Organizations of former resistance fighters and Nazi victims protested angrily today over a gathering of ex-Nazi collaborators here and demanded that the government cancel meetings sponsored by the Italian neo-Fascist Movimento Sociale Italiano Party, whose leader, M.G. Almirante is due in Brussels to address local supporters of his group. Also scheduled to take place today was a meeting of the Waffen SS “Legion Wallonia” made up of Belgians who served the Nazis during World War II. They reportedly invited representatives of the German “Stahihelm” (Steel Helmets) group, an association of former Nazi soldiers and of the French Fascist Charlemagne Division which fought with German troops on the Russian front.
The International Union of Former Resistance Fighters and Victims of Deportation called a press conference to denounce the Nazi meetings. A spokesman characterized “those with feelings of nostalgia for their collaborationist past” as nothing but “unrepentant condemned war criminals.” He warned the public not to shrug off the very real danger of a neo-Nazi revival. The “Legion Wallonia” was said to have been ordered by its former Nazi officers to establish an organization of Flemish Belgians who served with Nazi forces during the war.
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.
