France today outlawed a neo-Nazi organization known for its anti-Semitic actions and suspected of commando Fatas and bomb attacks against by Jewish and left wing institutions. Earlier, a civil rights group, the Movement Against Anti-Semitism, Racism and Reese (MRAP) had claimed that the Neo Nazi group, the Federation for European and National Action (FANE) had been planning to murder 67 Jews in Nice and carry out terrorist attacks against various Jewish communal institutions.
Government spokesman Jean-Marie Poirier said that FANE was being outlawed as from today its leader, Marc Fredriksen, is to go on trial Sept. 19 on charges of incitement to racial hatred and condoning crimes against humanity.
MRAP announced earlier today that it has come into possession of a FANE list containing the names of 67 Jews, all living in the Nice area in the south of France, who were to be killed. A spokesman for the Nice Jewish community who did not want his identity revealed later told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, “We take this sort of threat very seriously. “He said that the names of the threatened men will not be released for “obvious security reasons” but identified them as being “known community leaders.”
COMMUNITY LEADERS PHYSICALLY ATTACKED
The spokesman said several community leaders have been physically attacked in recent weeks and anti-Semitic slogans daubed on public walls and on Jewish community buildings. The spokesman said that the community as a whole will lodge a formal complaint with the city’s District Attorney and press criminal charges against the perpetuators. He said the community does not plan to organize any protection service for the threatened ten nor guard its institutions. “We trust the government and its judicial system,” the spokesman said.
He said that most of the threatening and anti-Semitic slogans bore the FANE initials and carried the slogan: “Only one God — Adolf Hitler.”
A DANGER TO INTERNAL SECURITY
The French government’s decision to ban the neo-Nazi organization was proposed by Interior Minister Christian Bonnet who reportedly told the government at its weekly session today that the FANE has become a danger to the internal security of the country.
FANE activists are suspected of having carried out a recent fire bomb attack against the widow of Henri Curiel, an Egyptian Jewish Communist who was murdered two years ago. Other suspected attacks carried out by the neo-Nazi organization included the bombing of a Jewish student canteen in the center of Paris a year ago in which one man died and 16 persons were injured.
HAS WIDE EUROPEAN CONNECTIONS
The organization was reportedly formed in 1966 when two smaller groups, “Occident” and “Western Action” united order the leadership of Fredriksen, a 46-year-old bank teller. The organization openly advocates the return to a Nazi regime and promoted the ideas of Aryan racial superiority. The police suspect it with being closely connected with similar movements throughout Western Europe.
A police detective, Paul-Louis Durand, was detained on Aug. 11 after being suspected with in direct complicity in the Bologna bomb attack of Aug. 2 which caused 88 deaths. Duranc, a 25-year-old detective trainee, was a member of the FANE executive committee. Police believe that no more than 200 people throughout France belong to the neo-Nazi organization but that they make up in their fanatic zeal for action for their small number.
In line with these security measures the government also decided to frighten up airport and border controls to prevent the entry into the country of armed foreigners or of people carrying forged identity documents. Foreigners found to carry firearms or forged papers will be banned for life from ever reentering French territory, the Interior Ministry announced after today’s government session.
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.
