Reunions off former Nazis legal but unwelcome

Press, 27 July 1988, Page 44

Reunions off former Nazis legal but unwelcome

NZPA-AP Frankfurt Former Nazi officers and soldiers still get together regularly in wcrt Germany but Government officials can do little to stop them. Officials say they check on such meetings only if they detect concrete signs of extremist Right-wing tendencies.

Gatherings of former Nazis range from annual reunions of former S.S. officers to meetings of regular Army veterans, many of whom once belonged to the Nazi Party. Other gatherings on formal occasions draw old battle comrades. The funeral in Dusseldorf for a former aide to Adolf Hitler, for example, 'drew about 100 former members of the Nazis’ Waffen S.S., the newspaper “Welt am Sonntag” reported. Many of the former S.S. men at the funeral on July 8 wore the insignia df an S.S. veterans’ group, and draped the coffin of the former Hitler aide, Richard Schulze-Kossens, with wreaths bearing tributes from several former S.S. units, the

newspaper said. Afterwards the former S.S. men, now mainly in their 70s and 80s, went out for coffee and talked about their health, “Welt am Sonntag” said. “We don’t approve of it, but attending a funeral isn’t illegal,” said an Interior Ministry spokesman, Roland Bachmeier. “Such a gathering does not in fact pose much danger to society,” he added, referring to the relatively small numbers of West Germans involved with extreme Right-wing organisations.

The total number of Right-wing extremists is 25,200 in this nation of 61.5 million people, according to Interior Ministry statistics released in May.

While it is illegal in West Germany to display Nazi symbols and propaganda, and known neoNazi groups are banned, war veterans’ groups are legal.

"Unless we have concrete proof that a veterans’ group is involved in illegal activities, it is allowed to meet,” Mr Bachmeier said.

“If we suspect that a

group has Right-wing extremist tendencies, we keep a very close eye on it.”

One of the most hotly debated reunions was one held by hundreds of Waffen S.S. veterans in the Bavarian Alps town of Nesselwang in May, 1985. The reunion, held just before President Reagan’s visit to a military cemetary in Bitburg where 49 Waffen S.S. members are buried, drew protests from Church groups, labour union groups, and angry citizens. Both the Nesselwang gathering and the Dusseldorf funeral, according to “Welt am Sonntag,” included members of a veterans’ organisation with many former S.S. members, known as HIAG, an acronym for mutual aid society. The S.S., or “Schutzstaffel,” was an elite military guard of the Nazi party. The Waffen S.S. was the fighting branch of the guard, which also ran concentration camps and massacred civilians.

Many West Germans, however, say they are outraged that such meetings are allowed. They

maintain that Nazi propaganda is spread at many, if not all, reunion meetings — even if it is not done in a manner blatant enough to qualify as illegal. “They spread propaganda that glorifies the war and even many of Hitler’s goals,” said Kurt Faller, spokesman for the Communist oriented League of Anti-Fascists. “Young people attend these meetings, too, and get the idea that what went on wasn’t really so bad,” he said. “It is a scandal that they are allowed to meet.”

However, organised protests at reunion sites have led some veterans’ groups to act with more discretion in recent years, Mr Faller said.

“Organised protests at reunion sites have led them to be more secretive about when and where they hold their meetings.”

Protesters have included outraged citizens, Catholic and Protestant church groups, labour unions, and members of liberal political parties, in addition to the League of Anti-Fascists, Mr Faller said.