There is no doubt. On Friday, the German antiterrorist prosecutor's office revealed that the alleged perpetrator of the attack on a synagogue and a Turkish restaurant in Halle, Germany, confessed to the anti-Semitic motivation of his act. Stephan Balliet, a 27-year-old German, "passed a full confession, he confirmed his anti-Semitic and extreme right motivations during a" very long "interrogation by a judge, according to a spokesman for the Federal Prosecutor's Office.
After trying unsuccessfully on Wednesday to enter the synagogue, in the middle of Yom Kippur, the shooter, armed with four weapons and explosives, shot dead a passerby and a few minutes later a young man in a kebab restaurant. He was eventually arrested by the police following a car chase.
Right-wing extremist "marked by frightening anti-Semitism"
The toll could have been much heavier if the double-locked door of the synagogue had not withstood the assailant's gunshots. The assault, filmed and broadcast live for 35 minutes on a streaming platform, was led by a right-wing extremist "marked by frightening anti-Semitism, hatred from abroad" and "heavily armed", according to the antiterrorist prosecutor , Peter Frank.
The weekly Der Spiegel to appear on Saturday reveals that Stephan Balliet, then aged 18, was trained in 2010 and 2011 to use an assault rifle during a six-month military service in the German army. "In retrospect, we can rejoice that he did not learn much in the Bundeswehr, otherwise he could have killed many more people in Halle," said a German military source in the newspaper.
"In his vision of the world, he blames others for his own misery"
In the video of his actions, posted on a streaming platform, he denied the existence of the Holocaust and attacked the Jews. He has also published on the internet a "manifesto" in which he expresses his anti-Semitic views. His lawyer, Hans-Dieter Weber, said in an interview with ARD on Friday that his client was intelligent, eloquent, but socially isolated.
According to him, the trigger of his act would be that he held others responsible for his own problems: "In his vision of the world, he blames others for his own misery."
Enhanced security
During searches at his father's home, the investigators discovered a 3D printer that would have allowed him to make his own weapons, says Spiegel magazine. In his room at his mother's home in the nearby village, the police also recovered a hard drive. The latter told Spiegel that the door to her son's room was always locked so that no one could enter it.
The Jewish community has criticized the inadequacy of protection measures for synagogues and places of worship. Angela Merkel's government pledged on Thursday to "significantly" reinforce this protection as this attempt at an anti-Semitic and racist "massacre" caused a shock wave in a country still haunted by its Nazi past.
Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has promised that Jewish synagogues and places of worship would be "better protected" in the future. What happened Wednesday in Halle is "a shame for the whole country, and with our history, such a thing must not happen," he said. The German Jewish community, in full swing in Germany 75 years after the Holocaust, begins Friday night commemorating Shabbat in a heavy climate and in synagogues where security measures have been reinforced everywhere.