German court convicts Halle synagogue shooter
The door to the synagogue in Halle, Germany, riddled with bullet holes after an attempted attack on Yom Kippur, October 10, 2019. Image by Jens Schlueter/Getty Images
By David Ian Klein December 21, 2020
Stephan Balliet, the 28-year-old neo-Nazi who opened fire on a German synagogue on Yom Kippur in 2019, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison by a German court on Monday.
During his trial, Balliet acknowledged that his intent was to murder the 51 Jewish worshippers inside Halle’s synagogue, ABC reported. However, he was unable to open the building’s heavy doors. Instead he turned his attention to a nearby kebab shop, where he killed one man and wounded several others.
Balliet also killed a woman from Halle on his way to the kebab shop.
Before the attack, Balliet published a manifesto online announcing his goal was to “Kill as many anti-whites as possible, Jews preferred.”
Balliet was unrepentant during his trial and used his closing statements to go on an antisemitic tirade, during which he engaged in Holocaust denial and accused Jews of ruining Germany.
Balliet only apologized to the court for killing the German woman, saying that “I didn’t want to kill whites.”
Balliet was found “seriously culpable” for his crimes by the court, meaning he would likely not be eligible for early parole after 15 years, something that is often offered to those given life sentences in Germany.
“The verdict makes clear that murderous hatred of Jews meets with no tolerance,” Josef Shuster, head of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, said in a statement. “Up to the end, the attacker showed no remorse, but kept to his hate-filled anti-Semitic [sic] and racist world view.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
