Foreign Anti-semites Try to Bolster German Neo-nazism, Bonn Reports

Right-wing organizations in the Federal Republic of Germany are on the decline, but neo-Nazis and neo-fascists outside Germany are working hard to bolster the hard core of German reactionary and racist organizations, it developed here today from a report compiled by the Ministry of the Interior.

Some of the sources of foreign encouragement given to right-wing organizations in this country were identified in the Ministry’s survey as the Jeune Europe Movement, centered in Switzerland and France; the so-called Northern European Ring, with headquarters both in Germany and in Scandinavia; the European Social Movement, operating out of Sweden; offshoots of the American Nazi Party and other right-wing groups in the United States; propaganda emanating from Cairo; and “liaison” groups in this country linked to anti-Semites and former Nazis in Communist East Germany.

Some of the East German groups, and those in Cairo, are flooding the West German splinter groups of neo-Nazis with anti-Semitic materials and with propaganda demanding West German “neutralism” coupled with pro-Russian and anti-Israeli attitudes. High officials in East Germany, both in political life and in the army, are known to have held high office in the Nazi Party before the end of Wold War II. The Cairo activities are under the aegis of Johannes von Leers, a former Nazi official working for the Nasser Government as a “specialist” in anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli propaganda.

RIGHT-WING MEMBERSHIP DECREASED; 300 ARRESTED IN 1961

Extensive inquiries, according to the Interior Ministry, have shown that the German right-wingers have not yet succeeded in establishing unity among themselves, with the result that they have no central apparatus, while they disagree with one another, leaders jockeying for power over their followers.

Anti-Semitic incidents are still attracting the attention of the Ministry and of state governments. During 1961, the report shows, there were at least 390 anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi incidents reported, and 300 persons were arrested. It is known, however, that many incidents go unreported in official records of local and state police offices.

Membership in West German right-wing groups dropped in 1961, according to the survey, to 35,000, a decrease of about 10,000 from the preceding years. But in the area of official membership, too, it is believed that the records are incomplete and that the relatively small numbers do not reflect the true strength of the neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic group.

Officials here emphasize that, should an economic crisis hit West Germany, or should the general political situation worsen, such developments could act quickly as a force for uniting right-wing groups, increasing their membership and perhaps bringing to the open some of the anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi leaders waiting for the opportunity to assert their ultra-nationalism and opposition to the democratic forces now in control of West Germany.