Franz Schoenhuber, the former Waffen-SS officer who heads the Republican Party, the largest and most successful of West Germany’s extreme right-wing groups, announced Monday that his party would establish branches in East Germany.
The party has already set up a recruiting office in West Berlin for East German citizens, referred to by Schoenbuber as an “information office.”
The East German government has said officially it would not allow Schoenhuber or his representatives into his territory nor would it tolerate a Republican sister party on its soil.
When Schoenhuber attempted to enter East Berlin from West Berlin on Monday, he was turned away by he East German border guards, who cited his “fascist activities” as their reason.
Meanwhile, the recently formed opposition groups in East Germany are accusing the ruling Communist Party of exploiting fears of neo-Nazism and anti-Semitism to serve its political ends.
In the last two weeks, the controlled press has reported almost daily incidents of walls daubed with anti-Semitic or other Nazi slogans.
The news media blames East German youths, who it says were influenced by West German extremists to express their “fascist” attitudes.
But many of the alleged daubing were unverified, and a spokesman for New Forum, the leading opposition group, accused Prime Minister Hans Modrow of deliberately starting a fear campaign.
The spokesman charged that the government specifically is trying to create an atmosphere that would favor the creation of another secret police organization like the notorious Stasis, disbanded by popular demand last year.
Stasi was used to brutally crush all opposition during the regime of deposed dictator Erich Honecker, when Stalinists ruled the German Democratic Republic.
Now, according to the opposition, the government is propagating the neo-Nazi menace, “but the real message is that they want to employ many of the 24,000 Stasis agents who have been fired.”
Ibrahim Boehme, a leader of the opposition Social Democratic Party, said part of the problem is that the Communists have run out of campaign issues.
“They clearly want to exploit the issue of right-wing extremism for political purposes,” said Boehme, who comes from a Jewish family and was jailed for 15 months in 1977 for his political activities.
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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.
