‘Hess’ actitivies in Sweden and Denmark

A—Infos News Service, 19 August 1999

August 17th is the day many Scandinavian nazis commemorate the death of Rudolf Hess. In the past few years, attempts of nazis to hold Hess commemorations in Sweden and Denmark have resulted in massive anti-fascist mobilisation. This year, because of conflicts within their movement, Scandinavian nazis were unable to organise one, single co-ordinated event.

In fact, because of the fear of anti-fascist mobilisation, many Hess activities occurred as early as Saturday the 7th of August! Eric Blücher and his Blood & Honor group organised a small demonstration in the village of Svendborg on the Danish island of Fyn. Blood & Honor have a bunker nearby. According to the nazis' own account they were 100 participants. Our experience says that they're exaggerating.

During the same weekend, Sweden's National Socialist Front, NSF, organised what they described as Political Party Days—a combination of political meetings and beer-drinking. NSF held two demonstrations on Saturday, first in the town of Vaxjö where circa 50 nazis marched for ten minutes and then later in the village of Nybro, where they were circa 40 demonstrators.

All three of these events were closely scrutinised by anti-fascists.

The Danish National Socialist Movement, DNSB, announced a demonstration scheduled for Saturday the 14th of August, in an area on the outskirts of southern Copenhagen. This demonstration was never actualised as the DNSB activists in their bunker in the Copenhagen suburb of Greve, never totalled more than 15 individuals. At the same time 400 anti-fascists stood outside the bunker walls just in-case the nazis had other plans.

The largest nazi activity in Scandinavia was by far the music festival Holmgång 99 held outside of the small Swedish town of Borås. 400 nazis, nazi boneheads and a few of their redneck compatriots gathered to listen to two days of white-power music which included bands from Germany and England, as well as Sweden. On Saturday the 14th an anti-racist demonstration was held in the town of Borås with circa 400 participants of which 50 went in an Anti-Fascist Action, AFA, block. Disturbances occurred as many nazis were in the city to watch and harass the demonstration. Three anti-fascists were arrested and one policeman injured.

On a similar note, in Stockholm, nazi street-violence has dramatically increased during the summer months. An anti-fascist demonstration under the banner of ‘Stop Nazi Violence’ was arranged on Friday the 13th—which proved to indeed be an unlucky day—for the nazis. Circa 300 demonstrators strayed from the planned demonstration route and ended up in the middle of a traditional nazi gathering place on the wharf of the Old Town island in Stockholm's centre. The nazis who were there were then given free swimming lessons and anti-fascists cheered them on as they most probably broke Olympic records!