Stiftelsen norsk Okkupasjonshistorie MARCH 1992 NO.201 102255 E1.50 THE INTERNATIONAL ANTI-FASCIST MONTHL y M'J ri 1Y~L "j ~~Ji 4J~ L ~ ~). ~ $~ ,I ~ '1'1 . ;.. ....p SNO Stiftelsen norsk Okkupasjonshistorie Searchlight special investigation Neo-nazi circle of evil unday 17 November 1991. A quiet fOl'est cemetery on the S outskil"ts of former East Berlin. Under a constant drizzle the quietness is punctuated only by the sound of footsteps on gravel paths and the strains of the traditional German military hymn, I !lad a comrade. The music is provided by a brass band of the German airforce, which is on duty together with an elite unit of the German army. The soldiers are in semi-combat order and bearing automatie rifles. The anny mounts an armed guard over u monument to the 20,000 Gennun soldiers buded in the surrounding woodland. A " ,mony of wreath-Iuying is about to begin. Officials from the German defenee ministry and Bundeswehr, and the mayor of the local community are ull present. This is the second such event since German reunificution one Y"''Ir before . .'erner E Ablasz, chief of the Strausberg office of the federal German defence ministry, delivel's an oration denouncing war und containing u plea for peace in the world. His short speech over, the Bundeswehr lays its wreath. ~ On the surface nothing to complain or he pounding of the drums and the Above: Wiking Jugend march at Halbe protest about, but this is Halbe, a special stamping of the feet become ever more with illegal uniforms and symbols. place. Here, in fact, among the 20,000 dead T insistent, as the marching mnks come Below: German soldier stands guard are numerous Waffen SS men. Even before closer into view. At their head, a bemedalled over SS wreaths at Halbe. the arrival of the orticial ceremonial purt y, the old nuzi and a sin ister uniformed military representatives of the SS hud been there nnd formation brandishing t1aming torehes. hnd laid their own wreath, inscribed "10 the They are the children of the SS - the fallen European heroes". This cmne from the Wiking-Jugend. Knmeradenwerk Korps Steiner. Rank after rank of illegully uniformed Next to it lies another wreath with the young men in blue shirts are followed by legend "you died for u holy Germany, not for young women and even younger girls in u traitors and scum". This one was placed there uniform modell ed on that of Hitler's Bund by the present-day neo-nazi admirers of the Deutscher Miideln. All are neat and cJean-cut, WØIen SS, who are also mnrking the proud to take part in this display of strength. o, ion of Hitler's army's last stand at the Bringing up the real', more drummers from gates of Berlin. the NF, clad in almost identical unifonn, and Suddenly the shrill blast of trumpets The fact that these wreaths from the then wave after wave of heavy-booted, pierces the air and afemale Wiking-Jugend criminal SS and their equally criminal sometimes brown-shirted, young neo-nazis leader lights a flame in memory of the nazi followers are already there on the monument and not a few old ones - more than 1,200 in dead. More speeehes, including ane from an do~not deter the official party. The wreaths all. old woman, who in every other respect could al lly vi&jble and their inscriptions clearly In one way or another many of the ranks be taken for an innocent pensioner. legible, 'even from a distance, and they are sport the trappings of the nazis: death's heads, Then the high point - a hate-laden eulogy being guarded by the Bundeswehr's honour black ties, jack boots, forage caps. One is even by Wiking-Jugend leader Sepp Bibel', telling guard. It seems they have pride ofplace. decked out in the uniform of Rommel 's the assembled legions that the heroes of the Next Herr Ablasz and the others fulfil their Africa Korps. Waffen SS "from the Gennanic lands of bureaucratie duty and put down their own Most notable features are the scarcity of Europe '" gathered under the German flag to wreaths, including ane from the Bundeswehr, skinheads and the intense discipline that protect their race from a merciless fate". below the SS and neo-nazi wreaths. The band SNOsuffuses the occasion and brings a new Biber's speech is peppered with antisemitie strikes up anew with Deutschland iiber Alles, quality to the increasingly open shows of and racist references and is a vengeful while the honour guard detachment looks on force by neo-nazis in the new unified con dem nation of the allied cause in the solemnly and elderly SS veterans stand in Germany. second world war. He spoke of the fallen SS reverence. Guarded throughout by marshals with two­ as being always "in our prayers and will Before long the Bundeswehr sentries way radios and some with dogs, the always be so as long as people like us are depart and the forest echoes to new sounds: proeession makes its way to the monument, alive ... We can only approach their graves the beat of drums and the stamp of boots. A where it will hold its own commemoration. with gratitude and bow our heads in. silenee column of nazis old and new is led by a flag Militarism and death flll the air. The before their sacrifice. We remember all the party carrying the standards of the assembled nazis fonn ranks around the others who died on all fronts in this, the most Nationalistische Front (NF), the monument as a member of the Wiking-Jugend violent freedom struggle in Teutonic Freiheitlichdeutsche Arbeiterpartei (FAP), the steps forward to read a nationalist poem. Gem1anic history." Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands, Everything is still. Nothing except bird sang The revanchist speech ended with cIaims Wotans Volk and the Wiking-Jugend. breaks the silence. that the "Ieading men of aur nation died .on . Searchlight, March 1992 3 Stiftelsen norsk Okkupasjonshistorie the gallows. Soltliers I"rol11 private to neid marshal died, either condemneel to eleath by vil:tors who look il on lhemselves to be the judges, or simply executed without trial or sentence. They dieel in Moscow and Prague, in Nuremberg, or in whichever cities or towns lhe avengers chose. "Our al lies, the comrades of the Gerl11unic or European volunteer units died in Frunce, Belgium, in The Netherlunds, in Denmark, in Norway and in Yugoslavia, hucked to death or l1lurdered. We remember in gmtituele anel reverenee nil of you who died for Germany, for Il Oermanic empire, for a Europe of free, nation-conscious fatherlands. " Biber lookeel like a throwback to the years of the Third Reich, as he ranted to the youngsters and his old cOl11rades wearing a full Icnglh Gcslapo-slylc lealher coal und an SA hal. The gruesoIlle speetaeie cnaclcd at Halbe lhal day united the German pust, prescnt and /- fUl lire in f'rightening harnlOny. Ils rull Illeaning was only to be revculcd by lhe subsequent unprecedented capture of the secret cOnlact list of lill SS vcterans' organisation. prompting the rapid deploymcnt ol" SI'<I/'cli/ighl's nelwork in an inlernalional invl'stigalion thal has spanl1l'd Ellropl' and the United Slales. What this probe has revealed is lhe existence of nn ongoing web of contact and collaboration between the old nazis, the new nazis und high-runking state officials. To gras p fully the signiticancc of what took Th place at Halbe last November, one has to lInderstand the natllre and hislory or tlic WaiTen SS. llitler's "sclcction or Ille illost loyal funuties". W ffen ounded in 1925, the SS (Schut7,staffel) Knives in lune 1934. was an elile bodyguard for Hitler From Always under the personalorders alld F its very bcginning it was marked out for direetion of Hitler himsclf, the SS had already a special role in the bloody history of nazism. spawned its own secret police organisation, In 1929 Hitler named Heinrich Himmler as the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), under Reinhard leader of .the SS. From then the black­ Heydrich and was in full control, through uniformed praetorian guard grew from only Himmler, of the feared Gestapo. 280 members into what became the biggest By 1935, having imposed a' brutal reign of murder organisation in world history. terror in which more than 20,000 Gennan Membership, whieh was only for anti-nazis were slaughtered, and having been vo!unteers, required special qualities. SS men given full control of the cOllcentration camps / had to be at Icast 1.8 Illetres tall, of proven that were multiplying across Germany, theSS ! I !' Aryan dCSCel11 from at Icasl 1750 and was divided illlo three parts. posscsscd or blind I'aith ill Ihe aillise11lilic alld These wcrc Ihe SS Reserve Troop:< anti-coillmullist crccd of the Nazi Party. (Verfligungstruppe), who volunteered for rour Tileir molto was "my honour is loyalty". years' minimum service in the SS, the Death's SNOThey enjoyed all, the privileges bcstowed on Head units (Totenkopfverbande), which them as latter-day Teutonic Knights. The provided the guards and business tattoo under his arm gave the SS man priority administrators of the concentration camp in meelical treatment if wounded in battle. SS system, and the General 55 (Algemeine 5S). members were selected as penect specimens The Reserve Troops, an arm ed force in of German blood to father the next generation their own right, were entirely responsibleto of the Gelman master race in Himmler's baby Hitler himself. He made elear on 17 August farming project. 1938 that "the SS as a whole is a political So ruth less was the SS that it was the organisatioll or the NSDAP" and thc Rcscrvl' choscn instrument of Hitlcr's bloody Troops were "neithcr a part of the anny nor of destruction of his erstwhile nazi allies and the police, but a standing anned ofganisation comrades who led the SA's marauding brown­ for my exelusive deployment.