EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN - Institute of Race Relations

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the right-wing scene can take over youth meeting places. As theneo-nazis gradually infiltrated the youth centres, social workersgradually gave up. The authorities, aware that the neo-naziswere using the Oasis to launch attacks on other youth centres,first considered closing it down but ruled against it on theground that the club belonged to an independent sponsor andbecause that would only shift the problem. Instead, they havearranged history lessons and international exchanges. (JungeWelt 19.10.98)In Leipzig, anti-fascists claim that the authorities are turninga blind eye to racism within a youth centre which hasbecome dominated by neo-nazis and which has been used as apractice centre for right-wing bands. Racist attacks in the area,culminating in the attempted murder of two Vietnamese asylum-seekers,are also on the increase. (Junge Welt 22.10.98)Members of a punk youth club in Jena are constantlyharassed by neo-nazis, including a group known as TnueringerHeimatschutz, which staged a demonstration demanding itsclosure. Previously fascist graffiti reading ‘Rather dead than Red’was painted over ads for a local punk concert. (Junge Welt15.10.98)German neo-nazis riot at World CupChancellor Kohl condemned as a national disgrace violence byneo-nazi German football fans at the Yugoslavia-GermanyWorld Cup fixture in Lens, northern France. But an offer towithdraw the German national squad from the tournamentbecause of the violence was declined by FIFA. The president ofthe German football federation described the violence as nothingshort of terrorism.Prior to the riot, as many as 450 skinheads were seen on thestreets of Lens giving nazi salutes. More than 400 neo-nazisfrom Hamburg were believed to have travelled to Lens. Frenchpolice describe the violence as highly organised with ringleaderscommunicating by mobile phone and radios. Many knownneo-nazis were among the 96 detained. During the riot, aFrench police officer received life-threatening injuries afterbeing struck by an iron bar. (Guardian 22, 23.6.98)Racist attacks★ Eight adolescents, aged 14-19, including several skinheads,have been found guilty of torturing and abusing a 14-yearoldgirl in Mahlow on the eve of 1998. Among other things,the gang sprayed a swastika on the girl’s chest and shavedher head. (Junge Welt 18.8.98)★ Twenty four neo-nazis were detained in Munich after a 21-year-old US soldier, stationed in Germany, was savagelyassaulted on a train travelling through Bavaria. The soldierwas beaten on his head, face and body. (Germany Alert9.10.98)★ An Orthodox Jew from Israel was spat on, beaten andinsulted as he walked down one of Berlin’s main streets.While the mayor of the Berlin district where the attack tookplace has apologised, others have attacked the Berlin dailynewspaper, the Tagesspiegel for reporting the attack, claimingthat the story was fabricated to ‘defame Germany infront of the world’. (Jewish Chronicle 28.8.98)In Mahlow, a gang sprayed a swastika on thegirl’s chest and shaved her head.★ In Scherwin, two skinheads attacked a 16-year-old girl whowas on crutches following a knee operation. One of herattackers called her ‘the sister of a nigger’. (Junge Welt6.10.98)★ In Halle, compatriots came to the aid of four Nepalese menbeing assaulted by 20 skinheads. In an earlier incident, aman from Sierra Leone was hospitalised after being stabbed.(Junge Welt 19.10.98)Turk criminalised for self-defenceDespite overwhelming evidence from eye-witnesses and eventhe testimony of some police officers, a court has fined a Turkishman DM1,800 for defending himself from a neo-nazi racistattack. In December ‘97, the Turk and an African-Americanwere attacked outside a restaurant by 21 neo-nazis. The policearrested the neo-nazis and despite finding them to be in possessionof pistols and knives released them on the grounds thatthere was no proof that they had initiated the attack. The Turk,on the other hand, was prosecuted for attempted murder. (JungeWelt 20.8.98)Police racially abuse African man who reportsracist attackA 27-year-old man from the Cameroons who was ambushedand beaten by racists at the railway station at KoenigsWusterhausen was treated in a racist and offensive manner bypolice.On 18 September, the man was set upon by three skinheadswho beat him and called him a Nigger Bastard’. He managed toescape, but his pleas for help from taxi-drivers assembled at thefront of the