NETWORKS AGAINST NAZIS, NPD MARCHES STOPPED?, & Other Anti-Fascist News from Germany

NETWORKS AGAINST NAZIS, NPD MARCHES STOPPED?, & Other Anti-Fascist News from Germany

By Kevin Stoda, Hessen, Germany

This is called an “Action Week Against Anti-Semitism” in Germany by the Netz.Gegen.Nazis.de. This week was chosen because November 9, 1938 was the day when most synagogues in Germany were burned down during the Nazi era. Judges are permitting an NPD march today, November 7, by the NPD in Friedberg, Hessen. Friedberg has a long history in the Jewish community in German, for example, many noted rabbis over the century came from Friedberg.

http://www.netz-gegen-nazis.de/artikel/aktionswochen-gegen-antisemitismus-2009-starten

On August 1, 2009, a pair of NPD marches were stopped in the Hessen towns of Nidda and Friedberg by massive counterdemonstrations. In Friedberg, there were no less than five counterdemonstrations.

http://www.fr-online.de/top_news/1860751_Friedberg-in-Hessen-Gegendemo-blockiert-NPD-Aufmarsch.html

The Nationalist Party of Germany (the NPD) had called out a march with the slogan: “Germans Defend Yourself Against Islam and Foreign Domination”. In Friedberg, there were on August 1 several scuffles between the two groups of demonstrators early on. Some 1700 counter-demonstrators force the NPD to seek out new locations.

http://antinazi.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/friedberg-7-11-vg-giesen-gibt-npd-antrga-statt-route-durch-die-altstadt-bestatigt-stadt-ruft-den-vgh-in-kassel-an/

It is anticipated that today similar hundreds and thousands of counterdemonstrators will be present in the streets of Friedberg and at the train station to meet the NPD demonstrators.

Netz.Gegen.Nazis.de is a very active network of German citizens and foreigners who work together to keep fascists out of the hands of internet and internet chat rooms nationwide. There website provides links for many other groups and encourages participants of all ages to do something to stop the rising harmful influences of Nazi and fascist ideology on web in Germany.

Internet portals have been the main means of quietly contacting and recruiting German youth in the last years just as Anti-Nazi groups organize and use the web to spread more factual information about the fascist groups intentions.

The ability of anti-fascist groups to gather quickly at the scenes of marches, such as that of the NPD this weekend in Friedberg, comes through a combination of internet and cell phone technologies, such as Twitter.

Besides Netz.Gegen.Nazis.de, which means Network Against Nazis in Germany,

http://www.netz-gegen-nazis.de/

there are many other cooperating web organizations, the Federal Center for Political Education,

http://www.bpb.de/themen/R2IRZM,0,Rechtsextremismus.html ,

Shoah Germany,

http://www.shoa.de/

Step 21, the Initiative for Tolerance and Responsibility,

http://www.step21.de/

and

Schools without Racism,

http://www.schule-ohne-rassismus.org/ .


Each of these sites has its specialty, some are targeted at teens, others at twenty-somethings, and others across-the-spectrum. Netz.Gegen.Nazis.de provides background and detailed location information on fascist writers and leaders in Hessen and other parts of Germany, so that people understand where cell groups might sprout up or be sprouting up their neighborhood.