Neo-Nazi violence prompts pledge from German police

BONN, Dec. 16 (JTA) — A recent wave of neo-Nazi violence that left 10 people injured has prompted police officials to vow they will take swift action against gatherings of right-wing extremists. In the most severe incident, a hostel for asylum-seekers was set on fire in the town of Neuburg in the German state of Bavaria. Most of the hostel’s 66 inhabitants fled before the building burned down, but seven refugees from the former Yugoslavia were admitted to a local hospital for smoke inhalation. In another incident, in the town of Neurupin in the state of Brandenburg, a group of neo-Nazi youths beat a Pakistani refugee. The asylum-seeker was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries. No one was arrested in the case. In the town of Libenwalde, also in Brandenburg, neo-Nazis attacked passers-by they thought were foreigners. Police subsequently arrested 15 people who came to a local neo-Nazi gathering. The spate of violence has reminded observers of the wave of attacks against foreigners that reached a peak in 1992.