Word: anti-nazi
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Bitter Memories Germany's anti-Nazi laws are both unjust and paranoid [Aug. 24]. America's First Amendment should apply throughout the world. There should be free speech for everyone, including communists, fascists, Marxists, Nazis, racists, religious maniacs and Trotskyists. Evelyn Beatrice Hall summarized Voltaire's argument thus: I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it. Mark Taha, LONDON...
...question "Can the nation ever escape its history?" there is a definitive answer: no. The gnome's gesture has touched a raw nerve, but so does almost everything Germany does: the country is under steady suspicion. Let's be honest. Imagine if Germany did "move on" and abolished the anti-Nazi criminal laws. I'm fairly sure that Time would be the first with the big headline: GERMANY PAVES THE WAY FOR THE RETURN OF NAZISM! So let's be realistic and accept the consequences of history. Istvan Nagy, WASSELONNE, FRANCE
...glad that we Germans have laws that ensure values such as human rights, freedom of speech and democracy. Nazi symbols stand for the Nazi regime, thus they are hostile toward democratic values. Allowing people to draw swastikas or give the Hitler salute is not a sign of moving on but one of wilful ignorance. We have anti-Nazi legislation so that people of all generations are reminded of what fascism means. I am proud that we, unlike many other societies, remind ourselves of not only our good deeds but also of our bad ones. By repealing our anti-Nazi laws...
...with the Interior Minister of Bavaria, Joachim Herrmann, announcing on Aug. 15 that he would launch a bid next year to ban the party. The federal government had already tried to ban the NPD in 2003, saying its far-right ideology breached Germany's constitution and strict anti-Nazi laws. But that attempt failed when judges at Germany's highest court threw out the government's case, saying some of the evidence against the NPD was inadmissible because it had been collected by informants for the German intelligence service. (Read a story on the neo-Nazis of Mongolia...
Reformists, though, believe the laws don't fit into a modern system of criminal law and should be abolished. "Germany's anti-Nazi criminal laws are highly problematic, because they can't be justified rationally," says Tatjana Hörnle, professor of criminal law at Bochum University. "The prohibition of Nazi symbols protects a taboo of particular historical significance. But the task of criminal law should be to protect individuals from harm and not people's feelings or taboos...