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Ronny Hartmann / dpa
After Bernd H., 74 years old and a retired anthropology professor, had finished his testimony, the presiding judge played a video of the crime on the screens in the hearing room.
The assassin had filmed his crime with two cameras, one he had attached to his steel helmet, and the video could already be seen on the second day of the trial.
The second camera was in the jacket pocket of his fantasy uniform.
It is the 11th day of the trial against the former chemistry student Stephan Balliet, who was 27 at the time of the crime.
On October 9, 2019, he tried to break into the Halle synagogue.
His declared goal: to kill as many Jews as possible.
The attack is considered to be the worst anti-Semitic attack in the post-war period; the charges are murder and attempted murder, assault, sedition, blackmail and much more.
For reasons of security and space, the State Security Senate of the Naumburg Higher Regional Court negotiates in the Magdeburg Regional Court.
"Secondary goals" in the Kiez-Döner
Because the synagogue door withstood Balliet's attack, he shot a passer-by who happened to be passing out of frustration.
On the hall screen you can now see from the first person shooter perspective how he drives down a street after these shots in search of further victims.
And when he discovers the "Kiez-Döner" snack in Ludwig-Wucherer-Straße: "Döner, we'll take it", you hear him say.
Balliet admitted to court that he wanted to kill "Musels" there, and that he considered them to be "secondary targets" after he had failed to storm the synagogue and kill Jews.
On that day, Bernd H., the anthropologist, a white-haired elderly man, scientist, cosmopolitan, was also sitting in the Kiez-Döner.
In the crime video on the hall screen he sees himself sitting there again in front of his plate, shots rang out.
From the perspective of the assassin, H. sees himself fleeing, in a red sweater, up a flight of stairs, he sees a rifle barrel protruding into the picture and the assassin aiming at him, pulling the trigger, once, twice, but no shot is fired.
H. recalls in court that the shooter had aimed at him twice, but he only noticed afterwards.
He concentrated so much on the stairs: "I thought: Don't fall now."
"Like winning the lottery"
Dr.
Bernd H. had traveled to an editorial conference in Halle, before he wanted to have a quick snack: "There was still a short-term parking space between the kebab shop and the pharmacy," reports H. 'So lucky,' he thought, 'that's yes like winning the lottery '.
What followed seemed unreal to him at first: When it banged, he asked himself which idiot was setting off a firecracker.
When he noticed the shot that went through the window, he remained seated, fascinated by the image of the shattered glass.
He saw the assassin come in with a helmet on his head: "I have no military experience," says witness H. "He had an object in his hand that I thought was a paintball gun. I made no connection between it Shot and the rifle. "
Only when another snack visitor shouted: "Get out of here, he'll shoot all of us" did he realize what was happening.
While the assassin was struggling with a load jam in his back, he escaped via the said stairs into a storage room, where he jumped through the window onto a garbage can, fell to the floor and bruised the left side of his body.
"I have children"
"I was gasping," remembers H. "And from that moment on I know that I was terribly afraid that the perpetrator would come after me. Even on the stairs I heard someone shout: 'No, please don't shoot.'
I don't know if I still heard: 'I have children' ".
Then more shots were fired.
Later, when the police had already searched the surrounding buildings for possible further assassins, rumors spread among the survivors that a young man had been killed, Kevin S., an apprentice painter.
"An emergency doctor came around 12:50," recalls Bernd H. "She went into the snack bar deliberately slowly and came out again, it was clear that Kevin S. was dead."
more on the subject
Process start in Magdeburg: "I didn't want to kill any whites" Beate Lakotta reports from Magdeburg
Trial after the Halle assassination attempt: "After today he will not cause me any more agony" Beate Lakotta reports from Magdeburg
Icon: Video anti-Semitism: "You can't just stand by and watch!" A video by Carolin Katschak
Victims of the Halle attack: "At first there were many there for us, but today we are alone again" An interview by Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt
Trial of the Halle assassin: Monstrous act, monstrous evidence Beate Lakotta reports from Magdeburg
The presiding judge Ursula Mertens asks Bernd H. how he fared after the fact: The witness remains sober in tone: He was given opium-containing painkillers for six weeks because of the bruise: "I can highly recommend them."
He did not seek psychological help: "I handled it differently."
His family picked him up.
"I'm fine now, as far as I can tell personally."
On the previous days of the trial, there had been all sorts of disagreements among the 45 joint plaintiffs and their lawyers in the courtroom.
Basically, it was about the aim of this criminal case.
As a listener, Bernd H. had watched how survivors from the synagogue criticized the police, the investigating authorities and the court with sometimes harsh words: They would neglect the political dimensions of the attack.
The social debate about racism and anti-Semitism must also be conducted in court.
Others, including the lawyer who represents his father Bernd H. in the proceedings as a joint plaintiff, had objected: The criminal proceedings are primarily about the defendant's guilt.
"Completely absurd development path"
Now another accessory attorney asks the witness Bernd H: "What do you expect from this trial?"
"I am not entitled to a verdict on a legal proceeding," says H. But he expects society to recognize through the course of the proceedings and through the statements of the accused that "a deeply despicable crime has occurred here, and that out of something sleepy middle of society. "
According to Bernd H., himself a father, it is "difficult to imagine" that the accused "with his fantasies, his stubbornness and his racist, xenophobic, deeply inhuman attitude" could develop in such a way without his environment being aware of it.
Someone who, like the defendant, has passed a high school diploma and whose mother is an ethics teacher, should have read at least Article 20 of the Basic Law.
"He should have realized that this presumption of denying someone the right to life because of their beliefs, their origins - socially and biologically - is impossible."
"What prompted you to take part in the proceedings as a joint plaintiff?" Asks the presiding judge Ursula Mertens.
"I'm still looking for the appropriate expression," thought H. aloud.
"Spontaneously I would say: my anger."
- "That is appropriate," Mertens thinks.
"No, that has to be more differentiated," reflects the witness.
"I want the perpetrator to be made clear that he has embarked on a completely absurd development path, at least in our society. That his act has nothing at all to do with our legal system and our basic values. We are proud of the achievements of the French Revolution. That we have been granting equality to all people since 1789. No individual can set criteria according to which one or the other forfeited his life, that is my firm belief. "
The assassin has listened attentively to Bernd H. up to this point, he looks at the witness, it seems as if he remains completely unaffected by H's words.
Bernd H. says he thought for a long time before he decided to take part in the proceedings as a joint plaintiff: "But then I said to myself: I have to face him as a member of civil society and tell him: You deserve what is likely to be the court will speak of you. "
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