germany 2001-2
The number of antisemitically-motivated crimes recorded
for the year 2001 was 1,424, including 18 violent acts by the extreme right. As
in 2000, antisemitic manifestations carried out by radical Islamists in Germany
inspired militant right-wing antisemites. Antisemitism became an issue for the
first time in a postwar Germany election campaign. After the
September 11 events many German extreme right groups adopted the anti-American
attitudes of the left. Thousands of private and state, as well as federal, initiatives
have been proposed to fight increasing right-wing extremism.
The Jewish Community
The Jewish community has more than tripled since 1989, when
mass immigration of Jews from the former Soviet Union began, and is now estimated
at 100,000. The largest Jewish centers are Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich and Hamburg,
but Jewish communities are active in most other large urban areas. In many
cities, especially those in former East Germany, newcomers from the former Soviet
Union account for the majority of Jews. The veteran community is largely made
up of East European Jewish refugees and their progeny, and a smaller number of
German Jews and their offspring who returned to Germany after the war.
The Zentralrat, acts as the
umbrella organization of German Jewry. In recent years it has moved its
headquarters to Berlin. There are synagogues in most cities, and the larger
communities have Jewish schools as well. The weekly Allgemeine Jüdische
Wochenzeitung is the most prominent of a number of publications which serve
the Jews of Germany. The Frankfurt-based Tribüne is the leading
Jewish scholarly journal.
The Jewish Museum in Berlin, opened
in September 2001, has become one of the most visited museums in all of Germany.
In March 2002 Jewish students from across Europe gathered in Frankfurt for a
WJC sponsored four-day conference on how to counter anti-Israel propaganda
The total contribution pledged by
German industry to the fund set up in February 1999 to compensate surviving
forced and slave laborers amounts to DM 5 billion. At the end of May 2001 the
Bundestag (by a vote of 640 to 20) approved the release of DM 10 billion to be
assigned to the fund. Slave laborers will receive up to a maximum of DM 15,000,
while forced laborers will receive up to DM 5,000. The majority of the
recipients of the new fund are non-Jews living in Central and Eastern Europe,
and it is expected that up to one million people will benefit directly.
Extremist Parties and Organizations
The Extreme Right
General Trends
After the September 11 events most of the
German extreme right adopted the anti-American attitudes of the left.
Anti-American, anti-NATO and pro-Islamist articles that supported the attacks,
either directly or indirectly, were disseminated on most Internet sites associated
with both the extreme right and the ideological left. Participants at
demonstrations chanted slogans such as “The USA, international center of
murder” (for example, in Nerrupin on 25.September 2001), and bore banners that
were pro-Palestinian and crudely anti-Israel or openly antisemitic. The slogans
“Solidarity with Palestine” and “Jews, Die” were found on a memorial
for victims of the Ahlem concentration camp on 9 April 2002.
The use of anti-imperialist
slogans with a distinctly radical leftist ring represented an attempt by Germany's extreme right to make political capital out of the US
war against
terrorism. The only
exception was the Republikaner party, which partly distanced itself by supporting
the American air strikes in Afghanistan. The otherwise xenophobic right seemed
to have discovered its “solidarity with the Afghan people” and with Muslims
living in Germany and worldwide. The context here is
important. In October 2001,
NPD vice party chairman Jürgen Schön declared that “we nationalists
are fighting against US economic, cultural and militaristic aspirations for
world domination (Weltherrschaft) and at the same time against the Islamization
of Europe, since Islamic fundamentalism represents a threat to the German
people’s struggle for existence” (Deutsche
Stimme
Oct. 2001).
When the European
Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published its second report on
Germany on 3 July 2001, it described Germany as “a society in which serious cases of racially motivated
violence occur.” This trend, which has been observed for the last two years,
namely the increasing readiness of right-wing extremists to use violence,
continued to concern the police as well as representatives of the Jewish and
Muslim communities. Additionally, extreme right-wing European parties and
organizations, especially in Austria, France, Belgium and Germany, have demonstrated a growing willingness to cooperate.
