Archive/File: fascism/germany ap.050694
Last-Modified: 1994/05/08

Article: 36170 of alt.conspiracy
From: Glenda.Stocks@f201.n330.z1.fidonet.org (Glenda Stocks)
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy
Subject: Germany limits nazi speec
Message-ID: <768325691.AA01909@rochgte.fidonet.org>
Date: Fri, 06 May 1994 23:32:00 -0500
Lines: 61

    BONN, Germany (AP) -- Neo-Nazis have no right to free speech when
it comes to denying the Nazis slaughtered 6 million European Jews,
Germany's highest court ruled Tuesday.
    The Constitutional Court upheld Munich's threat to ban a rally
by a far-right party if the guest of honor insisted on stating that
Jews weren't systematically murdered during World War II.
    The so-called ``Auschwitz Lie'' -- the claim that Hitler's mass
murder was the invention of conspiracy buffs -- has surfaced with
increasing regularity on the right-wing fringe in Germany and
elsewhere. Jewish and human rights leaders are fighting to keep
such ideas from gaining currency.
    Germany's federal appeals court ruled March 15 that Guenter
Deckert, head of the far-right National Democratic Party, couldn't
be convicted of inciting racial hatred merely for stating that the
Holocaust never happened.
    If Tuesday's ruling was any guide, the Constitutional Court
probably would reverse the lower court ruling, although no
challenge has been scheduled. The Constitutional Court said the
``Auschwitz Lie'' was a ``proven untruth'' and a criminal insult
against living Jews.
    Tuesday's decision came in response to a separate challenge by
Deckert's party. On March 12, 1991, Munich warned Deckert that a
planned rally at a beer hall would be broken up if British
historian David Irving gave a planned speech stating that the
Holocaust never happened.
    The party held the rally but restrained its speakers from
denying the Holocaust. It later sued the city for violating party
members' freedom of speech.
    Violent neo-Nazis, racists and ultra-nationalists have combined
in networks to spread propaganda, bash foreigners and insult Jews
in Germany over the past four years. More than 30 people have been
killed in right-wing attacks.
    Before dawn Tuesday, neo-Nazis honored a role model by stringing
banners across 20 highway bridges around Berlin celebrating the
100th birthday of Rudolf Hess, the late Hitler deputy.
    Police quickly confiscated the bed-sheet banners but the
neo-Nazis got away. The banners had black-letter slogans like
``Rudolf Hess -- Martyr for Germany'' and ``Rudolf Hess --
Immortal.''
    Hess, born April 26, 1894, was one of Hitler's closest aides. He
was arrested in England after flying there on an ill-conceived
peace mission in 1941, remaining behind bars until his death in
1987 at Spandau prison in Berlin.
    Prison officials said Hess committed suicide but supporters
claimed he was murdered.


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