first the letters were signed Leni von Winkelried. Arnold von Winkelried is a mythical figure in Swiss history who was revered by the Nazis. At the end of 1944, “Winkelried” was given as a name of honor to those members of the German Navy who sacrificed themselves in battle “for leaders, people and fatherland”.

Maybe that was a mistake

The investigators were a bit surprised by the current letter to the monastic community in Dachau, as detective chief Frei says. Because the last letter was opened in February of this year, since then the smear campaign seems to have died down. Investigators can’t say why either. The letter to the monastic community, addressed to the prioress Sister Irmengard, was sender by a name that had been used before: Leni van Oost.

In an interview with the SZ, district home nurse Göttler regretfully stated: “Unfortunately, the source has not dried up, despite all the efforts of the authorities, now the letter writer does not shy away from bothering the nuns.” However, this circumstance could arouse resentment in the population – with the result that the police may still receive information about the identity of the perpetrator.

A statue of Mary from the priest block

Karmel Heilig Blut Dachau was founded near the site of the former concentration camp in which more than 200,000 people from all over Europe suffered from 1933 until its liberation on April 29, 1945 by US troops. Around 41,500 Nazi victims did not survive the terror in the main camp and its many satellite camps.

It was the founder, the Carmelite Mother Maria Theresa of Crucified Love, who wanted to turn this place of former horrors into a place of prayer and a living sign of hope. Today’s religious community organizes many events to commemorate the victims of Nazi terror. The statue of Mary in the church comes from the priest’s block of the former concentration camp.

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