West Germans Are Cracking Down on Rising Neo-nazi Activity

Police will take harsher measures to limit the activities of neo-Nazis in the West German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the state’s interior minister, Herbert Schnoor, said Tuesday.

In a statement released in the city of Duesseldorf, Schnoor charged that “the increased provocative and violent activities of neo-Nazis in some towns have become unbearable.”

The local councils of he towns of Essen, Bottrop, Bielefeld and Dortmund have recently imposed a ban on renting town-owned facilities, such as meeting halls, to neo-Nazi groups. Other town councils in the federal state are in the process of considering such proposals.

Last year more than 1,000 investigations were opened against neo-Nazis operating in North Rhine-Westphalia, officials said.

According to Dieter Jablonski, an official of the town of Dortmund, an “anti-fascist working group” of officials from 14 towns and localities has designed a plan to protect youths against the influence of right-wing extremists.

Jablonski reported that new neo-Nazi groups of so-called “black bombers” have largely replaced the “skinheads.” The “black bombers” have been successfully drawing increasing numbers of youth to social and political activities, which emphasize nationalistic and Nazi values, and often end in violent clashes.

According to experts, youths are drawn to neo-Nazi groups principally because of severe unemployment. In the town of Dortmund, for example, where unemployment among the young is high, there has been an ongoing neo-Nazi campaign with slogans such as “Jews are the Turks of 1988” and “Foreigners Out.”

Synagogues and other Jewish institutions throughout West Germany have long been protected by high fences and armed police. Experts say this is needed to defend the Jewish communities against Arab terrorists and West German extremists from the right as well as from the left.