Three new and significant neo-Nazi and nationalist trends have developed in Germany and constitute a serious danger to the democratic development of that country, the European office of the American Jewish Committee declared in a report issued here today.
The survey of conditions in Germany entitled “A Progress Report on Neo-Nazism in Germany, lists the three trends as: a systematic attempt to develop a neo-Nazi philosophy palatable to German public opinion and able to serve as an implement for the return of neo-Nazis to power in Germany; receptivity of German public opinion to certain basic tenets of neo-Nazis as measured by public opinion polls taken by the United States High Commissioner’s office in Germany, and, the gradual return of the military men as a factor of importance on Germany’s scene through the growth of veterans’ organizations and by other means.
Questions designed to measure the extent of anti-Semitism in Germany have revealed that a fifth to a quarter of the population makes no bones about its anti-Semitism, while 27 percent prefer that the handful of Jews still living in Germany should emigrate, the A.J.C. survey establishes. Another 21 percent of the Germans believe that the Jews were partly responsible for what happened under the Nazi regime.
The A.J.C. report asserts that nationalist sentiments and attitudes which two years ago were remarked only among small segments of the German population have now become widespread. “There is no significant difference today between the neo-Nazi attitude on issues of war crimes and of war guilt and the attitude of the German population on these points,” the report says.
“There is a sizeable, hard minority which openly seeks the return of the Nazis, while the great bulk of the population declares that it will do nothing to oppose such a Nazi drive to power,” the report adds. “One must also take cognizance of the fact that, desirable though it may be for other reasons, the drive to remilitarize Germany has given military and neo-Nazi groups strong impetus,” it points out.
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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.