Although
membership of the extreme right DVU, NPD and Republikaner declined by about 10
percent, to 33,000 (36,500 in 2000), activists from these parties intensified
their activities. The Federal Office for the Defense of the Constitution {BfVS)
reported 14,725 (10,054 in 2000) politically motivated offenses in the category
of “right-wing crime.” Another
troubling trend is the growing acceptance of far right opinions, particularly in
east
Germany
(for the findings of a survey conducted among east German youth, see ASW 2000/1).
It remains unclear
whether a right-wing terrorist infrastructure exists in Germany, but the number of militant right-wing extremists has more
than doubled since 1994. According to the BfVS, 10,400 of them were ready to
use violence in 2001 (9,700 in 2000; in 9,000 in 1999). The number of extreme
right-wingers in general decreased in 2001, from 50,900 to 49,700, while the
number of militant extremists, mostly skinheads (in and outside the party
system), rose to 10,400, from 9,700 in 2000, and of neo-Nazis from 2,200 to 2,800.
The total number of extreme right-wing groups and organizations decreased from
144 in 2000 to 141 in 2001.
Since 1995 the
extra-parliamentary extreme right has organized itself into Freie
Kameradschaften (free associations) with no centralized structure. The
cells maintain contact, inter alia, via the Internet. In 2001 the 150
cells recorded a 25 percent increase in membership, in marked contrast to the
decline in party membership.
Extreme Right-Wing Parties
Politically, German right-wing extremism is
represented by three parties, whose overall electoral success and membership
have decreased considerably. The Deutsche Volksunion (German Peoples'
Union – DVU), led by the millionaire publisher Dr. Gerhard Frey, has been the
most successful in recent years but suffered a sound electoral as well as
financial defeat on 23 September 2001 in the Hamburg Senate elections. Its slogans such as Istanbul
den Türken. Hamburg den Deutschen! (Istanbul to Turks. Hamburg
to Germans) and Deutsches Geld für deutsche Bürger (German
money for German citizens) failed to gain the support of voters.
The DVU was
founded in 1987 and is still the largest extreme right wing political party in Germany, despite its loss of about 2,000 members in 2001. Its present
membership is estimated at 15,000. The DVU weekly organ National-Zeitung/Deutsche
Wochenzeitung (circulation 45,000), regularly propagates xenophobic,
antisemitic, anti-American and anti-Israel propaganda, questions the Holocaust and
espouses National Socialist (NS) apologetics (“Was Hitler the only one
responsible for the outbreak of World War II?”). The mere 1,200 who attended
the annual party convention in Passau on 29 September 2001, almost half as many as in 2000, echoed
the DVU defeat in Hamburg the previous week.
Of the 18
founders of the Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (German
National Democratic Party – NPD.) in 1964, eight, including Adolf von Thadden,
Friedrich Thielen and Waldemar Schütz, were former members of the
Sozialistische Reichspartei (SRP), which was banned in 1952. Until 1970 the NPD
had some electoral success, but since then its influence has declined. Since
Udo Voigt became chairman of the NPD in 1996, it has attracted increasingly younger
skinheads and neo-Nazis (14 years and under). The NPD, unlike the DVU and the
Republikaner, promotes itself not only as a passionate defender of German
national interests but also as the champion of a new social and economic order
countering globalization and capitalism.
Party membership,
which numbers today between 6,500 and 7,000, is rising. Its strategy is based
on the Kampf um die Strasse (struggle for the street), the Kampf um
die Parlamente (struggle for the parliaments) and the Kampf um die
Köpfe (struggle for minds). In 2001 the number of parades through
German cities organized by the NPD or its youth group, the JP, rose from 50 to
70. Neo-Nazi skinheads were prominent at meetings and festivities held throughout
the country every weekend. Those that took place in the capital received the
most media attention. On 3
October 2001, the
anniversary of German unification, and again in December, NDP supporters
marched in Berlin under the banner “To the glory of the
German Wehrmacht.”
Visitors from all
over Europe and sometimes beyond attend these
meetings, which are usually accompanied by extreme right-wing musicians and
bands, such as Speergeschwader, Frank Rennike, Sleipnir and Jörg
Hähnel. For example, the program for the Pressefest planned for 3
August by Deutsche Stimme, the NPD party organ (circulation, about
10,000), scheduled appearances by Nick Griffin, chairman of the British
National Party, and David Duke, chairman of the American NOFEAR organization.
