Police raids

Police raided homes of suspected neo-Nazis in four German states on Tuesday in an effort to prevent a meeting of right-wing extremists from across the country from being held. The homes in question are said to have belonged to members of the successor organization to the outlawed Union of German Youth Faithful to the Homeland (HDJ).

The State Criminal Police Office in the northern city of Hanover said in a statemet that police had seized right-wing extremist propoganda that members of the group allegedly planned to hand out to minors in youth camps.

Just like Hitler Youth's camps

The HDJ was banned by the then German interior minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble in March of 2009, because the group had run camps based on the model of the Hitler Youth, teaching children as young as six that foreigners and Jews were a threat to the nation. According to police, after the HDJ was banned, former members continued their work in the guise of the Young National Democrats.

Police said there was a danger that the neo-Nazis would have broken laws at their planned get-together, including incitement to racial hatred and wearing banned uniforms.

In addition to Lower Saxony, where Hanover is the state capital, raids were carried out in Berlin, Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Wuerttemberg.

Author: Sarah Steffen (dpa, AFP)
Editor: Chuck Penfold