Neo-Nazis Protest Art Exhibit

Sun., March 2, 1997

Associated Press

Clad in paratrooper boots and bomber jackets, 5,000 neo-Nazis marched through Munich on Saturday, facing off against thousands who protested the fascist display in the city where Hitler began his rise to power.

The parade by skinheads and a number of World War II veterans to protest a new art exhibit implicating Hitler’s regular armed forces in atrocities - was one of the largest public gatherings of his German followers in years.

Neo-Nazis taunted protesters with obscene gestures and were pelted with stones, eggs, rotten fruit and an occasional bottle.

Pumping clenched fists into the air, the rightists shouted, “March, march, the national resistance is on the march!” “Nazis get lost!” yelled some of the 10,000 protesters.

About 1,000 riot police moved in. Two were injured by stones.

The art exhibit - titled “Extermination War: Crimes of the Wehrmacht from 1941 to 1944” - has caused a furor in Germany.

Even though it is well-known that Hitler’s regular armed forces, the Wehrmacht, participated in atrocities alongside special units like the SS, many elderly Germans choose to believe that ordinary soldiers only fought the enemy.

The Christian Social Union, a coalition partner in Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s government, contends the exhibit defames all Wehrmacht soldiers. Neo-Nazis say the same thing.

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Neo-Nazis Protest Art Exhibit

Jesse Tinsley

Jim Meehan

Molly Quinn

Rob Curley

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