Ideologically,
the NPD stands for what it terms “German völkisch socialism.” Anti-globalization
(Nationalisten gegen Globalisierung – Nationalists against globalization)
and anti-Israel/anti-Jewish incitement (Israelis bauen Konzentrationslager!
– Israelis are building concentration camps!), as well as propaganda against
the Wehrmacht exhibition frequently appear in Deutsche Stimme Guest
columnists have included former head of the Republikaner Franz Schönhuber,
who explained the “deep anti-capitalist longings of the German Volk,”
citing Gregor Strasser, Hitler's deputy in the NSDAP (Deutsche Stimme,
April 2002). The NPD Internet site offers links to the 15 NPD lander organizations,
to the online edition of Deutsche Stimme and to the neo-Nazi news
service Nachrichten-Informationen-Theorie (NIT). The youth
organization Junge Nationaldemokraten (JN), founded in 1969, is led by
Sascha Rossmüller. The federal government has initiated proceedings to ban
the party, among other grounds, for anti-constitutional activities.
The Republikaner
(REPS), founded by former Waffen-SS officer Franz Schönhuber in 1983,
registered some electoral successes in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but
since they lost their seats in the Landtag of Baden Wurtemberg in March
2001, are no longer represented in any state parliament. The party has been led
since 1994 by Dr. Rolf Schlierer. Membership has decreased continuously during
the past few years, from 14,000 in 1999, to 13,000 in 2000 and down to 11,500
in 2001. The youth organization is the Republikaner Jugend. The REPS
have attempted to dissociate themselves from the NPD and DVU by assuming a “respectable”
image, under the slogan “Socialist – Patriotic – Ecologic.”
The REPS use the
Internet extensively, and their party organ Der Republikaner
(circulation, 20,000 copies), appears online. The “foreigner threat” and the
so-called Africanization and Islamization of German society are central themes
of their agitation.
Infiltration of the Army
An increasing number of neo-Nazis and extreme rightists are
joining the army (Bundeswehr), an ideal training and recruiting ground for
militants. An increase of 45 percent in right-wing incidents was registered in
the Bundeswehr in 2000. A survey published that year by the Sinus Trend 2000 Institute
found that 16 percent of potential army volunteers supported extreme right wing
parties, notably the NPD and the DVU.
Infiltration of Prisons
The rising number of convicted neo-Nazis presents
a serious problem for the authorities. Right-wing extremists dominate the
prison population, especially in east
Germany. It is estimated
that one-third of the inmates are neo-Nazis. They often receive outside professional
support from former comrades (mostly NPD cadres) who have developed an
elaborate prisoner-support network in east German jails to aid and recruit
activists. During visits they smuggle propaganda into the prison, some from aid
organizations such as the HNG (Organization for the Assistance of National
Political Prisoners and Their Families).
Neo-Nazi
offenders often see themselves as political prisoners with a mission to convert
other inmates. The HNG, itself a leading neo-Nazi organization, provides
prisoners with access to lawyers. A leading HNG figure is the Berlin lawyer Wolfgang Narrath, formerly head of the outlawed
neo-Nazi Viking Youth organization. The HNG site HNG-Nachrichten.com is
registered with American neo-Nazi Gerhard Lauck of the NSDAP-AO (Lincoln, Nebraska), who appears as the administrative
contact. Lauck was imprisoned from August 1996 until March 1999 in Germany. In 2001 he was again investigated in Germany after promoting sales of a replica of a Zyklon-B can on his
homepage.
Hate through Music
Music has proved a successful means of
disseminating extreme right propaganda and recruiting sympathizers among young
people. Concerts performed by racist and often openly antisemitic bands have
become a favorite meeting place for young people, many of whom have had no previous
contact with the extreme right. Eighty skinhead concerts were given in 2001, a
slight decline from 82 in 2000. While the number of active skinhead bands remained
as high as in the previous year (100), the number of far right song-writers
decreased in 2001, from 20 to 9. About 40 distributors (46 in 2000) continued
to sell CDs with extreme right texts. There is close cooperation in music
exchange between German and foreign groups, while distributors disseminate hate
music worldwide.
