Germany to search all army barracks for Nazi memorabilia over fears of right-wing extremism in the ranks
By Allan Hall
Daily Mail
May 7, 2017
BERLIN -- The inspector general of Germany’s armed forces has ordered a search of all army sites to root out neo-Nazi Hitler worshippers after Wehrmacht memorabilia was found in a barracks.
Objects ‘glorifying’ the Nazi regime were found on Saturday at an army base in Donauschingen, close to the border with France.
They included swastika-bedecked steel helmets from the Second World War.
Other objects included an ammunition belt from a Second World War German machine gun known as ‘Hitler's buzzsaw’, a pistol and the machine gun itself, an MG-42.
The move comes a week after an army officer was exposed plotting a bomb attack which he allegedly wanted to blame on refugees.
Posing as a Damascus fruit seller, army lieutenant Franco Albrecht, 28, managed to gain asylum in his home country, and is said to have been plotting an attack in an attempt at agitational propaganda against immigrants.
As officials dug deeper they discovered a sinister network of like-minded soldiers who honour the wartime Wehrmacht of Hitler and secretly collected forbidden Nazi symbols.
After Albrecht’s arrest at a Bundeswehr barracks in French Alsace investigators said they found a lounge where he and like minded officers shared their enthusiasm for the Nazi Wehrmacht.
They called their retreat the ‘bunker’ and in it stored pictures romanticizing WW2 German troops alongside original steel helmets, guns and medals.
Inspector general Volker Wieker has ordered all military premises to be thoroughly searched.
‘Anyone who decorates an entire room with devotional objects in such a barracks must be deeply convinced,’ said a spokesman for Germany’s MoD in Berlin.
In 2012 at the site soldiers made a huge four foot swastika on the ground outside a training site.
German defence minister Ursula von Der Leyen said the search of every army barrack, storeroom, munitions depot and training area was necessary ‘to restore the reputation of the Bundeswehr’.
She added: ‘Given the current cases of degradation, harassment and clear right-wing extremism, there must be be complete enlightenment and far-reaching consequences for the future.
‘We educate people how to use weapons and we are right to have stricter standards. The process that has begun now requires courage and stamina.
‘We should now, together, from the generals to the recruits, support this process with all its strength. Nothing less less than the reputation of our Bundeswehr is at stake.’
2 comments:
Say it ain't so. Nazi's in Germany? If I remember correctly most of the German population said they didn't know that Jews were being systematically killed during WWII. The swede's didn't know either as they enriched themselves with the gold and other valuable property from Germany. In fact, for quite some time the whole world was blind.
The Germany military is, I understand, VERY sensitive about such things. Rightfully so.
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