Wednesday, June 23, 2004
German exhibition monitor growing neo-Nazi culture
Sarah Goodwin (Reuters) Berlin, June 23
The German government opened an exhibition on right wing extremism in Berlin on Wednesday saying it was encouraged by a drop in neo-Nazi violence, but noting that 15 percent of German children thought Nazism was good.
The exhibition, organised by the domestic intelligence service which monitors extremists, is targeted at young people and aims to make them aware of the dangers of joining Germany's neo-Nazi and "skinhead" sub-culture. Statistics on display show many children and young adults sympathise with extreme far-right views and are at risk of being drawn into the skinhead scene through music with anti-Semitic or xenophobic lyrics and through Internet propaganda.
One study shows 15 percent of youngsters questioned thought Nazism was a good idea and 14 percent agreed with the slogan "Foreigners get out and leave Germany to the Germans". Five percent said they admired Adolf Hitler. Lutz Diwell, a senior civil servant in the interior ministry, said the government saw a glimmer of hope in data showing the number of far-right extremists prepared to commit violent acts fell in 2003 for the first time in nine years, by seven percent to 10,000 from 10,700 in 2002.
"It is too early to spot a trend here but this decrease may show the success of preventive measures, such as information in schools and in the media on the dangers of far-right extremism," said Diwell.
The German government was alerted to the threat from neo-Nazi violence in 2003, when police unearthed a bomb plot at a Jewish community centre in Munich on the anniversary of Nazi Germany's most notorious programme, Reichskristallnacht.
More than 100 people have been killed in racist violence in Germany since unification in 1990. Most of the attacks are opportunistic -- skinheads picking on foreigners in the street.
Attacks on property also occur -- swastikas daubed on Jewish gravestones, bricks thrown at Turkish kebab shops and firebombs at asylum hostels. Most synagogues have 24-hour police guards.
Many incidents have occurred in eastern Germany, where foreigners became scapegoats for high unemployment. Some 19 percent of children in the east want all foreigners to leave Germany, compared with seven percent in the west, a survey showed.
© HT Media Ltd. 2004.