Neo-Nazis to march through Plzeň March 1
A neo-Nazi march will be held on March 1 instead of a banned march scheduled for January 19, the march's organiser Vaclav Bures told ČTK Monday.
The original march date, January 19, coincided with the 65th anniversary of the first deportation of Jews from Plzeň to the concentration camps.
Plzeň Mayor Pavel Roedl (senior ruling Civic Democrats, ODS) finally banned the march. However, the regional administrative court decided last Friday that the march was banned unjustly because the criteria for the ban were not met. As a result, Bures could organise a new rally.
Bures has to announce the new march to the authorities one day in advance at the latest.
The route of the march is the same as planned before. The marchers are to pass by Plzeň's Great Synagogue (second largest synagogue in Europe; ed.).
Bures said he did not know how many people could take part in the event.
Later in January it turned out that Bures was a member of the ODS branch in Plzeň-Lochotin. The branch immediately expelled him from the party.
Bures announced the January 19 march as a march in support of the freedom of speech, in reaction to the police intervention that prevented a neo-Nazi march through the historical Jewish Quarter in Prague.
This story is from the Czech News Agency (ČTK)
See also: Nationalists' complaint against PM Topolánek shelved
Photo credit: Miaow Miaow
Czech neo-Nazis' rally ends without incidents
Prague- A demonstration of rightist extremists at Prague's Palackeho namesti square ended without any incident after about an hour this afternoon, the police said.
Some 200-250 rightist militants gathered at the square where public rallies can take place without any authorisation, the police said.
Four of the demonstrators were taken to the police station.
After delivering some speeches, the neo-Nazis dispersed themselves at about 3:00 p.m. (Central European Time. ed.)
Two extremists were detained for the violation of the assembly law. Police spokeswoman Eva Brozova said they had been armed with nunchaku sticks and a knuckleduster.
Another two extremists were detained in order to check their identity, Brozova said.
All of them have been or will be released, Brozova said.
Some demonstrators wore balaclavas and black flags. On one of the flags, there was a logo of Autonomous Nationalists.
Some activists read speeches in which they complained about the ban of the march in Plzen, West Bohemia. They said the ban was illegal.
They also criticised the state of freedom and democracy in the Czech Republic.
The gathering in Prague was to be replace the rally originally planned for Plzen.
Chairman of the Federation of Jewish Communities Jiri Danicek told ČTK earlier the date of the march, January 19, was connected with the first transport of Jews from Plzen to the Terezin (Theresienstadt) concentration camp, north Bohemia, that was dispatched on January 18, 1942.
Out of 2605 Jews on the transport only 112 survived the war.
On Thursday, Plzen mayor banned the planned extremists' march.
About ten followers of extreme right met at the Plzen Emila Skody square today.
They were prevented from marching to the local synagogue by the police vans that barricaded the streets.
Several hundreds of opponents of fascism gathered outside the Plzen synagogue and remembered the Holocaust victims.
Via ČTK
The Czech news server is reporting that, "A protest rally of anarchists was also to be held in Plzen. However, it was banned. Nevertheless, there are about 100 leftist militants with the banner "No Nazis in Plzen" there. Around 800 opponents of the neo-Nazis have come to the remembrance event for the Holocaust victims outside the Plzen synagogue."
David Irving & Dr. David Duke were unavailable for comment.
Also at A Tangled Web
German neo-Nazis want to take part in Plzeň march
Plzeň, West Bohemia (ČTK) - German neo-Nazis are calling on the German ultra-right discussion forum thiazi.net (registration required; ed.) for participation in a march through Plzeň planned for January 19, Plzeň police spokeswoman Jana Vaclavova has said, adding the police are monitoring several such calls on the internet.
The German neo-Nazis invite German "free, social and national" friends and say that they expect police manoeuvres to be held in Plzeň.
The Czech police say it is not clear how many German neo-Nazis will arrive, but they estimate their numbers to minimally count by hundreds.
They have already asked colleagues from Bavaria and Saxony for help.
"The Plzeň Resistance organises a demo against curtailing freedom of expression and opinions in Plzeň on Saturday, January 19. The date has already caused panic in the Jewish-controlled media because the first transport from the Jewish ghetto in Terezin (north Bohemia) left on January 18, 1942," the neo-Nazis write on their web site.
The police are also preparing for the possible arrival of anarchists. The Plzeň Town Hall is preparing to restrict traffic along the march route.
With any luck, the anarchists will again feel compelled to perform a civic duty.The most risky section of the march will probably be the vicinity of the Grand Synagogue where the Jewish community will hold a commemorative meeting on Saturday afternoon. Christians are also expected to come in support of them.
From the synagogue the participants will move to the Plzeň cathedral where the meeting will be ended with the symbolical lightning of candles, Karel Simr, spokesman for the action, said.
Another meeting in the afternoon is planned by the Youth against Nazism organisation.
The extremists' march was announced at the respective local authority by Vaclav Bures under the name of Protest March for Freedom of Expression. The march is to be a reaction to the police action that prevented neo-Nazis from marching through the Prague Jewish Town in November. The Prague City Hall did not ban the march.
Many view the march as an offence and mockery of the Holocaust victims.
The organisers have announced that some 150 people will take part in the march, but the police count with more people, and that they probably be armed.
The extremists have announced another march in Plzeň on January 26. The respective authority has banned the action.
This story is from the Czech News Agency (ČTK).
