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[31 March 2009] - A neo-Nazi youth organisation that ran military-style camps to teach children as young as six that Jews are a threat to the nation was outlawed by the German Government this morning. Amid growing fears that the far-Right is gaining ground in Germany, the Interior Ministry announced an immediate ban on Heimattreue Deutsche Jugend, or German Youth Faithful to the Homeland, for attempting to indoctrinate children with racial ideology. Police carried out dawn raids on HDJ leaders’ homes in four states to seize the organisation’s assets and extremist materials. Wolfgang Schäuble, the Interior Minister, said: “With today's ban, we are putting an end to the revolting activities of the HDJ. We will do everything in our power to protect our children and youth from these Pied Pipers.” HDJ claimed to be a “youth group for environment, community and homeland” but its supposedly harmless camps featured tents with names such as “the Führer’s bunker.” There, children of primary school age and upwards would take part in military drills and be taught about elements of Nazi ideology, including the importance of pure blood and the continuation of the German race. The Interior Ministry said today that the group’s ultimate aim was the creation of a Neo-Nazi elite. Security services have been monitoring the HDJ for several years, but the prohibition of the group stemmed from raids last year that starkly demonstrated the true nature of its activities. In one raid last August, police searched a HDJ camp in a remote area of northeastern Germany and sent home 39 black-uniformed children aged 8 to 14. “There was a regimented camp routine complete with flag-hoisting, in which behaviour and living conditions were exercised as in the time of National Socialism,” a police report on the raid said. Far-right literature was seized, along with tea towels and song sheets emblazoned with swastikas and old maps showing prewar names and boundaries. In October, police searched the homes of several HDJ activists and found further evidence that the group was opposed to Germany’s democratic constitution and worshipped the Nazis. It is illegal in Germany to display Nazi symbols or recite slogans from the Third Reich, although far-right groups have often found ways to circumvent the regulations. HDJ, whose name and initials evoke the Nazis’ Hitler Youth (HJ) movement, was founded in 1990 and is thought to have about 400 members, although more children have passed through its camps. It has links to the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD), and is believed to be the successor to the Wiking-Jugend (Viking Youth) oganisation that was banned in 1994. As such, its small official membership belies its significant influence on the German neo-Nazi scene. The homes of its leaders in Berlin, Brandenburg, Lower Saxony and Saxony were searched this morning in raids timed to coincide with the ban. Mr Schäuble said that today’s ban was an example of “decisiveness” in the fight against far-right extremism, but Gabriele Fograscher, a member of parliament for the centre-left Social Democratic Party, said that the move should have come sooner after last year’s raids. “A faster analysis of the material confiscated and a quicker ban of the HDJ would have been a clearer signal against far-right groups,” she said. “The HDJ had a paramilitary and unconstitutional character and there were close ties and staff links with the National Democratic Party and the neo-Nazi scene.” Parents and teachers needed to become more alert to the dangers of children drifting towards the far-Right, she said. Concern has been growing in recent months that the German far-right scene is becoming more popular — and more dangerous — despite the financial crisis and political in-fighting that has rocked the National Democratic Party: Crimes by the far-Right rose by 28 per cent to just under 14,000 in 2008. The number of violent crimes, including arson and assault, rose by 14.5 per cent compared with 2007. A survey this month indicated that almost one in 20 boys aged 15 were members of a right-wing group or kameradschaft. In parts of the former communist east, that figure was up to one in eight, while almost 30 per cent of young people nationwide agreed with the statement “there are too many foreigners in Germany”. More than 6,000 neo-Nazis marched in Dresden in February to mark the 64th anniversary of the city’s firebombing during World War Two — one of the biggest such demonstrations since German reunification. Further information