Four people died as a result of the occupation of the West German embassy in 1975. Two of the hostages were executed by members of the Baader-Meinhof, or Red Army faction (RAF) as they were also called, and two of the terrorists died as a result of explosions in the building.
“Trying to hide their faces”
About a month later, four members of the movement appear in Stockholm at an open meeting organized by KRUM, the National Association for the Humanization of the Prison and Probation Service.
- Nobody really knows who they are.
When photographed, they try to hide their faces.
Little by little, it dawns on the audience that they are part of, or sympathize with, Baader-Meinhof, says journalist Lasse Lampers in the documentary series Kriminalarkivet.
The first time the recording is published
One of the members, Susanne Albrecht, takes the floor and reads out a more than 30-minute manifesto that gave the RAF's version of why the embassy was occupied and whose fault it was that more people died.
- This is the first time we hear the group's own rhetoric delivered by themselves fully open and not in any tape recording from an underground cellar.
Here they have taken over the meeting and spread these provocative messages over an increasingly shocked congregation.
Hear parts of the recording in the clip above. Want to know more about West German terrorism and the embassy occupation in Stockholm? See the Criminal Archive with Pops and Lampers in SVT Play.