Look Away: A True Story of Murders, Bombings, and a Far-Right Campaign to Rid Germany of Immigrants
Book Launch with Author Jacob Kushner (former Journalist in Residence at the Max Planck Institute)
- Date: Jun 3, 2024
- Time: 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
- Speaker: Jacob Kushner
- Jacob Kushner is an international correspondent who writes for magazines from Africa, Germany and the Caribbean. He reports on migration and human rights, foreign aid and investment, terrorism and violent extremism, science and global health, climate change and wildlife, and press freedom. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, National Geographic and VICE, among others. In the summer of 2022, Jacob spent two months researching his book as a Journalist in Residence Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law in Freiburg.
- Location: Freiburg/Germany, Günterstalstr. 73
- Room: Auditorium | Guests are welcome; please register
- Host: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law
- Contact: a.schaich@csl.mpg.de
Not long after the fall of the Berlin Wall, three young people in the East German city of Jena become friends. At a time of economic crisis, they began attending far-right rallies with people who described themselves as National Socialists and blamed minorities for their grievances. From 2000 to 2011, the most gruesome series of murders by white nationalists since the Holocaust took place – their target: immigrants.
Look Away follows the National Socialist Underground (NSU) around Beate Zschäpe and her two accomplices as they radicalized themselves in Germany’s far-right scene, went into hiding and carried out their terrorist attacks. As the police did not want to admit that the brutal murders and bomb attacks were carried out by white Germans, they targeted immigrants instead.
A masterpiece of investigative journalism and novelistic storytelling, Look Away reveals how a group of young Germans perpetrated a shocking series of white supremacist acts of violence and how a nation and its government ignored them until it was too late.
In his presentation in Freiburg Jacob will offer insights on current events in the U.S. and Germany and will then talk with Max Planck senior researcher Michael Kilchling about his journalistic approach to the case.
Please register your participation with Anna Schaich: a.schaich@csl.mpg.de.