In 2001, 17
German bands performed in 30 events abroad; 16 right-wing concerts were banned
and 14 concerts were broken up by the police. Despite efforts to ban racist CDs
(16 in 2001; 20 in 2000), in April 2001 the White Aryan Rebels released a CD
called Notes of Hatred, calling for the murder of Jewish author Stephan
Heym (now deceased) and Rita Süssmuth, former president of the German
parliament.
Leading skinhead
bands in 2001 were the cult group Landser, whose songs are aggressively antisemitic
and glorify violence. After 15 months of police investigation, several members
of the group were arrested in October 2001. Police, however, found only a few
CDs of their hit Ran an den Feind (Lets go get ‘em) to confiscate. In early
May 2001, five members of the group Deutsch, Stolz und Treue (DTS) (German,
Pride and Loyalty) were detained and 500 copies of the CD Ave and Victoria confiscated. Their songs extol National
Socialism, deny the Holocaust and advocate killing Jews.
The BfVS has noted that
production and distribution of extreme right-wing CDs is very profitable and
constitutes a principal source of income for the banned extreme right-wing net.
As the music can only be acquired illegally, when concerts are held (before
they are broken up), they are of major importance to the producers.
It was revealed in 2001
that neo-Nazis and Satanists have been forming brotherhoods. Links to extreme
right-wing groups can be found on the Internet sites of black-metal bands, such
as Eugenik. The site also offers links to antisemitic and racist sites such
as Jüdische Beobachtung (Jewish observation) or 100 % White.
According to experts, more than 20 percent of right-wing music groups in Germany originate in the
black-metal scene. This trend has been imported from the US where a music movement
called Holocaust Metal was launched. (Spiegel
online, 21 June 2002).
Internet
Modern technology has facilitated unobstructed
communication among extremists worldwide. Today, extreme right wingers make
maximum use of the Internet and e-mail, while the mobile phone with SMS (Short Message System) has
become a powerful communication tool.
German law
forbids the dissemination of illegal material on the Internet. Threatened by
investigations and legal proceedings, operators of these increasingly
radicalized sites utilize anonymous services offered by Internet providers
worldwide, and particularly in the US, where they enjoy the privileges of the
First Amendment. Sometimes, as in the case of the HNG (see above), the site is registered in the name of leading
US neo-Nazis, enabling German right-wing extremists to use the net to
disseminate freely their hate propaganda and build an international net of
extremists without legal interference. This makes it almost impossible to trace
an e-mail sender and prove offenses such as propagation of Nazism and racism.
In addition, there
was in 2001 a considerable increase in the dissemination of “black lists” on
the Internet containing names and addresses of opponents, and sometimes links to operational plans
for constructing and operating explosive devices, distributed freely through
the net. The radicalization of messages on the Internet during the past few
years has been of great concern to the German authorities.
Audio-visual
means to indoctrinate hate propaganda– and antisemitic messages in particular –
programmed especially for apolitical youth, can be downloaded from
the Internet by various means, such as mobile phones. Video clips or racist
versions of popular video games, such as “Nazi-Doom” or “White Power Doom,”
where the player shoots Jews or blacks, are hits among the young.
An operator who needs
legal, technical or even creative assistance for a site has a variety of
addresses to turn to. For example, Heimatsseitenbetreuer of the
Nationale Forum provides know-how for those who want to open a nationalist
website, on banned games and songs, as well as key text formulations to
circumvent police interference. The so-called Deutsche Rechtsbüro offers
legal advice to right-wing extremists in editing texts for dissemination. Their
website offers legal updates, especially on Holocaust denial and antisemitism,
as well as racist text elements and symbols. (For the relevant legislation in Germany see ASW 2000/1
and previous reports). Thus German right-wing extremists operating locally are
becoming increasingly skilled in concealing racist/antisemitic statements and
calls for action. A few weeks after police raided operators of the right-wing
portal Radio Wolfschanze, the latter were able to reload the deleted
data onto the Internet.
