German investigators believe they have identified the neo-Nazi responsible for a 1970 arson attack on a Jewish community building in Munich that killed seven Holocaust survivors.
Munich prosecutors said there were “compelling grounds” to believe the suspect, a 25-year-old man at the time with known antisemitic views, deliberately set fire to the building’s wooden stairwell on February 13, 1970.
According to prosecutors, the BBC reports, the suspected killer was heard to claim within the immediate vicinity of the community building that "the Jews had everything" and he wanted to "set them on fire". Fifteen minutes later, the building was engulfed in flames.
Authorities say those remarks have been corroborated by other members of the witness's family.
They say other witnesses described the man as having a "Hitler-fixation" - and how he had listened to records of speeches by the Nazi dictator in his youth.
The seven victims, aged 59 to 71, were residents of a retirement home in the building. Another 15 people were injured.
The suspect, identified by news weekly Der Spiegel as Bernd V, died in 2020.
The breakthrough followed information provided last year by a woman whose relative had known the suspect.
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