A reunion of Nazi SS veterans in Bad Harzburg was banned by the town manager, Horst Voigt yesterday on grounds that the gathering, scheduled for May 17-20, would endanger “public security and order. ” The ban was approved by the town council.
Voigt told reporters that “violence and confrontations were feared” if the many anti-Nazi groups in West Germany which have protested the reunion carried out their plans for counter-demonstrations. He said the ban was also intended to protect the town’s “ideals” and avoid “material damages” to the community.
About 800 former members of the Hitler Youth and AdolphHitler Waffen SS divisions and their families were planning to attend the reunion which was to be disguised as a meeting of “economic experts, ” town officials said.
The action in Bad Harzburg was in contrast to that of the town of Oberaula, in Hesse, where the local authorities rented a public hall for the upcoming reunion of veterans of the SS “Totenkopf” (Deaths Head) division in face of widespread protests. The various SS veterans groups operate under an umbrella organization HIAG, which the Bonn government has refused to outlaw despite a constitutional ban on all successor organizations to the SS and SA.
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.