In 2001 some
1,300 websites were being operated by right-wing extremists in Germany, an increase of 400 percent from 1999 (330 sites). At the
beginning of 2002 this momentum was reversed. In May 2002, providers banned 400
sites from their servers, thanks to the efforts of the police authorities, the
Jewish Community of Germany and individual initiatives to combat the
dissemination of neo-Nazi propaganda on the Internet.
Parades and Festivals
In 2001, hundreds, sometimes thousands,
of neo-Nazis demonstrated in Berlin, Neubrandenburg, Leipzig, Gera, Dresden, Hagen and other cities. The NPD and its youth
organization JN, as well as other neo-Nazi groupings, succeeded in mobilizing
comrades every weekend throughout 2001. During the last five years 1997 to 2002
more than 250 demonstrations, of militant neo-Nazis (Kameradschaften)
and members of the NPD were reported.
On 1 December
3,500 neo-Nazis and NPD members marched with massive police protection through the
center of Berlin, protesting the opening (on 28 November)
of the revised and expanded “Crimes of the Wehrmacht - Dimensions of the War of
Extermination” exhibition (see, for example, ASW 1997/8,
1998/9).
They had applied for permission to march through Berlin’s
historic Jewish quarter, the Scheunenviertel, where the exhibition is located,
but after strong local and foreign protests, the police closed the streets
there. NPD leader Udo Voigt expressed delight at the Nazis’ reappearance in the
“capital of the Reich” and insulted Jan Philipp Reemtsma, director of the
Hamburg Institute which created the exhibition. Demonstrators bore posters with
slogans such as “German soldiers - heroic deeds.” In protest, Mayor of Berlin Klaus
Wowereit led all 180 members of the city’s SPD administration and 1,300
citizens to visit the exhibition through the blockaded streets.
Islamist Extremists
Although the
perpetration of antisemitic acts has traditionally been the province of the
extreme right, since the year 2000 there has been a notable increase in antisemitic
manifestations carried out by Islamist extremists.
Membership of Islamic
groups remained constant at 32,000; but in 2001, 65 (in 2000, 66) foreign
Islamist organizations, with
59,100 (58,100 in 2000) members and sympathizers, were reported in Germany by the BfVS. Turkish Islamist organizations in Germany constitute the largest group, led by Milli
Görüs, with 27,500 members. Following enactment of anti-terror
legislation (see below), the Turkish Kalifatstaat (Caliphate) in Cologne (the second largest Islamist organization), was banned on 12 December 2001. The Kalifatstaat had called for jihad and disseminated
antisemitic and anti-democratic propaganda.
The official figure
for Arab Islamists
is given as 3,100, including
800 activists of the Lebanese Hizballah. Three of the September 11 attackers
lived for some time in Germany and three others who had contact with
them are still being sought in Germany. The Algerian Groupe Islamique
Armé (GIA), the Groupe salafiste pour la Predication et le Combat
(GSPC) and the Front Islamique du Salut (FIS) together have about 400
members in Germany, while Hamas reportedly has about 250 members, who have not
been noted for violent activities there.
ANTISEMITiC ACTIVITIES
A new system of evaluating crimes adopted by the BfVS in 2001
makes it difficult to compare the years 2000 and 2001. In general, however, the
very high number of extreme right-wing manifestations, including antisemitic
incidents, for the year 2001 indicates a steady rise. In some states, including
Berlin, where a 100 percent rise in antisemitic manifestations was reported,
the number of criminal antisemitic acts by the extreme right increased
drastically.
As in 2000, antisemitic
manifestations carried out by radical Islamists in Germany inspired militant
right-wing antisemites. The temporary alliance of opposing camps – i.e., radical
Islamists and extreme right-wing activists, and sometimes members of the left –
based on a common interest, was reinforced during the year by events such the
UN conference in Durban, the September 11 attacks in the US, and the war in
Afghanistan (for details, see General Analysis),
resulting in an increase in antisemitic incidents.
Violence and Vandalism
The BfVS reported 1,424 antisemitically-motivated crimes for the
year 2001, among them 18 violent acts by the extreme right. In light of these
developments, Jewish public figures, sites and institutions received special
protection by the authorities.
