NSU murders: memorials with question marks

If you want to see how the terror of the National Socialist Underground (NSU) is remembered particularly eagerly and in a variety of ways in Nuremberg, you have to go to Scharrerstrasse in the southeast of the city. Where the snack bar operator İsmail Yaşar was shot dead in his kebab stand on the morning of June 9, 2005. It is still said today that everyone liked him, especially the children at the Scharrer School across the street, to whom he bought ice cream on hot summer days.

Students at the time reacted with corresponding shock to the murder, which can still be seen today: two faded black and white photos of the victim and square tiles with a red heart, a white dove of peace and handwritten messages like “I hope for a world in which I see humanity between people” have been hanging for many years on the wire fence in front of the parking lot where the snack kiosk used to be.

The kiosk was demolished early on, when investigators were still talking about “doner kebab murders” and ruling out right-wing extremist backgrounds. At the Scharrer School, which Yaşar's son was also attending in the eighth grade at the time, this was considered wrong from the start. This gave rise to a feeling of special responsibility. “It is the school’s job to keep the memory alive,” says the headmaster, who expressly supports art activities, vigils or theater projects on the topic that are taken outside from the middle school.

In June 2022, İsmail Yaşar Square opposite the school was inaugurated. What is surprising on site: the white memorial plaque of the city of Nuremberg is a stone's throw around the corner, well away from the crime scene with the memorial on the fence. Since 2025, the board has had a QR code that leads to the “Places of Remembrance” website for the NSU victims.

Similar plaques can be found on the corner house in the southern part of the city, where the tailor Abdurrahim Özüdoğru was murdered on June 13, 2001, and on the side of the street in Langwasser, where the flower dealer Enver Şimşek became the first fatality of the NSU terrorists on September 9, 2000. An asphalt area was named after him in September 2021, where a memorial event with relatives takes place every year on the anniversary of the attack and where flowers are rarely sold.

Since the small green area on İsmail Yaşar Square was spruced up in spring 2025, people have been coming here more often. A group of men with a migrant background often meet here to chat over a beer after work. A man in his mid-thirties grew up here and remembers the NSU murder well when he was still attending the Scharrerschule. He bought a kebab from the nice Mr. Yaşar, and shortly afterwards the shots were fired. He and his friends like the fact that the memory of this is being kept alive locally.

The men can't quite understand why there is no reference to the NSU murder other than a line on the street sign directly at the crime scene. Between the benches there is a memorial stone with a fountain that refers to 650 years of the Gleißhammer district - donated by the Diehl armaments company out of a long association.

Nuremberg students from the Technical University apparently also felt the commemoration on Scharrerstrasse needed improvement. In May 2026, this led to a long bench without a backrest, which stands slightly at an angle to the sidewalk - with a view of the pictures and tiles on the fence. In cooperation with neighboring institutions such as the Luise youth center, the Zeltnerschloss cultural shop and the Scharrerschule, the “expansion of the memorial to İsmail Yaşar” was created, as is written on the edge of the bench.

Despite all the noticeable ulterior motives, she seems lost on the side of the road - and the flowers in the bowl with a bright bow from the Turkish Consulate General are withering. Has the commemoration of the NSU victims come to an end? Or does more need to be done to make the scope of these attacks understandable at a time when growing parts of the population are running into the arms of a party that is sometimes seen as firmly right-wing extremist?

Certain hopes rest on the national NSU documentation center, which is envisaged in the coalition agreement between the Union and the SPD and which is to be built in Nuremberg, the city with the most victims. The Ministry of the Interior is currently working on a draft law for a supporting foundation. However, their annual budget is tight at 3.1 million euros for running costs - the original estimate was 6 million.