The dissolution of the students anti-Semitic organization, Olympia, was announced today by Josef Afritsch, Austrian Minister of the Interior. He said the organization was ordered disbanded because of the neo-Nazi activities of most of its members.
Simultaneously, police announced additional arrests of members and the Austrian Government proposed to the Ministries of the Interior and Justice new measures to stem the neo-Nazi activities which have reached a postwar peak in the past few days. These included the desecration of the Jewish cemetery at Innsbruck and the firing of nine shots at the Parliamentary building in Vienna.
Among measures the Government said it would introduce in Parliament “to protect democracy” in Austria were proposals to bar activities likely to incite hatred against religious and racial groups. Competent sources told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Minister Afritsch was determined to do everything possible to “finally end all activities that could endanger Austria’s reputation as a truly democratic country.”
(In London, the press reported today from Vienna that, while Austrian authorities have been “compelled officially” to take notice of recent anti-Semitism incidents, “the Austrian Government, privately, tends to dismiss these incidents as the work of ignorant hot-heads instigated by unrepentant, former Nazis.” According to the Vienna correspondent, the Austrian Government “has certainly been lamentably weak in dealing with known former SS men still living openly in Austria.”)
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
