In Berlin Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, commented on the discovery of far-right groupings within the North Rhine-Westphalian police force:

“Holocaust survivors are appalled by the reported exposure of right-wing extremist networks within the police force in North Rhine-Westphalia. Following the state of Hesse, members of the police force in North Rhine-Westphalia have also become clearly involved in Nazi hate circles. Their world of contempt for human life and their cynicism also include images of the gas chambers into which refugees are to be herded. The survivors find these developments utterly deplorable and alarming.

Clearly, the police officers who were aware of their colleagues’ practices hesitated for far too long, either out of misconceived loyalty or indifference, before reporting the incidents to their superiors.

It is highly welcome that the Interior Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia has taken a clear stand and will closely investigate and root out the far-right scene within the police force of his federal state. It is to be hoped that he will pioneer moves by the federation and the individual states to finally work together to discover how many members of the police in Germany have shifted to the extreme the far-right thus representing a long-established danger to democracy in the country. Each and every citizen must be able to rely on the police. And the police must have the greatest possible interest in freeing themselves from such colleagues within their ranks.”