FORMER members of the notorious SS are helping to brainwash a new generation of Nazis by giving talks about their wartime experiences, it has been reported. A report by the German security services has found ex-soldiers who served in Adolf Hitler’s elite formations have been touring the country giving speeches praising the Nazi dictator. The […]
FORMER members of the notorious SS are helping to brainwash a new generation of Nazis by giving talks about their wartime experiences, it has been reported.
A report by the German security services has found ex-soldiers who served in Adolf Hitler’s elite formations have been touring the country giving speeches praising the Nazi dictator.
The report said that last year alone there were 60 talks given by the so-called “eyewitnesses”, which were attended by hundreds of far-right extremists listening to vile attempts to re-write history.
It was originally thought the activity was centred on the city of Chemnitz, which has been a focal point of far-right activity in in recent years.
But according to the report, the ex-soldiers have been travelling throughout Germany.
The talks are given by around half a dozen of the former Waffen SS members who are now in their 90s.
They include the 91-year-old Klaus Grotjahn from Bielefeld, who served with the 11th SS Volunteer Division “Nordland”.
Richard Neubrech, 92, formerly of the 3rd SS Panzer Division ‘Totenkopf’, which took part in the brutal suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943 has also given talks.
According to the study, these events have been gaining popularity in recent years and the aim is to pass down a distorted pro-Nazi version of history to a new generation, FOCUS magazine reports.
The intelligence report compiled by German domestic security agency and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution said the lectures have become “an important starting point” for the right-wing extremist scene.
“Especially since 2016, there has been a steady increase in event numbers,” it said.
The meetings seek to legitimise the actions of the former Nazis, glorifying the Third Reich’s armed forces and present their actions as a defensive.
Recent years have seen the growth in the far-right in Germany.
The city of Chemnitz in the eastern part of the country saw a large gathering of far-right protesters after a man was allegedly stabbed to death “by immigrants”.
About 6,000 people took part in the far-right demonstration and 1,000 in a rival anti-fascist rally, police said.
Alternative For Germany, a far-right party, received almost a quarter of the vote in the city.
Polls have shown the party stands a good chance of winning the most seats in the east of the country this autumn.
The party was founded in April 2013 ahead of that year’s federal elections in September.
In 2016, the AfD’s co-leader Frauke Petry sparked outrage when she said that police should be allowed to shoot illegal migrants on Germany’s border.
One of the party’s most controversial election strategies was to take a revisionist view of Germany’s horrific crimes in World War II which included the systematic killing of six million Jews.
The SS was short for Schutzstaffel – German for “Protective Echelon” – and was founded as a protective guard for Hitler in 1925.
The Waffen SS – or armed SS – was expanded during WWII and manned by loyal Nazis who fought fanatically to the end for the regime.
It acquired a reputation for brutality towards civilians and many of its members stood trial for war crimes, including the mass murder of Jews.
Earlier this year a 97-year-old ex-Nazi who was involved in a notorious World War Two massacre is being investigated for claiming the SS “did nothing criminal”.
Karl Münter, who has so far escaped justice for committing crimes against humanity also said he “had the right to shoot” civilians.
Münter has also disputed the six million Jewish death toll during the war and said he was nostalgic for the Third Reich.
His comments have sparked outrage in Germany and now a hate speech investigation has been launched under the country’s Volksverhetzung law, which aims to prosecute incitement to racial hatred.
In April 1944 he was involved in the massacre of 86 French men and boys in the village of Ascq in northern France.
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