‘As a Brit speaking to Nazis at a German anti-RAF march… what I heard left me terrified’ | World | News

“I’m a National Socialist,” says Luis Wagner, a young man with pale blue eyes and ‘traditional’ all-black German attire.

I had to clarify, was he saying what I thought he was?

“So you identify as a Nazi?”

“Yes,” he says with an enthused jolt of the chin.

Even in Dresden, at a march where fascist Germans walked through the streets to decry the ‘war crime,’ they claim the Allied Forces who bombed the city committed, to hear someone refer to themselves like this was a terrifying shock.

“So are you proud to call yourself a Nazi?”

“Yes,” he replies again adding that the stigma to say as much “is really changing because of people like me are standing here and saying openly what I think. I am that’s a signal for other young Germans to do the same.”

Perhaps you’re reading this thinking, why would you be surprised to find a Nazi at a Far Right rally.

But you need to understand that in Germany, the fear of letting the vile phrases and gestures from the nation’s horrendous fascist past infect people’s minds means it’s illegal to a raised arm salute or say “Heil Hitler.” And rightly so.

Most of the fascists we spoke to either didn’t want to speak to mainstream media or danced around certain topics. None were as blunt as Wagner but even he started speaking in code when we asked about Jewish people and the Holocaust.

“I don’t like them,” he says “but I can’t say what I really think.”

You’d think Germany would be the one place where this shouldn’t happen. A country where people with views like Wagner’s would be reminded of the awful consequences of these hateful doctrines.

They have spent the best part of a century painfully attempting to address the horror of the Holocaust and take steps to ensure it never happens again.

But with the collective memory of Hitler’s rise fading, a new generation of Nazis like Wagner is willing to say things that even a decade ago would be unprecedented.

Having never spoken to the grandparents who lived through the horrors of Hitler’s regime Germany’s Generation Z have been getting their history lessons elsewhere.

Wagner praised social media as a tool in allowing these modern fascists to speak the unspeakable, which should not come as a surprise. Platforms like TikTok and YouTube are having a greater influence on politics with every passing day.

Horrifyingly, these are the modern-day town square, local pub, or members’ club where people learn news, gossip, and, most importantly, form belief systems.

The young man began our interview by ranting against Britain’s wartime leader Winston Churchill, accusing him of deliberately targeting East German refugees during the Dresden bombing campaign. He’d learned his stats somewhere and performed them with gusto.

His bile towards Britain’s wartime leader was in contrast to his words about Vladimir Putin’s regime. Although Wagner said he “didn’t like” Russia there was respect for their “imperialist intentions.”

The youngster had come to the march with a friend with equally horrifying views. Asked his thoughts on Jewish people he claimed they had “brought down Germany” prior to World War Two.

They were far from the only youngsters at the hateful march. Scanning the faces in the crowd at least half of them were below 40 years old. A good quarter of the thousands that took to the streets were in their twenties.

Most did not wear ‘traditional’ all-black outfits like Wagner, instead donning the modern fascist garb of black North Face anoraks and balaclava scarves pulled up past their ears.

Seeing them march behind banners denying the Holocaust, enthusiastically singing the banned version German national and chanting ‘Heil’ was truly disturbing. It should serve as a warning to the world: if it can happen here, it can happen anywhere.