Germany: Racism and fascism (5)
01 January 1991
Germany: Racism and fascism
artdoc April=1995
Six more deaths
Arson attack kills two Roma
An arson attack on a pre-fab in Herford, Westphalia, which housed
over seventy refugees, mostly Roma, has left a 23-year-old woman
and her 11-year-old brother dead as fire-fighters, criticised for
taking over an hour to arrive on the scene, fought to evacuate
the other residents. The pre-fab accommodation had, according
to a local clergyman, been attacked before and Herford itself is
something of a neo-nazi stronghold. But local residents suggest
that after the interior minister for Upper-Rhine Westphalia
visited the scene, he claimed that the arson attack might have
been carried out by a former boyfriend of the young woman who
died. There is also disquiet about the way in which the
authorities attempted to deny that the victims were Roma. The
Herford municipal council and the ministry of interior both
claimed that `no Roma were officially registered' at the
accommodation. Immigration authorities in Germany officially
register only the refugees country of origin and not their ethnic
affiliation (Romnews no. 18, 5.10.94).
Turkish man and son die in fire
A Turkish man and his 5-year-old son have died in a fire at their
apartment in Reichertshofen, Bavaria. The Turkish government,
which has pressed the German authorities to investigate a far-
Right motive, say that in the past 64 per cent of all arson
attacks have not been cleared up by the police (Junge Welt
29.12.94).
German anti-fascist killed during fight with nazi soldier
Piotr Kania, an 18-year-old anti-fascist, was stabbed to death
during a fight with a group of five soldiers, one of whom was a
nazi skinhead wearing a T-shirt with the `Reichskriegflagge'.
Another anti-fascist was seriously injured in the fight which
took place in Roteenburg an der Fulda. The public prosecutor has
given the go-ahead to the police to release the culprits from
detention, pending trial (Konkret no. 1, 1995).
Anti-fascist killed at youth club
Micha Gäbler, a 17-year-old anti-fascist was stabbed to death in
a youth club in Zittau by a nazi with a knife who had been
shouting fascist slogans and threatening other guests at the
youth club (Frankfurter Rundschau 22.11.94).
Anti-Semitic attacks
Anti-Semitic crimes increased more than 100 per cent in 1994
according to the Federal Criminal Office. And, according to the
Rhineland-Palatine Crime Office, a growing flow of anti-Semitic
materials are entering the country. Fifty tombstones at a Jewish
cemetery at Busenberg in the southern state of Rhineland-Palatine
were desecrated (Jewish Chronicle 2.12.94). In Darmstadt, a fire
was started by youths who shouted anti-Semitic slogans at the
house of a leading figure in the Jewish community (Frankfurter
Rundschau 11.11.94).
Other attacks
In Potsdam, a 24-year-old German man received a 4 year prison
sentence for torturing and racially and sexually abusing an
Angolan man who was kept prisoner for several weeks in October
1992.
In Thüringen, the minister of interior, Richard Dewes, was
attacked by skinheads while waiting at a train station
(Süddeutsche Zeitung 6.12.94).
Echoes of nazi past in new `Mother and child policy'
Germany's new Minister for Women and the Family, Claudia Nolte,
is a crusading Catholic from the eastern state of Thuringia who
believes that women who have had an abortion should be forced to
work in a hospital for a year `to make amends'.
Women's groups are outraged by the appointment of the 28-year-
old Nolte, who they accuse of knowing `nothing about anything'
and of being `a marionette' under Chancellor Kohl's control.
Nolte's first move as women's minister has been to approve a £400
grant to mother's on the birth of a new baby. Feminist writer,
Alice Schwarzer has commented : `This mother and child policy is
part of a long tradition here in Germany, a tradition which
reached its zenith in th