railway station went unanswered. The skinheadsbeat him again. Finally, he managed to escape on the underground.Subsequently, he reported the attack to Berlin police, leavinga recorded message on an answering machine. But when helater phoned the police, the investigating officers referred to therecorded message he left as being spoken in ‘Nigger English’.The man caught the police officers abusive response to hisplight on an answering machine and the incident was publicisedon Spiegel TV. According to a police spokesperson, the policeofficers involved committed an inexcusable faux-pas. It is possiblethat the taxi-drivers who refused to assist the African manmay themselves be prosecuted for refusing to give assistance toa victim of crime. (Junge Welt 22.10.98)Two confess Dolgenbrodt arsonTwo of the five men accused of an arson attack on newly-builtrefugee accommodation in Dolgenbrodt, a lakeside resort villagesoutheast of Berlin, have surprisingly confessed theirinvolvement at the trial. (International Herald Tribune 4-5.7.98)Research reveals that young trade unionists areattracted to far -RightA poll of 5,200 union members by the opinion research organisationInfratest-Dimap suggests that about one third of allunion members aged between 18 and 24 could vote for a rightwingparty and that among older members the figure is 11 percent. The president of the trade union federation, the DGB,says that these results show ‘a neglect of trade union workamong young people’. (Junge Welt n.d.)20IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 29 • MARCH 1999
Research belies violent youth link to socialdisadvantageNew research by the German Institute for InternationalPedagogic Research (Frankfurt/Main) and the Institute forPedagogy at Rostock University suggests that social disadvantageand violence are not as closely connected as commonlythought. The research also concludes that claims of disproportionatelyviolent behaviour in eastern Germany could only bepartially proved. In fact, comparisons between Frankfurt andRostock suggest that younger pupils at secondary schools inFrankfurt were ‘very significantly more violent’.Researchers questioned over 5,300 youths between the agesof 15 and 17 in Riga, Brno, Graz, Rotterdam, Frankfurt/Mainand Rostock. Violent young people, the research concluded,were characterised by strong group ties, enjoyment of violenceand xenophobia and a dismissive attitude to democratic values.(Junge Welt 21.10.98)Germany and the Holocaust: memories denied,compensation soughtGerman companies must compensate slave labourThe debate about German companies responsibility towardsslave labourers who survived the nazi period has been reignited,following lawsuits, and a decision by the Volkswagen car companyto set up a private aid fund to help those forced into slavelabour at its Wolfsburg factories. In October, following theintervention of Schröder, nine leading firms agreed to set up aworking party aimed at the establishment of a compensationfund for those former slave labourers who are still alive. ButSchröder, who will oversee the fund, has already indicated thatthe government will protect the interests of German companiesand sees its role as foreclosing on the possibility of further legalclaims against the companies.German companies have long declined to pay compensation,arguing that the German government, as political successorsto the Nazi regime, should address the issue. But in recentmonths, increasing lawsuits and the threat of consumer boycottsand the loss of export markets have focused banks, insurancecompanies and multinational companies on the need for compromise.For instance, two Swiss banks had to pay out £750million to Holocaust survivors, following a US lawsuit inAugust. US lawyers have launched several class action suits andbig German banks face a claim for £10 billion. Some Germancompanies like the precious-metal smelters Degussa – whichworked closely with the SS processing gold and valuables fromthe concentration camps and which, via the subsidiary Degeschproduced the Zyklon B chemical used in the gas chambers –face potential ruin. Damiler-Benz, BMW, Thyssen-Krupp andVolkswagen also face lawsuits.Focus on VolkswagenAlready, Chancellor Schröder, who has been a member ofVolkswagen’s supervisory board, persuaded Volkswagen to participatein a national fund for surviving slave labourers. The historian,Hans Mommsen, who has been allowed to studyVolkswagen’s archives, has established that nearly two thirds ofVolkswagen workers were foreign slave