Jewish cemeteries were once again
the main targets of right-wing extremists throughout Germany, with two to three
cemeteries desecrated per week, including those at Manheim, Eberswalde,
Perleberg, Menterhausen, Osthessen, Dresden and Berlin. However, in 2001,
synagogue desecration and the threat of arson against synagogues also became a
serious concern of the Jewish communities in Germany. Such incidents included an
arson attack on a synagogue in Potsdam and desecrations of synagogues in Regensburg,
Dresden and Celle, where Nazi posters were found on the walls. There was a
drastic increase in daubing of antisemitic slogans and symbols on houses and street
walls. On 13 March, unknown persons smeared feces on a memorial for deported
Jews in Berlin. Memorials for murdered Jews were desecrated in Ulm and the
barracks of the Dachau concentration camp were vandalized. In March 2002 an
arson attack on the Jewish cemetery in Charlottenburg, Berlin, shocked the
Jewish community throughout Germany.
Antisemitism in the Media and in Public Opinion
A study, “Mideast Reporting on the Second
Intifada in the German Print Media,” commissioned by the AJC
and undertaken by the Duisburg Institute for Linguistics and Social Research,
examined news coverage of the leading German papers Tagesspiegel, Frankfurter
Rundschau, Frankfurter Allgemeinen, Süddeutschen Zeitung,
Taz, Welt and Spiegel during the period September 2000–August
2001. It concluded that German Middle East press coverage was often distorted
and characterized by the absence of context as well as an aggressive tone
toward Israel. Instances of racist antisemitism, minimizing the Holocaust, the blood libel myth, and
Zionist conspiracy theories were found. According to the report, antisemitic elements
from the German Nazi past were frequently projected onto the Jews and Israel, as in equating Sharon with Hitler. The report concludes that
German media coverage of the conflict “contributed to an antisemitic view of Israel among the German population,”
Breaking the Taboo
Attitudes towards the Jews and the Holocaust have been
changing in Germany. The much discussed Tabubruch (breaking of the
taboo), which has become a central issue accompanying the antisemitism debate
in the media, has opened the way to manifestations of anti-Israel and
anti-Jewish feelings. The taboo on antisemitic expressions reflected a general
accepted consensus in post-war German society. Many felt that adherence to the
taboo was a vitally necessary in a process of spiritual healing, which would
finally lead to the restoration of a democratic Germany. Today, 56 years after
the end of World War II, a steady increase of antisemitic manifestations has
been accompanying the break-down of the taboo on antisemitism.
National pride, a term, which was
almost an obscene word in postwar Germany, seems to be slowly replacing guilt
feelings toward the Jewish population. This phenomenon, accompanied by a relieving
state of catharsis, is not specifically German and can be observed throughout Europe,
where it intensified with the outbreak of the second intifada (see General Analysis).
The following statement on the website of Deutsches Kolleg (under the flag of
the Fourth Reich) at the beginning of 2002, reflects the expectations of
neo-Nazis regarding the changing atmosphere in Europe: “Maybe the words ‘Nazi’
or ‘antisemite’ will soon no longer provoke negative associations?”
A survey of the University of Essen
of over 2,000 students found that one-third supported an end to the debate
about NS crimes and the Holocaust ‘
Antisemitism as an Electoral Issue
Antisemitism became an issue for the
first time in a postwar German election campaign. A controversy began in April
2002 when Jamal Karsli, a Syrian born member of parliament, was forced to
resign from the Green Party after accusing Israel
of using “Nazi methods.” He also criticized the “frightening influence of the
Zionist lobby” in an interview to the extreme right Junge Freiheit on 3.
May 2002. Subsequently, Karsli was welcomed by FDP (Free Democratic Party – the
Liberals) deputy chairman Jürgen Möllemann, who also heads the DAG (the
German-Arab Association), into the ranks of his party. The debate which
followed was further intensified when Möllemann expressed understanding
for Palestinian suicide bombers, in statements such as, “Israel encourages terrorism.” After he had accused Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as well as the vice president
of the Jewish Community in Germany, Michel Friedman, of inciting antisemitism
in Germany with his “intolerant, hateful style,” a bitter
conflict between the Jewish community and the FDP broke out. Chancellor Gerhard
Schröder and Foreign Minister Joshka Fischer (who referred to the Haiderization
of the Liberals) intervened, condemning Möllemann’s statements. Paul
Spiegel, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said that Möllemann's claim that Jews themselves were
responsible for antisemitism – a motive from Nazi propaganda – was the biggest
insult made by a party in the history of the Federal
Republic. Karsli later resigned from the party
but the debate continued.
