The Austrian Interior Ministry cracked down on a group of neo-Nazis and banned a meeting the group planned to hold Aug. 5 in the town of Eichgraben. The group, calling itself Citizens Initiative for the Maintenance of Truth, was identified here as a German organization. One of the members is a prominent German rightwing extremist, Erwin Schoebarn. Under a treaty signed with the Allied powers in 1955, Austria is compelled to ban all neo-Nazi activity.
Meanwhile, in the north German city of Flensburg, Michael Kuehnen, the leader of the self-proclaimed Nazi group, National Socialist Action Front, was released from custody six days after being arrested. Kuehnen and 100 sympathizers clashed with police July 22 when officers tried to break up an illegal meeting the group was holding in the north German city of Altenstadt. Ten people, including three policemen and three Nazis, were injured in the clash.
Although Kuehnen, 23, will not be charged, he will have to report regularly to the police and has been forbidden to leave the country. Nineteen other members of the Nazi group who were arrested during the clash have also been released. According to reports, no legal basis could be determined for arresting them to begin with.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