labourers by 1942.About 10,000 forced workers – Poles, Jews and Soviet POWS –were forced to work at Wolfsburg in appalling conditions. InSeptember, Volkswagen agreed to establish a £7 million fund forthe 20,000 surviving slave labourers used during the war.Germany’s biggest electrical engineering company, Siemens, hasset up a similar fund. (Guardian 23.10.98)Controversy over Berlin Holocaust memorialA decision on whether or not to build a Holocaust memorial inthe heart of Berlin was postponed till after the election for fearit would become an electoral issue. Chancellor Kohl had supportedthe installation of a huge memorial. Despite support forthe project in the Jewish community, nineteen prominent historiansand authors, including Günter Grass, declared in 1998that creating ‘an abstract installation of oppressively giganticproportions’ would defeat the project’s purpose of encouragingremembrance about the horrors of the past and reflectionsabout lessons for the future. The memorial was also criticisedfor neglecting other victims of Nazi persecution, notably Roma,Gays and the disabled. The new chancellor, Gerhard Schröder,is reportedly lukewarm about the project. And his chief adviseron cultural affairs has declared that the budget for the memorialwould be better spent on improving the dilapidated state ofthe former concentration camps which he described as ‘the realmemorials of the Holocaust’. (International Herald Tribune25.8.98)Frankfurt memorial to Roma shelvedThe Roma Union in Frankfurt and the Roma NationalCongress have reacted with dismay to a decision not to install aplaque in memory of Roma and Sinti murdered during theHolocaust on the wall of a health centre in Frankfurt. TheRoma had hoped that the plaque would not only commemorateall those who died in the Holocuast but warn of the dangers ofscientific racism by mentioning the Nazi race researchers RobertRitter and Eva Justin who worked for the Racial HygieneInstitute and who despite their crimes were re-employed inpositions of authority at the Frankfurt health centre in 1947.Why, asked the Roma National Congress, are the personalrights of Nazi criminals deemed more important than those ofthe Roma and Sinti massacred during the Holocaust? It addsthat ‘Withholding the names of the culprits falsifies history’.Hans-Georg Bttcher, manager of the Roma Union, said ‘I donot feel hate but I cannot forget how they measured us all’.(Romnews/RNC 22.7, 25.8.98)Asylum and immigrationNew government, new approach to asylum andcitizenship?The new Social Democratic and Green coalition governmenthave announced plans to introduce new legislation to reformGermany’s citizenship laws. There will, however, be no changeto the asylum law. Now the centre-Right parties, led by theCSU in Bavaria, have indicated that they will challenge any citizenshipreform, in the European Court if necessary.Citizenship – Who will benefit?Up to 3 million of Germany’s 7.5 million ‘foreigner’ populationcould benefit from the proposed legislation, which will introducethe concept of ‘double citizenship. Furthermore childrenborn in Germany will qualify for a passport if one parent wasunder 14 on entering the country and has remained a resident.Foreigners resident for eight years – or five years if under 16 –can apply for citizenship.Right incensed by threat to German traditionsThe Bavarian CSU is set to lead opposition to the changes.21IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 29 • MARCH 1999
Page 1 and 2: ISSN 1463 9696 Covering the period
Page 3: on insufficient evidence. It also s
Page 6 and 7: important than the Roma. The Counci
Page 8 and 9: Hansen, has complained to the Minis
Page 10 and 11: larised, was aborted when 60 anti-r
Page 12 and 13: Our supporters must ‘prepare ment
Page 14 and 15: uation in other FN towns, the minor
Page 16 and 17: FORMER-YUGOSLAVIAHuman rights and t
Page 18 and 19: tion held in recent years was held
Page 22 and 23: Incensed at what it regards as an a
Page 24 and 25: Renewed criticism of withdrawal of
Page 26 and 27: parliamentary group. When the House
Page 28 and 29: asylum-seekers for congregating in
Page 30 and 31: ‘When spotted by coastguards, tra
Page 32 and 33: Employer organisation calls for dec
Page 34 and 35: assailants and charged them with as
Page 36 and 37: On 16 August, Corneliu Vadim Tudor,
Page 38 and 39: Workmates of Mohammed Rehman tied h
Page 40 and 41: head mobs who prevented them from r
Page 42 and 43: Dispersal and payment in kindPropos

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