Neo-Nazis march in Berlin to honor Hitler’s deputy

Local Berlin residents came out to counter a neo-Nazi march commemorating the death of Rudolf Hess.

Some 500 neo-Nazis, marched through Berlin on Saturday and nearly 40 people were arrested as police shut down the march.

The neo-Nazis were marching in commemoration of the death of former Hitler deputy and leading Nazi Rudolf Hess, the New York Times reported.

Hess was sentenced to life in prison by the Nuremberg war-crimes tribunal. He hanged himself in 1987 at the Spandau prison when he was 93 years old.

The march was blocked by residents and left-wing activists. All but four of those arrested were members of the far-right, and 12 among the detained had displayed Nazi symbols, which are banned in Germany.

Others are being investigated for breach of the peace, assault, resisting arrest, drug offenses and breaking the law on public assembly.

Jossa Berntje, a 64-year-old counter protester from the western city of Koblenz, recalled her parents’ experience living under the Nazis as her reason for coming.

“The rats are coming out of the sewers,” she told the Associated Press.

Berntje added that she was also marching in solidarity with anti-racists in the United States after a right-wing rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, over a week ago had turned deadly.

By: World Israel News Staff