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The terms Neo-Nazism and Neo-Fascism refer to any social or political movement founded on the ideology and symbolism of Nazism or Fascism.

Neo-Fascist movements are generally anti-Semitic, racist, and xenophobic. Their supporters are frequently low-income young men who blame their or their society's problems on immigrants and a presumed Jewish conspiracy. Many, possibly most Neo-Fascist groups espouse violence, and for this reason they are a source of concern to law enforcement. Many Neo-Fascist groups also espouse Holocaust denial, Holocaust revisionism or disbelief in the genocides committed under the Nazi regime.

In Germany immediately after World War II, Allied forces and the new German governments attempted to prevent the creation of new Nazi movements through a process known as denazification. With this and the total defeat of the Nazi regime, there was little overt neo-Nazi activity in Europe until the 1960s.

In the 1990s, after German reunification, Neo-Nazi groups succeeded in gaining more followers, mostly among teenagers in Eastern Germany. The activities of these groups resulted in several violent attacks on foreigners and creating a hostile atmosphere for foreigners in some towns. The violence manifested itself especially in attempts to burn down the homes for people in search of asylum in Germany.

• Attacks on accommodation for refugees: Hoyerswerda (17. - 22. 9. 1991), Rostock-Lichtenhagen` (23. - 27. 8. 1992), Schwedt, Eberswalde, Eisenhüttenstadt, Elsterwerda (Oct 1991)
• Arson attack on the house of a Turkish family in Solingen (29.5.1993), two women and three girls murdered, seven people severely injured.
• Murder of three Turkish girls in an arson attack in Mölln (23. 1 l. 1992), nine more people injured.

("Arson attack" is a translation of the German word Brandanschlag, which implies throwing Molotov cocktails into houses (fire-bombing), and attempts to burn a house down.)

These events preceded demonstrations (Lichterketten) with hundreds of thousands of participants against right-extremist violence in many German cities.

The official German statistics for the year 1990 record 178 right-extremist motivated crimes of violence (Gewalttaten), in 1991 849 and in 1992 1,485, with a significant concentration in the eastern Bundesländer (1999: 2,19 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants in the eastern Bundesländer and 0,68 in the western ones). After 1992 the numbers went down.

At the moment (2002) a trial is under way before the Bundesverfassungsgericht, the highest court in Germany, about the prohibition of the NPD, considered a right-extremist party. In the course of the trial it was discovered that some high-ranking party members who should appear as witnesses worked as undercover agents for the secret service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst. The trial turned into a major political scandal and was temporarily suspended by the court.

Nazi iconography remains to this day heavily restricted in Germany. As German law forbids the production of Nazi devotionalia, such items come mostly (illegally) from the USA and northern European countries. Current Neo-Nazi websites mostly depend on hosting in the USA and Canada.

Compare White supremacy.

Organisations that have been described as 'neo-Nazi' include;

• The British Movement (UK)
• the British National Party (UK)
• Combat 18 (UK)
• Front National (France)
• League of St. George (UK)
• The National Front (UK)
• White Noise (promoters of nationalist skinhead/Oi bands such as Skrewdriver)

Links:

• Informationsportal Rassismus & Antisemitismus, an overview of racist, Neo-Nazi and Antisemitic groups and websites (german)
• List of websites filtered by German and french Google