Munich prosecutors say they have “compelling grounds” to believe they have identified the man responsible for one of West Germany’s worst post-war antisemitic attacks: an arson attack in 1970 that killed seven Holocaust survivors at a Jewish community centre and retirement home.

The suspect, who has only been identified as Bernd V, was 25 at the time, with well-known antisemitic views and a reported fixation on Hitler. He died in 2020, aged 75, meaning there will be no prosecution.

The case was reopened last year when a new witness came forward, but has now been closed again.

Seven dead

On the evening of 13 February 1970, someone poured petrol into the wooden stairwell of the Jewish community building at Reichenbachstrasse 27 and set it alight. Seven residents of the retirement home died, most of them Holocaust survivors aged 59 to 71. 15 more were injured.

Investigators were thrown off for decades by the attack’s proximity to a Palestinian attack on an El Al bus at Munich airport three days earlier.

The breakthrough came from a witness who says a relative of the suspect confided that he had been very angry that night, and just 15 minutes before the blaze started was overheard saying “the Jews had everything” and that he wanted to “set them on fire.”

Police also heard that he had listened to recordings of Hitler’s speeches and had a prior conviction for bombing telephone boxes.

Strong indication

Prosecutors say the renewed investigation “strongly indicates” he was the perpetrator, while acknowledging formal “legal clarification” is impossible.

Charlotte Knobloch, president of Munich’s Jewish community, said she “would no longer have thought it possible” the case could be solved. The synagogue at Reichenbachstrasse, rebuilt after the attack, reopened in 2025.