The Prague Daily Monitor and Monitor CE are not responsible for its content.
Via The Prague Monitor
See also White Men in Black. Neo-Nazis call for march in Plzeň
German Neo-Nazi group plans march
Rally comes on concentration camp anniversary
German neo-Nazis will join their Czech counterparts on a march through Plzen on Jan. 19, Týden reports.
Although Czech organizers have officially said the march is for freedom of speech, the Germans are calling it an anti-Jewish demonstration, Týden wrote.
The Plzen magistrate says it had no choice but to approve the march because it did not have any information to justify prohibiting the event. Plzen police claim they cannot intervene because the march does not pose a threat.
Nonetheless, a previous march, planned for Jan. 26, was banned by the police because "it is expected that the true reason for the demosntration is the suppression of the civic rights of citizens due to their religion, and it will lead to hate-mongering," a police report cited by Hospodárské noviny on Wednesday states.
Jan. 18, 1942 is the date when the first transport of 3,000 Jews left Plzen for Terezín. Only 200 of them survived.
On the day of the march, the town's Jewish citizens are planning to hold a small memorial service of its own, Jirí Löwy, the head of the Plzen Jewish Community told TYDEN.CZ.
"It will be a brief, peaceful act of piety, during which, I hope, the police will protect us. We cannot do anything about the Nazis. We can only fight them by reminding people of that which they deny: the Holocaust," he said.
The German side has other plans.
"The date of the first transport of Jews to a concentration camp makes the media panic. We'll put the rabbis on the run," the neo-Nazi group writes online.
However Löwy says he is not afraid of any violent confrontations.
"The right-wing extremists may be stupid, but they have lawyers along at these events. They will tell them how to avoid criminal activities and statements. They will be trying to avoid a conflict just like we are. At worst, they might moo at us," he said.
Via The Prague Post
Also at A Tangled Web
On May 27th, Orlando at FortHardKnox provided some unique and meaningful insight into the observance of Memorial Day.I’m ashamed to admit that Memorial Day had little meaning except for a mini-vacation, a day off, BBQ, and picnic.
Sound a little bit too familiar?That changed when I joined the military and served in the Gulf War.
Thank you for your patriotism and service, Orlando.More than 1.5 million American men and women who served our Armed Forces have died. One point five million – that is the equivalent of the entire country of Estonia. It is hard to comprehend. They did not die in vain. They died in service to our country. In return, we owe them and their families our greatest respect.
Indeed, we do and it must be never ending.
Orlando's commentary brings to mind ways in which we disrespect our veterans - our World War II veterans specifically. For starters, see if there's more than passing reference that this year marks the 63rd anniversary of D-Day, the start of the Allied invasion of the European continent.
Now, think back one month ago. How much was said or written about VE Day?
To our great shame, very little.
In the Czech Republic's southwestern Bohemia, however, the memories and significance of VE Day - 62 years ago - survived nearly 45 years of Soviet liberation occupation; an occupation that was no less brutal and cruel than that which was visited upon the Czech Lands by der Übermenschen, the Austrian corporal's Master Race.As World War Two in Europe came to a close in the first days of May 1945, more than just the end of the war was at hand. For over six long years, the people of western Czechoslovakia had lived under Nazi tyranny - longer than any other people subjugated by Nazi Germany. Now, two corps of General George S. Patton, Jr.'s Third U.S. Army were in the Sudetenland region along the old 1937 German- Czechoslovak border. The German Army opposing them was literally melting away, as tens of thousands of its soldiers surrendered or deserted daily. Third Army was about to bring an end to western Czechoslovakia's long years of Nazi occupation and oppression.
Today, the populace of the Plzeň region remembers, celebrates and honors their liberators. But it wasn't always so.For more than 40 years after U.S. forces drove Nazi Germany from Plzeň, west Bohemia, an important truth was kept quiet. Although this event was known as the “liberation” of Plzeň, the city continued to suffer under the oppressive censorship of Soviet communism, and schoolchildren were taught that it was the Russians who freed Plzeň from the Nazis’ grip.
But private memories persisted. Many people remembered the massive celebration when the Americans rolled into town in May 1945. Families secretly kept photos, and some even hid U.S. military vehicles that had been left behind.
Discovery would have meant execution for being an enemy of the state.
Eva Stejskalová, of Prague, was 6 years old at the time; she remembers bringing a cake her mother baked to some U.S. soldiers and parroting the English phrase her father taught her: “How do you do?” The soldiers laughed and gave her chocolate.
On May 6, 2007, a convoy of Jeeps and other military vehicles made its way along Klatovská street, re-enacting the liberation.Perched in one of the jeeps was Earl Ingram, 84, a U.S. veteran from North Carolina. It was his division, the 2nd Infantry, that liberated the city in 1945.
Doug Brackenbrough, 75, a Korean War veteran, came over from Washington state for the celebration. His eyes teared when he remembered driving through a small Czech town in 2002 with the convoy and passing a crying elderly couple holding a sign that read, “Thank you America.”
“The outpouring of appreciation and patriotism in this country is much greater than in our own,” he said.
Ask any American school kid about the significance of the Anschluss, the Munich Accords, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, September 1, 1939, the Malmedy Massacre - much less D-Day, VE Day or VJ Day - and you'll be met with a blank stare.
Hell, go to the source. Ask their indoctrinators teachers.
It is The Shame of Forgotten Days.
