A 45-year-old lecturer at a Berlin teachers’ training college was dismissed last week after telling his students the death of six million Jews under the Third Reich was “all lies.” Although incidents like this are by no means commonplace in West Germany, they indicate a recent disturbing trend, namely an increasingly daring openness among neo-Nazi and other far right groups in the Federal Republic.
A report just issued by the Bonn Interior Ministry goes further “At no time since the collapse of 1945.” it says, “has National Socialism been glorified so openly in speeches, pamphlets and activities–or the democratic, law based state been so despised by its opponents–as today.”
‘THE AUSCHWITZ LIE’
The report singles out as particularly striking” the activities of right-wing attorney Manfred Roeder, leader of the “Deutsche Burger initiative” (German Citizens Initiative), and journalist Erwin Schoenborn of the “Kampfbund Deutscher Soldaten” (Battle Group of German Soldiers).
The two were recently sentenced to seven months imprisonment (suspended) and fines of $1200 each for “incitement” after distributing a pamphlet called “The Auschwitz Lie” which denied the existence of gas chambers and the deaths of six million Jews under Nazi rule.
Among other things, Roeder has at various times described the Federal Republic as “a riff-raff state” (lumpenstaat) and a “republic of Freemasons and Jews” (Freimaurer-und Juden republic). asserting that “whoever is German cannot be a democrat, and whoever is a democrat cannot be a true German.” Schoenborn has described Hitler as “one of the greatest leaders of German history.”
Following the case, Roeder was stricken from the roll of attorneys but he is expected to appeal. He is also standing trial for alleged libel against the Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal. He circulated reports that Wiesenthal had never spent a day in a concentration camp and had in fact been a German security officer.
The trial has been frequently interrupted by jeering and Nazi slogans shouted by followers of Roeder. After the judge allowed Roeder to read aloud from anti-Semitic pamphlets for half an hour, the Hesse state prosecutor ordered an Investigation into possible trial irregularities. The findings, including recommendations on how the case should proceed, are being studied by the state’s justice authorities. Observers believe a new judge may be appointed to hear the case.
SAY TRIALS ARE BASED ON FORGED EVIDENCE
Another court case that has raised eyebrows is the trial of nine men and six women charged with complicity in mass murders at the Maidanek concentration camp in Poland. The trial, which began last November, has been held up by a series of defense objections, notably against allowing German historian Wolfgang Schleffer. 46, an acknowledged expert on the Nazi period, to give evidence.
The defense claimed he was too young to appreciate the pressures Germans were subjected to by the Nazis, that his knowledge of the period had been influenced by Jewish teachers, and that he had contact with Jewish people, or at least people with Jewish-sounding names.
Although the court has not upheld the objections, it has not rejected them out of hand. Instead it has insisted that Dr. Schleffer give detailed replies to the defense claims. During the trial, leaflets were circulated entitled “Ann Frank’s Diary–a Forgery.” A neo-Nazi group whose goal is to end Nazi war crimes trials held a special press conference in Dusseldorf to declare that all such trials up to now had been based on forged evidence.
The German-Polish Association, a group dedicated to restoring normal relations between citizens of both countries, said in a press statement that the conduct of the trial was a “scandal” The defense attorneys “are obviously seeking to delay the trial indefinitely, and to make more difficult–if not prevent–the finding out of the truth.” It added: “The court’s responsibility is heavy. The eyes of many nations are focussed on Dusseldorf.”
ROLE OF RIGHT-WING GROUPS
It is difficult to gauge the strength of neo-Nazi organizations in Germany. The magazine “Spiegel” last year reported the spread of the “New Right.” a “new look” neo-Nazi group estimated to number about 1000 members, including high school pupils and university students.
The group was created by a breakaway from the right-wing National Democratic Party (NPD) in 1971, by younger members who found the NPD too old-fashioned and too pro-capitalist. The group has adapted left-wing slogans like “Down with Soviet and U.S. imperialism” and has links with Italian neo-Fascists. France’s banned “Ordre Nouveau,” the IRA and other extremist groups.
Despite such breakaways, the NPD continues to attract a solid core of support. In a recent.” election in the conservative south German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, the NPD slightly increased its Federal election vote from 40.580 in 1972 to 42,860. In fairness, it must be pointed out that this is less than one percent of the total vote, and that the NPD is nowhere near gaining a single seat in any German state government, let alone the Federal legislature. But it is a saddening reminder that more than 30 years after the war’s end a neo-Nazi party can still publicly rally so many votes.
TABOOS AGAINST NAZIS DISAPPEARING
It would be wrong to assume from all this that Nazism is reviving and that a Fourth Reich is in the making. The new clamor of the neo-Nazis is favored by the current recession and the presence of over one million unemployed in West Germany.
That this one million and their families are not out beating up people in the streets shows the taming effects of a good social security system, especially high unemployment benefits, on public fears and prejudices. It also shows, however, that the majority of Germans have learned the lesson of the Nazi era and are unwilling to risk further catastrophic experiments.
But extremist groups are favored by the fact that 30 years after the war. taboos relating to the Nazis have disappeared. There are regular TV and radio programs and magazine articles which take a critical look at all aspects of Hitler’s reich. A generation has grown up which never experienced life under that regime and feels no guilt feelings about it.
The danger is that if people feel unrelated to those events, or shrug them off as mere history. they may not react strongly enough to counter the neo-Nazi offshoots. A line must be drawn between mere discussion of Nazi rule and attempts by right-wing groups to reactivate its policies. West Germany has still to show that it is prepared to take tough action against such groups.
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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.
