BERLIN — A police force in Germany on Wednesday suspended 29 officers suspected of sharing images of Hitler and violent neo-Nazi propaganda in at least five online chat groups, adding to concerns about far-right infiltration in Germany’s police and military. Herbert Reul, the interior minister of the western state of North-Rhine Westphalia, where the chats were discovered, called them a “disgrace.” At a news conference on Wednesday, he described the images that were shared among officers as “far-right extremist propaganda” and the “ugliest, most despicable, neo-Nazi immigrant-baiting.”The 126 images shared included swastikas, a fabricated picture of a refugee in a gas chamber and the shooting of a Black man, officials said. The number of cases of far-right extremists in Germany’s police and military, some of whom hoard weapons and keep lists of enemies, have multiplied in recent years. On Monday, the authorities raided the home of a 40-year-old soldier in connection with an investigation of a suspected far-right terrorism plot.

Source: New York Times September 16, 2020 11:22 UTC