Fifty-six years after seven Holocaust survivors were killed in an arson attack on a Jewish nursing home in Munich, Der Spiegel reported that a neo-Nazi with an extensive criminal record was most likely responsible.
According to the report, the attacker was Brand V., a far-right extremist who lived in Munich at the time. Brand V. died several years ago.
It has now emerged that the likely perpetrator was a fervent antisemite from the extreme right.
The report says that a former member of Brand V.’s robbery gang told his family that Brand V., whose full name was not released, and another accomplice had attempted to break into a jewelry store at Gärtnerplatz, near the Jewish community center that housed the nursing home. The attempted robbery took place the night before the arson. When the burglary failed, Brand V. began cursing Jews and vowed to burn down the community building, according to the testimony.
Brand V. was born into a wealthy family. His parents were dentists in southern Munich. He spent part of his youth in boarding schools, where he stood out for his intelligence and a pronounced attraction to violence.
Influenced by an uncle who had served in the SS and who gave him a handgun and a dagger engraved with the initials of the Hitler Youth for his 12th birthday, he developed what childhood friends later described as an obsession with Adolf Hitler. He frequently visited Hitler’s mountain retreat and kept numerous copies of Hitler’s speeches in his room.
As an adult, he turned to crime. He was arrested after blowing up two telephone booths and carrying out several burglaries in the 1960s, and was eventually sentenced to six and a half years in prison in the early 1970s.
Investigators believe that on the night of the attack, Brand V. entered the community building with ease. Security at Jewish institutions in Germany was tightened only after the fire. He allegedly climbed to the fourth floor carrying a can of gasoline, then made his way down, pouring fuel on the stairwell. At the exit, he set the building ablaze.
Six Jewish residents burned to death. A seventh victim died after jumping from a window.
