Germany this week remembered the victims of a shocking murder spree by neo-Nazis

Marc Young, Editor

24th February 2012

Germany this week remembered the victims of a shocking murder spree by neo-Nazis.

The official ceremony in Berlin brought together the nation's leaders with the family members of those murdered by the so-called National Socialist Underground - a group of far-right extremists responsible for killing nine immigrant shopkeepers and one policewoman over several years.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, not known to be a great orator, held the main address after the surprise resignation of German President Christian Wulff last week.

Her voice unsteady at times, she spoke of Germany's shame for both failing to stop the cold-blooded murders and how the victims themselves were long put under suspicion simply because they were immigrants.

Merkel admitted it wasn't just the prejudices of local cops chalking the crimes up to ethnic violence - this had been a failure by the whole of German society, she said.

One hopes the chancellor's own conservatives take her message to heart, because it's her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian CSU allies that have most consistently agitated against Germany's immigrant population over the years. (Though the German left certainly has its share of bigots.)

Instead of embracing people like the hardworking small business owners - eight Turks and one Greek - ruthlessly executed by the NSU, Merkel's conservatives have steadfastly tried to hold them at arm's length.

Whereas Horst Seehofer, CSU boss and state premier of Bavaria, made a blatantly biased call for a stop to immigration from Muslim countries back in 2010, Merkel had no qualms declaring the concept of multiculturalism a failure that same year.

But such xenophobic populism might no longer be politically expedient for the chancellor and Seehofer, who happens to be serving as interim president at the moment.

Both politicians sat in the front row of the memorial ceremony on Thursday as Semiya Simsek took to the stage to proclaim Germany was still her home even after neo-Nazis brutally gunned down her father.

They also listened to Ismail Yozgat tragically describe how his son died in his arms on the floor his own internet cafe. Yozgat also expressly thanked one of the few conservative politicians to make the integration of Germany's immigrants a priority: former President Wulff.

Hopefully, Merkel will now take up that mantle.

Admitting Germany failed to see the extent of the far-right threat is not enough. Simply refraining from stoking the intolerance that helped spawn a neo-Nazi terror group like the NSU is not enough.

Politicians are right to demand immigrants do their utmost to integrate into German society, but more must be done to encourage respect and understanding of those people coming here to build better lives for their families.