NEO-NAZIS IN GERMANY

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26944, 21 January 1953, Page 7

NEO-NAZIS IN GERMANY

“Defeat Certain In Election”

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) BONN, January 19. The Federal German Chancellor (Dr. Adenauer) said today that he was convinced that West German public opinion would prevent any neo-Nazi threat to seize power in ’West Germany. He was making his first public statement on the arrest of the Naumann group last week on suspicion of having conspired to seize power from Dr. Adenauer’s Government. Dr. Adenauer said: “I am sure that any new party that might be formed on these lines for the .next general election would suffer a shattering defeat.” Dr. Adenauer expressed surprise at the survey published yesterday by the United States High Commission claiming that there had been a significant rise in nationalism in West Germany in the last 18 months. He said he first learned of this fact from the news agencies, and had not been officially informed by the American High Commission. “There is no danger that National Socialists of the Hitter model, or of any other model, could come to power in this Federal Republic,” said Dr. Adenauer. He added that the Naumann group had been watched for about six months by the British secret service and the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution. They had decided

that Naumann should be carefully watched, but he was taken by surprise when the British High Commissioner (Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick) told him last Wednesday that he intended to arrest the group. Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick had promised to tell him of the success of the operation, but he had not yet heard anything.

Dr. Adenauer said he was very concerned because all who spoke out against West Germany’s integration in the Western defence system seemed to be supplied with very large sums of money. He understood that apart from its financial backers the Naumann group did not have a large following. The State Department has sent a cablegram to the United States High Commissioner’s office in Germany for an explanation of the public opinion survey which showed a rise in proNazi sentiment in Western Germany. Privately, some officials said they Were sceptical of the survey’s analysis, which showed that the majority of the population of West Germany thought there was more good than evil in the Nazi philosophy. Officials said there had been an increase in nationalist feelings in West Germany recently, but without additional data they could not believe that the situation was as serious as the survey indicated.