The Justice Minister of Rheinland-Pfalz accused the Bonn government of exaggerating the political significance of neo-Nazi violence in West Germany and giving undue publicity to right-wing extremists. According to Waldemar Schreckenberger, who heads the Justice Ministry in the federal state, the government has been portraying neo-Nazis as a danger to national security whereas it was less dangerous than the left-wing urban guerrilla movement in Germany.
Public concern over neo-Nazi violence has been heightened by the trial of a Nazi group headed by Manfred Roeder, a former lawyer, which is being conducted in the Stammheim security prison near Stuttgart. Another trial is pending against Karl-Heinz Hoffman, leader of an outlawed neo-Nazi group which masqueraded as a sports club. Both Hoffmann and Roeder have been involved with the Palestine Liberation Organization and sent young neo-Nazi recruits for military training in El Fatah camps in Lebanon.
JEWS, FOREIGNERS RECEIVE WARNINGS
Meanwhile, scores of residents of Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and adjacent towns have reported receiving anonymous tape-recorded telephone messages inveighing against Jews and other foreigners in West Germany. The messages warned that unless the foreigners were gotten rid of quickly, the German people were in danger of self-destruction.
The DGB Central Trade Union and a Ludwigshafen youth group identified the tape-recorded voice as belonging to a known member of a neo-Nazi organization. They urged the State-owned telephone company to cut off the man’s telephone service.
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.