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Brothers Ismet and Rifat Tekin developed various strategies to cope with what they experienced on October 9, 2019.
One brother, Rifat, put on his kitchen apron this Tuesday and is in the “Kiez Döner” in Halle, which he runs together with his brother.
He cuts meat from the spit and sticks to everyday life.
His brother, however, is sitting in room C24 of the Magdeburg Regional Court at the same time as every day of the trial against Stephan Balliet - to process what happened in his snack bar at the time.
The Halle assassin shot and killed Kevin Schwarze there, simply because he was there and "looked like a Middle Eastern man," as the defendant said at the trial.
In the proceedings of the Naumburg Higher Regional Court, which has been negotiating against the right-wing extremist since June, it was the day of the victims and survivors.
On Tuesday, the co-plaintiffs’s 21 lawyers began their pleadings.
They made it clear what consequences the attack still has for their mandates today, but also criticized the investigative work of the Federal Criminal Police Office.
The investigators did not understand the importance of the Internet for radicalization and did not know enough about how individual platforms worked.
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The lawyer for the Tekin brothers, the Berlin defense attorney Onur Özata, stated in a moving plea that the two snack bar operators regard Halle as their home.
“For them, Halle is the most beautiful and quietest corner in the world,” says Özata.
"When I'm in Turkey, I want to go home after two weeks, to Halle," he quoted Ismet Tekin.
But after the attack they became "other people".
"The feeling of being threatened has changed the way you see Germany."
Kevin had found his place
This experience is shared by all bereaved families and survivors, reported several lawyers.
So the two representatives of Kevin Schwarze's parents described the suffering of mother and father.
“Kevin was born as a mentally handicapped child, and with the help of his parents he still tried to make something of his life,” says lawyer Christian Eifler.
He had managed to earn a place in society, loved football, had friends and listened to music.
“You took all that from him,” said Eifler in the direction of the defendant.
"They also destroyed their family's life and took their only child from their own mother in the most disgusting way," said Eifler.
"That was all she had."
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The Jena lawyer Kristin Pietrzyk accused the police of not being deeply immersed in Balliet's history of radicalization and of not having understood what role the so-called “image boards” played on the Internet.
Because for the change to the right-wing extremist no comradeship with real like-minded comrades is responsible, but the "virtual exchange of right-wing ideas" with people who hide behind pseudonyms.
A language that outsiders cannot understand
“The participants speak to each other in graphics, images and allusions, there are no limits to what can be said,” said Pietrzyk.
This creates a coded language that outsiders would find difficult to understand.
The BKA did not understand that.
The defendant wanted to prove his supposed masculinity for his community, the lawyer continued.
Even during the act, he was interested in exchanging ideas with his community.
For others, this group only feels hatred and resentment, is greedy for the "extermination" of Jews, foreigners or Muslims and relates positively to National Socialism.
"Defending against the beginnings is not enough, we are right in the middle," said Pietrzyk.
"We have to prevent the list of attacks from being extended."
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The lawyer Mark Lupschitz emphasized that the assassin had missed his target.
“My clients say: we are here.
We're not going to be extinguished, ”said Lupschitz.
During the attack, they fought against the intruder, who tried in vain to get into the synagogue.
They barricaded the entrances and calmed each other down.
Kati Lang, attorney for survivors from the synagogue, pointed to a "flaw" in the process.
The fate of the assassin's first victim, Jana Lange, was hardly discussed, which was also due to the lack of involvement of relatives in the proceedings.
She died walking past the assassin, talking to him about the "noise" and not realizing how dangerous the situation was.
Balliet shot her several times in the back.
“Ideological gaps” in investigators?
Jewish life is not safe in Germany.
“The state has failed.
He has to protect the citizens.
Citizens do not have to apply for protection; the state must guarantee it, ”said Lang.
"The police failed to analyze the synagogue's risk," said the lawyer.
Lang also criticized the investigators who had revealed "ideological gaps" and who stood out due to "sheer ignorance".
The lawyer Erkan Görgülü, who represents the father of Kevin Schwarze, took up the contradictions in the life of the accused.
He had a good family, loving parents, graduated from high school and started studying.
An operation threw him off course.
“The health insurance paid for it, the society that they hate so much.” Health insurance contributions from Jews, foreigners and communists also helped him.
The assassin forfeited a life in freedom forever, said Görgülü.
“This man is dangerous.
He makes no secret of it, ”said the lawyer.
"Please make sure that he is never released," he appealed to the court.
Finally, he quoted the last words of Kevin Schwarze, the young man who began an apprenticeship as a painter a few days before the attack and who began to master his life despite his challenges.
They can be heard well on the assassin's film.
Black begs the shooter who points a gun to keep him alive.
Görgülü repeated it.
“No, please don't, please don't.
No, no, please don't, no, please.
Not."