THE TELEGRAPH: A defector from Germany's hard-core neo-Nazi party the NPD has painted a chilling picture of the rise of new Hitler worshippers and their plans to build the "Fourth Reich".
Uwe Luthardt was a senior member of the NPD but quit to inform on the party which Germany tried unsuccessfully to ban several years ago.
He told of weapons stores and how members greet each other with "Heil Hitler" salutes, sing the banned songs of the Third Reich and relish the idea of a new Holocaust against the Jews.
Last year neo-Nazi attacks in Germany reached an all-time high and authorities are battling to stop youngsters from being attracted to the politics of the right – particularly now that Germany is in a deep recession and jobs are being lost by the thousands every day.
Luthardt, a former board member of the party, said he was threatened that he could "disappear" if he informed on its inner workings.
"Someone who just quits usually gets a lot of problems, and can find himself waking up in intensive care," he said.
"It wasn't really my world. When you went along to evening meetings, you saw all the shaven heads, and a black sun or other Nazi symbols tattooed on arms. They usually just boozed or were abusive. If there's no opponent around, they just fight among themselves.
"Many have an IQ close to my shoe size. Most of them are simply failures: failed pupils, people who dropped out of school or their apprenticeships, alcoholics that can't find a foothold anywhere else, thugs. But every local organisation has three to five men who don't have criminal records. They're the ones sent to face the press or man information stands.
"I joined because I wanted to do something for Germany, I wasn't interest in a Greater Germany. And suddenly everyone was saying we'll take back Silesia in Poland and then we'll give the communists a thrashing."
He said old Nazis living in South America still donate to the party and other funds come from the staging of skinhead-music concerts.
He went on: "The simple aim is the restoration of the Reich in which a new storm trooper organisation takes revenge on anyone who disagrees with them. >>> By Allan Hall in Berlin | Thursday, February 26, 2009
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