Postcards from Germany: No love for neo-Nazis
By Ashley Moore
For Guymon Daily Herald
February 21, 2009
Forget rose-colored visions of romance. This Valentine's Day was less about love and more about neo-Nazi violence in eastern Germany's Dresden. While it's true that I am unabashedly biased in my adoration of Germany, this country – like all countries – has its faults, its embarrassments and a dark underbelly that it would rather the world not see. I knew that I would eventually have to broach the contemporary aftermath of Germany's Nazi past, but I've purposefully avoided the topic because of its sensitivity. This week's demonstrations in Dresden, however, offer insight into the current state of affairs in Germany today, 70 years after the Nazi Holocaust.
The British-American firebombing of Dresden, Germany, which is considered to be one of the most controversial Allied maneuvers of the Second World War, occurred February 13th-15th, 1945, only two months before the Nazi's surrender to Allied Forces. The city was completely demolished, and some survivors recall fires spreading for 500 miles around the city following the raid. A former cultural and artistic capital of Europe, Dresden fell into Soviet hands at war's end. In the years following German reunification, the city's cultural gems have been rebuilt using as much of the original material as possible. Two-toned cherubs stare down from the tops of ancient churches and castles: charred black against marble white. A visit to Dresden brings the shocking brutality of the war into a contemporary context since reconstruction did not seek to hide the war's damage to the city.
Each year, commemorations are held for the victims of the Dresden firebombing, with British and American dignitaries often in attendance at church services and memorials. And each year, invariably, eastern Germany's neo-Nazis and skinheads come out in protest of the attack, which they equate with a war crime, even a Holocaust of its own. One BBC photo from the 2005 protests actually shows neo-Nazis holding crosses marked Hiroshima, Baghdad, Vietnam, and Dresden.
The estimated 6000 neo-Nazis that marched on Dresden this year are thought to be the biggest group yet, but they did not go unchallenged. At least 4000 anti-Nazi protestors came out to counter the white supremacists' claims, some carrying signs and chanting "Nazis get out!" Violence erupted as protestors clashed, hurling bottles and stones and even attempting to smash police cars with bats. Four thousand German police were on hand to control the demonstrators, but news reports claimed that there were hundreds of police and protestor injuries.
The far-right political party that supports these neo-Nazi groups, the NPD, is held in low esteem in Germany. It is condemned by the German government and is under constant criminal surveillance. A full 80 percent of Germans feel the party is undemocratic and another 72 percent feel that its message is damaging to the image of Germany. Further, massive nationwide educational programs assure that German students are fully aware of the country's Nazi past and the full extent of the Holocaust (unlike in Japan, where textbooks are actually modified to downplay and even erase the country's war crimes), so that the younger generations fully denounce the actions of the Third Reich, even while admitting that their grandparents sometimes still harbor embarrassing anti-Semitic feelings. The outlook of young Germans should offer hope that racism is on the decline in Germany, but just like in America, different parts of the country have different issues. The former East Germany still houses many white supremacist groups, and the conservative area where I live is not without its prejudices. Luckily these radicals make up a very small – but unfortunately very vocal – part of the population. As one anti-Nazi protestor in Dresden told the BBC, "If you listen to what they say, you will realize that they haven't learned a thing, that they will lead our nation precisely where they have led us before."
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from BBC.com