Another discussion
focused on author Martin Walser (see ASW 1998/9).
In his latest work, Tod eines Kritikers (Death
of a Critic), he depicts a literary critic who appears to resemble Marcel
Reich-Ranicki, a prominent German literary critic who is Jewish. In the book a
writer, deeply affected by the critic's words, murders him. Frank Shirrmacher,
editor of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, refused to publish excerpts of
the book because, he said, it was aimed explicitly against a Jew.
Holocaust Deniers
Denying the Holocaust is a crime in Germany, punishable under paragraphs 130, 185 and 186 of the
Criminal Code. Since they are illegal in Germany, Holocaust denial publications are
distributed mainly from abroad.
Germar Rudolf
(see ASW 1995/6 and subsequent reports), for example, spearheads a
Holocaust denial campaign not only in Germany but worldwide, through, inter alia,
the pseudo-scientific journal Vierteljahreshefte für freie
Geschichtsforschung (VffG), the most influential Holocaust denial publication
in Europe. Since the publication is disseminated via the Internet, primarily the
site of the Belgian Vrij Historisch Onderzoek (VHO), and appears in various
languages, it reaches a large public. Rudolf initiated the joint website of
American Holocaust denier Bradley Smith’s CODOH and the Belgian VHO. He also
continues to run Castle Hill Publishers, UK, with the declared aim of revising the
history of the Holocaust and Nazi era and to “financially assist Revisionists
[Holocaust deniers] who, due to their work, are subjected to prosecution,
physical assault or slander, or who are otherwise victimized or persecuted.”
Currently Rudolf lives in Huntsville, AL, US.
Denial of the
Holocaust and minimization of Jewish suffering, as well as victimization of the
German people, have become part of the anti-Jewish propaganda campaign. National
Socialist apologetics dominate extreme right-wing publications and since 11
September the subjects of “terror” and “victims” have been discussed more
frequently. The attacks on the World Trade Center are compared to the Allies’ bombardment
of Dresden and the victims of both events are equated.
Referring to the WTC attacks, Rudolf accuses the citizens of the United States of being responsible for the acts of
their own democratically elected government, in contrast to citizens of Iraq, for instance, who cannot be held accountable. In Rudolf’s
opinion, the attacks were a response to US foreign policy in the Near East, where Israel ruthlessly performs “ethnic cleansing”
of the Arab population under US protection. Continuing this line of
argument Rudolf maintains that despite the culpability of the American people, the
main responsibility lies with those behind the election of the president: “big
money,” high finance and the media (Vierteljahreshefte für freie
Geschichtsforschung 5 (2001), S. 242f).
Similarly, lawyer
Horst Mahler, a leading member of the NPD, commented on the September 11 events
as follows:
The air attacks of 11 September
2001 upon New York and Washington mark the end of the American Century, the end
of Global Capitalism, and thus the end of the secular Yahweh cult, of Mammonism
... It is the Yahweh-cult, setting devout Jews [on the path] to the attainment
of world power through money-lending, which has given to the present-day
capitalist system its lethal dynamics
(Horst Mahler,
Independence Day – Live, Deutsches Kolleg, 12 Sept. 2001).
Holocaust denial
not only serves to bridge the generation gap, as well as ideological differences between various extreme right-wing
groups in Germany and other countries, it also links the
extreme right to some factions of the left. It has always been convenient to
explain the achievements of Israel and the economic and political setbacks
of the Third World, as well as the failure of the Left and
New Left movements, by resorting to antisemitic conspiracy theories, including
denial of the Holocaust. Right-wing extremists gratefully employ this idea,
i.e., that the Jews are fabricating the “hoax” of the Holocaust in order to extort
reparations from Germany with the help of which they built their “illegal”
State of Israel.
