Swedish teens confront neo-Nazi presence in schools

Members of a Swedish youth movement launched an anti-fascist campaign at a high school where neo-Nazis interrupted a lecture by a Holocaust survivor.

The campaign began last week at the Peders Skrivares high school in the western province of Halland, where on April 22 a group of skinheads demonstratively walked in on a talk given to students by Mietek Grocher, 89, Sveriges Radio reported.

The campaign had members of the SSU youth movement of the center-left Swedish Social Democratic Party set up a booth in the school, located in the city of Varberg, and hold signs reading “Sieg Heil – Hell No.”

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At least six neo-Nazis in their 20s entered the room where Grocher was speaking and began taking photos of the listeners. They did not behave violently.

Grocher said he was used to such disturbances during his public lectures on the Holocaust.

Earlier this month, a leader of the far-right Sweden Democrats party, Richard Jomshof, told the Expressen daily that he does “not consider the Jewish minority as a problem, because the Jewish community is so small.”

He also condemned anti-Semitism as rooted in envy of Jews and expressed support for Israel.

Sweden Democrats, accused by opponents of promoting Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, more than doubled its gains in the 2014 parliamentary elections, which left the party with 49 seats out of 349 in the Riksdag, the kingdom’s parliament.