Raids Carried Out on Neo-Nazi Youth Group Across Germany
October 9, 2008
The early morning raids occurred in all but two of Germany's 16 states, with authorities searching the offices and homes of some 100 people and seizing computers and documents.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior said the raids were carried out without any arrests. Authorities sought to obtain evidence against the Homeland-Loyal German Youth, which goes by the German abbreviation HDJ and is loosely linked to the far-right National Democratic Party, in preparation for a possible ban on the group.
The domestic spokesperson for the Left Party, Ulla Jelpke, said that she hopes the searches are the first step toward a ban on the group that first came to the public's attention over the summer when a raid on a youth camp in Mecklenburg West Pomerania was carried out.
Following the most recent raids, Secretary of State August Hanning said that the information would hopefully provide clarity on the organization. which some have said that HDJ publications are "anti-Semitic and racist."
The group, founded in 1990, is accused of being a right-wing extremist organization. HDJ publications were said by the ministry to be "anti-Semitic and racist" and that "the HDJ's self-image is near in spirit to the ideology historically of the Nazis."
According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the group maintains connections to the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) as well as other Neo-Nazi groups, including the Kameradschafsszene.