Responses to Terror, Racism and antisemitism
Anti-Terror Legislation
On 8 December, following the September 11
events, the German government passed a series of anti-terrorism laws. Inter alia,
the new legislation removes constitutional protection from hate speeches; a
Muslim imam, for example, can be prosecuted for preaching hatred in a mosque
(see General Analysis).
As part of its
fight against terrorism, Germany also amended the law on associations,
expunging the “religious privilege” clause that limited the authority of the
state to ban extremist organizations if they were religious. Following this
amendment, the Kalifatstaat (see above) was declared illegal,
and its leader is to be deported to Turkey
Another
consequence of the anti-terrorism war pertained to the Central Register for
Foreigners, to which police will now have access. The register has been
expanded to include data on visa applicants and on non-Germans entering Germany.
Critics of the
anti-terror laws point out that these measures represent an extensive attack on
fundamental democratic rights, “a contradiction in itself” when, allegedly, for
the protection of a “civilized state,” its most essential features are largely
abandoned. In this context, the German Judges Federation expressed their alarm
that the secret services were taking on the powers of regular civil and
criminal investigatory authorities, and would not be subject to judicial
scrutiny. While experts criticized the planned package of laws before the
domestic affairs committee of the Bundestag, several state interior ministers
in the Bundesrat were calling for even harsher legislation.
Initiatives against Antisemitism and Right-Wing Extremism
Thousands of private, state and federal
government initiatives have been proposed in Germany
to fight increasing right-wing extremism, which seems posed to enter the
mainstream from the margins. In this effort, the North Rhine Westafalia state alone
sponsored 4,600,
mostly educational, projects
and activities in 2000 and 2001, with a budget of 10.74 million Euro. Following
German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s 2000 call for an “uprising of the
decent” to combat racism, xenophobia and antisemitism, thousands of groups and
organizations representing all social, economic and religious sectors of the
population throughout Germany are being founded and hundreds of thousands
have demonstrated in the streets against neo-Nazism and right-wing extremism.
Exit,
headed by Bernd Wagner and Anette Kahane, was launched in 2000 by the
Amadeu-Antonio Foundation and the organization Stand Up against Rightist
Violence. The project offers to help those willing to abandon their extremist
views and ties to the neo-Nazi scene. Ex-Nazi Ingo Hasselbach is also a
founder. According to Exit, by March 2002 it had supported 100 defectors, while
the government program established in April 2001 under the auspices of the BfVS,
has identified 160 potential candidates and received hundreds of calls. Its
successes, although modest, have included some prominent conversions, such as Benjamin
Poleck, a leader of the NPD of Lower Saxony who left the party at the end of
2001. Threats, including mobile phone messages and e-mails reading “We will get
you” and “Fatherland traitors,” as well as a bomb scare at Exit offices,
indicate that the far right is taking them seriously.
On the Internet, too, there have
been many public initiatives to fight right-wing extremism. NetzGegenRechts and
Mut gegen rechte Gewalt (Courage in the Face of Right-Wing Violence) were
launched by media groups (see ASW 2000/1).
According to the
German Basic Law (Article 2.2), “parties which, by reason of their aims or the
behavior of their adherents, seek to impair or abolish the free democratic
basic order or to endanger the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany,
shall be unconstitutional.” An application to outlaw the NPD, i.e., to declare
it unconstitutional on the grounds of this article, was made to the Federal
Constitutional Court in January 2001, after sufficient evidence was collected to
prove that NPD representatives call openly for a take-over of power in Germany,
by force ‘if necessary” (see ASW 2000/1).
However, in February 2002 German Interior Minister Otto Schilly admitted that
the case was in danger of being dropped because a leading NPD member was in
fact a V-man, an agent who had been working for the constitutional police for
several years. The main evidence against the NPD was based on the writings and
speeches of Wolfgang Frenz, a member of the party's national executive and
deputy leader of the party in North-Rhine Westphalia. Frenz is also the editor
of the regional publication German Future. He has worked for the BfVS
since 1961 and been a member of the NPD since 1965. On 18 April 2002 he was expelled from the NPD, together with another V-man
Udo Holtmann, who had been supplying insider information to the authorities
since 1978.
