Neo-nazi Anti-semitic Groups Operate in 22 Countries, Study Shows

Neo-Nazi groups and individuals, spouting Fascism and anti-Semitism, have staged more than 20 international conferences and sessions in recent years to discuss and coordinate their activities, according to a report issued today by the World Jewish Congress in New York. The figure may be much higher because “neo Nazi and neo-Fascist movements keep their international contacts frequently secret,” the report said.

The report was submitted to the global executive of the World Jewish Congress by Dr. Nehemia Robinson, director of the WJC’s Institute of Jewish Affairs. It named 22 countries as having Fascist groups or individuals active in or connected with the “Nazi International”: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Holland, Hungary (exiles), Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa, Syria, Turkey, U.S.A., West Germany. The WJC report states that the Ku Klux Klan “has also branched out in foreign countries.”

Not all the planned international gatherings of Nazis have been successes, the report said. Some have been banned, as was a Mosleyite conference of ‘Friends of Europe’ slated for London in December 1961. Some failed because of insufficient response as happened to a planned meeting of 600 lesser Nazi groups called off when the sponsors found they could not get enough support for a conference in Whesbaden in 1961.

But, the report emphasized, “in toto, the international Nazi organizations have representatives in practically every European country, as well as in the U. S. A., Australia, South Africa, some Latin American and Arab lands.” The report offered no estimate of the number of persons involved in the Nazi groups all over the world but notes that “the European Social Movement and the Bureau of European Liaison claimed some time ago to have 4,000,000 supporters organized in some 10,000 sections and cells. “It is impossible to establish how exaggerated this claim is, because none of the organizations publishes membership figures,” the report stated.

The financial support for the Nazis is shrouded in mystery but there are reports that finances are derived at least in part from Nazi secreted loot, “but no proof for this contention exists,” the WJC study said, adding that while the source of funds poses a problem, the publication pattern of the Nazis is wide open. “There is a flow of anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi and Fascist literature between various countries,” the report pointed out. “There exists a ‘Nationalist Information Bureau’ which publishes an anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, pro-Nazi press service. It is reported that the neo-Nazi and neo-Fascist internationals are publishing over 50 periodicals and have bulletins in German, Italian, French, English, Swedish and Arabic.”