An attempt by the Australian Nazi party to hold its first public meeting here erupted in a brawl last night in which police intervened to rescue the Nazi leader from an angry, jeering crowd. About 2,000 anti-Nazi demonstrators were on hand as the self-styled Nazis in their Hitler storm troop regalia mounted a platform and started to raise their flag. A group led by about 40 Jews, among them survivors of Nazi concentration camps, charged the platform and tore down the Nazi flag. Police wedged through the crowd to pull the Nazis to safety, but not before the Nazi leader, Eric Ray Wenberg, 22, was beaten on the head and shoulders. He was taken into protective custody and later released.
Wenberg was arrested in the United States last year after he attacked another Nazi, 29-year-old John Patler, who was convicted of gunning down the American Nazi party leader, George Lincoln Rockwell. Wenberg was subsequently deported to Australia.
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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.
