Germany decided on Thursday to issue a ban the neo-Nazi group 'Combat 18 Deutschland' on the eve of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The ban was issued after Nazi paraphernalia and propaganda materials were uncovered during house searches on Thursday of the leading members of the group by approximately 200 police officers in six states across the country.
"Today's ban is a clear message: right-wing extremism and anti-Semitism have no place in our society," said Federal Minister of the Interior, Horst Seehofer (CSU).
'Combat 18 Deutschland' is an off-shoot of 'Combat 18'- a group founded in Britain in the 1990s as the military wing of the British Nationalist Party (BNP). The group uses the number 18 to symbolise the first and eighth letters in the alphabet- 'A' and 'H'- for Adolf Hitler.
The German wing of the group is thought to currently be composed of about 20 members. Calls for its dissolution have strengthened since June 2019, when suspicions surfaced that the alleged murderer of politician Walter Lübck in June of that year had been in contact with the group, Spiegel explains.
The ban means that the 'Combat 18 Deutschland' will no longer be allowed to meet, nor to use or disseminate their logo- a white kite with extended claws.
This ban comes on the eve of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust- 27 January- which will see countries, organisations and institutions across the world coming together to remember the millions of people that were murdered and suffered under the Third Reich.
Evie McCullough
The Brussels Times
