Set Fire to Refugee Facilities and Graffiti "Foreigners Out"
Organized Neo-Nazi Group and Recruited Members via Social Media
In Germany, teenagers have been arrested for forming a neo-Nazi group claiming to defend Germany from immigrants and for actually attacking refugee facilities.
On May 21 (local time), the German Federal Prosecutor's Office arrested five teenagers on charges including forming a criminal organization, attempted murder, aggravated arson, and distributing propaganda of unconstitutional organizations, according to Yonhap News. Prosecutors conducted searches at 13 locations related to the case and took custody of three additional suspects who had already been detained by other investigative agencies for further investigation.
These individuals are accused of setting fire to, or attempting to set fire to, refugee-related facilities such as temporary shelters on three occasions between October last year and January this year. They reportedly left xenophobic graffiti at targeted refugee shelters, including messages such as "Foreigners out," "Germany for Germans," and "NS (National Socialist) Zone," and drew the swastika, a Nazi symbol.
According to prosecutors, they organized and operated a far-right terrorist group called "Letzte Verteidigungswehr" (LVW, Last Defense Movement). This group had been recruiting members via social networking services (SNS) since last year, and local media such as ZDF reported that those arrested are between 14 and 18 years old.
Prosecutors stated that the group saw themselves as a bulwark defending the German state and aimed to bring down the Federal Republic's democratic system by attacking immigrants and political opponents.
Since last year, German security authorities have warned that neo-Nazi organizations targeting youth through SNS platforms like TikTok have been springing up across the country. Around the time of the European Parliament elections in June last year, there were a series of terrorist attacks against politicians, many of which were found to have been carried out by these young neo-Nazis.
Meanwhile, a series of violent crimes committed by refugees since last year has fueled anti-immigrant sentiment in Germany. On January 22, a two-year-old boy was killed in a park by a knife wielded by an Afghan refugee. In February, another Afghan refugee drove a vehicle into a demonstration procession, resulting in the death of another two-year-old, and in the same month, a Syrian refugee attacked a Spanish tourist with a knife at Berlin's Holocaust Memorial, causing serious injuries.
In this climate, right-wing parties advocating hardline refugee policies made gains in the German federal parliamentary elections. In particular, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which calls for the "remigration" of refugees, garnered over 20% of the vote and rose to become the second-largest party, attracting significant attention. This marks the highest result ever achieved by a far-right party in Germany since World War II.
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