CST Blog

German panel on antisemitism announced

6 August 2009

The German government has announced the formation of a panel of experts to monitor and investigate antisemitism in Germany, and recommend measures to combat it. The commission appears to be inspired by the success of Britain's Parliamentary Inquiry model, although it takes a different format.

Separately, a German Holocaust Denier has been prevented from opening a neo-Nazi training centre in an ailing hotel in Lower Saxony:

An effort by one of Germany's leading Holocaust deniers to set up a neo-Nazi "youth camp" in a rural hotel has been scotched by a court decision to have the neo-Nazis thrown out.
  
The court in Lower Saxony cleared the way for the debt-ridden hotel's receiver to evict the neo-Nazis, who had been occupying the premises amid a tense standoff with police and local anti-Nazi protesters.

Hours before the decision, German commandos had raided the hotel after hearing what they thought to be gunshots.

They found several fake firearms, a concealable truncheon and pepper spray. Twelve neo-Nazis were on the premises, four of whom were minors and were handed over to youth services.

Late on Tuesday, the eight remaining neo-Nazis, masked and hooded, left the premises peacefully after police moved in, a police spokesman said.

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