Toronto Star

Berlin counter-protest blocks neo-Nazis marching in honour of Hitler’s deputy

- ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER THE WASHINGTON POST

BERLIN—“There is only one side — the good side,” cried Eva Kese, mustering a smile as she fought back tears. “Your hate has no place here.”

Kese, 30, stood Saturday facing a crowd of about 500 neo-Nazis. They were gathered on the outskirts of the German capital to commemorat­e the 30th anniversar­y of the death of Rudolf Hess, a deputy to Adolf Hitler. The demonstrat­ion marked another, more recent anniversar­y: one week since a march by white supremacis­ts in Virginia left one counterpro­tester dead.

U.S. President Donald Trump, Kese said, had drawn her to the streets of Berlin. She was incensed by his reaction to the violence in Charlottes­ville, Va., in which he blamed “hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.”

The destinatio­n of the march was the former site of Spandau Prison, where Hess committed suicide in 1987. Soon after, it was demolished to prevent it from becoming a pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis.

But the neo-Nazis never reached the location of the former prison. They proceeded haltingly, flanked by police who kept counterpro­testers behind metal barricades. The neo-Nazis remained mostly quiet, carrying the black, white and red flags of the German Empire.

After a two-hour stalemate, in which opposing sides were separated by a 27-metre no man’s land guarded by police, authoritie­s led the neo-Nazis away from their intended destinatio­n, to the transit station where they had begun.

Following strict laws put into place after the Second World War, neo-Nazis were forbidden from chanting Nazi slogans, displaying swastikas and wearing certain military uniforms.

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