Neo-Nazi Group Banned in Germany

A neo-Nazi group which has dismissed the Holocaust as "a lie" was banned by the eastern German state of Brandenburg on Tuesday following raids by 300 police officers. The "Hauptvolk group," and a sister organisation, "Sturm 27," had published magazines and newspapers glorifying Nazi Germany in which they claimed that the Holocaust was a fabrication, the state interior minister Jörg Schönbohm said. "Banning this group sends out a clear signal in the fight against the extreme-right," he said. The groups have been operating for the past four years in the town of Rathenow to the east of Berlin. At least half of the groups' 60 members have been involved in criminal investigations in the past few years, according to the Tagesspiegel daily. Germany recently passed new laws designed to limit protests by neo-Nazis. The laws were brought into effect ahead of a ceremony on May 10 for the official opening of a major memorial in central Berlin to Jews killed by the Nazis.