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| Europe |
| Neo-Nazis go on trial over Munich synagogue bomb plot |
| 2004-10-06 |
| Amid concern over right-wing extremists in Germany, four neo-Nazis go on trial Wednesday on terrorism charges in connection with a plot to blow up a Munich synagogue last year. Prosecutors say they will seek to prove the neo-Nazis, who obtained 1.7 kilograms of bomb-making TNT for the attack, were also planning other bombings in the Bavarian capital. The four men belonged to a neo-Nazi group called the "Southern Comrades" and include its leader, Martin Wiese, 28, and three of his followers, also in their 20s. According to German Chief Federal Prosecutor General Kay Nehm, the evidence shows the group was preparing to set off a bomb on the synagogue site near Munich's Jakobsplatz square to disrupt the cornerstone-laying ceremonies last November 9. The group bought explosives in Poland and tested them in small blasts in remote areas, officials say. Police seized a total of 14 kilograms of explosives in September, including the 1.4 kilograms of TNT high explosive. The group had intended to hide their bomb in a sewer pipe under the site. In mid-August last year, the plot was canceled after several members of the group were questioned by police. Police arrested the men in September and discovered the explosives. Nehm said the group had also contemplated setting off a bomb in the Marienplatz, Munich's main square and a magnet for tourists. It also considered attacking people it considered leftist, including the state Social Democratic leader, Franz Maget. The date of the synagogue foundation ceremony - November 9 - is full of symbolism: It would have been 65 years after Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938, when Nazi thugs vandalized and burned synagogues all over Germany and their policy of persecution of Jews was turned into the naked violence of the Holocaust. Today, most German Jewish community centers are under almost permanent police protection for fear of attacks by Islamists or neo-Nazis, with roads outside closed to traffic and the compounds walled off. The Munich trial opens after far-right political parties made strong gains in two regional elections last month. In eastern German Saxony state, the anti-immigrant National Democratic Party (NPD) won 9 per cent, while in Brandenburg state, the German People's Union (DVU) garnered 6 per cent. Under Germany's proportional representation system both parties will gain seats in the state parliaments for having crossed the 5 per cent hurdle. Last weekend, several hundred leftists clashed with neo-Nazis in the eastern German city Leipzig to prevent an estimated 150 neo-Nazis from taking part in a march. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |
| #14 I appreciate the appreciation. Yes, I have been to Yad Vashem, and to the Hall of Mirrors where the names of the children who were murdered are continually read out. It's difficult to find words for the reaction to the experience. |
| Posted by: Bryan 2004-10-07 3:05:06 AM |
| #13 RANTBURG CLASSIC |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2004-10-06 10:15:24 PM |
| #12 Ditto. Thanks Bryan. Brains on overload. Think I'll visit Alaska Paul's Sci-Fi link now sheepishly. |
| Posted by: John (Q. Citizen) 2004-10-06 10:09:20 PM |
| #11 Ditto. Thanks Bryan. Brains on overload. Think I'll visit Alaska Paul's Sci-Fi link now sheepishly. |
| Posted by: John (Q. Citizen) 2004-10-06 10:09:13 PM |
| #10 For "Dave" read "Bryan", and all will be instantly clear to you silly people. My apologies, Bryan, the blood obviously wasn't pooling in my brain at that moment. I wish I could call it a Senior moment, but the MRI definitely proved that my problems lie elsewhere ;-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2004-10-06 9:48:36 PM |
| #9 Jesus... I gotta learn not to click on Rantburg while I've got a mouthful of food. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2004-10-06 9:36:52 PM |
| #8 LOL |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-10-06 9:34:47 PM |
| #7 Alaska Paul, allow me to provide the link for those who are ignorant of Sci Fi prior to Lucas. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-10-06 9:32:16 PM |
| #6 I'm right here, Hal. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-10-06 9:26:27 PM |
| #5 Dave? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-10-06 9:25:30 PM |
| #4 Ditto. Thank you, Dave. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2004-10-06 9:16:20 PM |
| #3 Dave, I don't know whether or not you have been to Yad Vashem. It is a very emotionally moving place. After going through the Hall of Mirrors that commemorates the children who were killed in the Holocaust, I had tears streaming down my face. I am a Christian who married a Jewish woman. Everyone on her father's side was murdered except her father. Both grandparents on on her mother's side and four of her aunts and uncles were also murdered. Thanks for the nice piece about Yad Vashem. It was appreciated. |
| Posted by: John (Q. Citizen) 2004-10-06 6:54:45 PM |
| #2 Both points well taken. |
| Posted by: Mark Espinola 2004-10-06 7:59:20 AM |
| #1 You just can't keep these good, loyal Nazis down. There must be something in the collective German psyche that automatically turns these pea-brains into Nazis and makes them impervious to any modern, enlightening influences or any sense of humanity. On the bright side, there are plenty Germans like the two young cyclists whos story was reported in Monday's Jerusalem Post. They "biked 5000 kilometres from Berlin to Jerusalem to present Yad Vashem with a stone from a German concentration camp. "The stone given to Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority was hewn as a building block by a Sachsenhausen inmate at a construction materials factory, where many victims of Nazi forced labour died. "Aaron Blankenburg, 21, said at the ceremony that as they embarked on their first ever journey to Israel with such emotionally charged "baggage", he shuddered at the thought of how people suffered under such inhumane conditions at the camp." |
| Posted by: Bryan 2004-10-06 6:43:57 AM |