New German agency set up to combat neo-Nazi propaganda

-

A new German agency tasked with advising local authorities on how to counteract neo-Nazis was announced in Berlin Tuesday, two months after the exposure of an anti-immigrant gang that has been blamed for 10 deadly shooting.

Family Affairs Minister Kristina Schroeder said the information and skill agency would be a one-stop source of advice to municipalities seeking ways to check neo-Nazi recruiters.

She spoke after a day-long meeting in Berlin with church activists and youth workers.

In November, police blamed three neo-Nazis who had met as teenagers in the 1990s for nine unsolved murders of immigrant shopkeepers and the shooting of a police officer.

Two of the three killed themselves before arrest and the survivor is in custody, awaiting indictment. A survey this week funded by parliament suggested many German schoolchildren use 'Jew' as a term of abuse and 20 per cent of Germans are latently anti-Semitic.

'We have to better grasp that attacks on minorities are attacks on ourselves as a whole,' said Schroeder in Berlin after the meeting. The new agency would advise youth workers on effective ways to thwart neo-Nazis.

However, she said her ministry's anti-Nazi annual budget of 24 million euros (31 million dollars) was unlikely to be expanded.

Hans-Peter Friedrich, the interior minister, said he wanted to deny neo-Nazis any refuge in society.

'Only when we all actively stand up for democracy and tolerance can we root out right-wing extremism from our society,' he said.

The chairman of Germany's Central Council of Jews, Dieter Graumann, criticized the slow pace of the inquiry into the 10 killings. 'The authorities are in continued hibernation in investigating these dreadful acts,' he said in an interview.

A parliamentary commission of inquiry into the killings is scheduled to be set up on Thursday by a resolution in the Bundestag.

M&S

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Huge Japan Quake Cracked Open Seafloor

-
The March 2011 megaquake off the coast of Japan opened up fissures as wide as 6 feet (3 meters) in the seafloor, a new study finds. The fissures now scar the seafloor where peaceful clam beds once lay, according to Takeshi Tsuji, a researcher at Kyoto University in Japan . Along with seismic studies, the fissures, revealed by manned submersible vehicles that investigated the seafloor after the quake, show how the crust around the quake's epicenter expanded and cracked.
Read more

Index for a million documents on Polish Jewry to go online

-
Researchers of Polish Jewry are set to gain online access to more than 1 million new documents following an agreement signed by the Polish State Archives. Under the agreement signed last week, Jewish Records Indexing-Poland will receive indices to the documents from the Polish archives authority and place them on the website of the online database within one year, a JRI-Poland statement read.
Read more

A lot of the bread in the US will no longer be kosher

-
The largest baking company in the United States will be removing kosher certification from nearly all of its bread and rolls. Bimbo Bakeries USA confirmed to JTA that it will be removing the certification. The company produces brands including Arnold, Sara Lee, Stroehmann, Freihofer’s and others. Two of its major brands, Entenmann’s and Thomas, will remain certified kosher. So, kosher eaters, your crumb doughnuts and English muffins are still safe. A couple of rye breads also will retain their certifications. “Removing the kosher certification from some of our products was strictly a business-process decision to enable more efficient operations, and it was one we did not make lightly,” Bimbo said in a statement. “Thomas’ and Entenmann’s products as well as Arnold’s and Levy’s Rye Breads will remain kosher-certified. It is important to note that we have heard our consumers’ concerns and are working with kosher certification organizations and discussing alternative solutions.” The c
Read more