German Neo-Nazi March Stopped
Charles Johnson
Sun May 8, 2005 at 1:37 pm PDT • Views: 255
Here’s a scary report from Berlin, where neo-Nazis turned out in the thousands; the only bright spot is that they were confronted by a crowd twice as large: German neo-Nazi march stopped on WW2 anniversary.
BERLIN (Reuters) - A neo-Nazi march in Berlin was stopped by thousands of anti-fascist demonstrators on Sunday after a tense standoff that overshadowed Germany’s ceremonies marking the end of World War II in Europe 60 years ago.
Berlin police said 6,000 demonstrators opposed to the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) crowded into streets around Alexanderplatz square where 3,300 right-wing extremists gathered to protest what they called a German “cult of guilt.”
Eager to prevent the violence that flares when leftists try to stop far-right marches, authorities ordered the NPD to stay at Alexanderplatz behind a buffer zone of barricades and police. Two hours later the NPD decided to abandon the march. …
The NPD, citing constitutional free speech guarantees, had originally wanted to march through the Brandenburg Gate, a symbol of unification, and past a new Holocaust memorial.
“This was not a day of ‘liberation’ but a day of defeat for Germany and it’s nothing to celebrate,” said NPD leader Udo Voigt. The extremists with shaven heads and black clothing were required to pass through tight police screening to the rally.
“A lot of Germans are tired of hearing May 8 called a day of ‘liberation’,” Voigt told Reuters, criticizing the anti-fascists as intolerant. “Almost every German has relatives expelled from the east or a grandfather who was killed. We’re here to mourn the millions of Germans killed in the war.”
Frank says: