THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 27, 1994 TAG: 9411220579
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY BARRETT R. RICHARDSON
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
IN HITLER'S SHADOW
An Israeli's Amazing Journey Inside Germany's Neo-Nazi Movement
YARON SVORAY and NICK TAYLOR
Nan A. Talese/Doubleday. 275 pp. $24.95.
OCCASIONAL NEWS stories from Germany reporting attacks on foreigners by skinheads or other groups labeled neo-Nazis have raised the specter of a resurgence of the hatred that fueled persecution of minority groups during Adolf Hitler's regime.
Have the stories been overblown accounts of isolated incidents, or are they representative of contemporary Germany?
In Hitler's Shadow leaves no doubt that the Fuhrer's ghost is abroad in the land. Since the author, a Jew named Yaron Svoray, exposed the extent of the demons lurking in the neo-Nazi underground, however, government exorcists have directed new attention to the problem.
Svoray, an Israeli journalist, went to Germany initially in 1992 in search of a cache of diamonds hidden by a World War II soldier in a foxhole. His quest was deflected by an encounter with some skinheads who, believing him to be a sympathetic American, introduced him to the shadowy - and scary - world of neo-Nazism.
Svoray's self-appointed task became to determine if an organized movement existed, and if so, to ferret out its goals and leaders. To underwrite his mission, Svoray enlisted the financial aid of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles and returned to Germany as ``Ron Furey,'' a correspondent for a fictitious right-wing publication interested in presenting the ``truth'' to believers overseas.
A veteran of the Israeli army and the Tel Aviv detective force, Svoray succeeded in maintaining his cover while pursuing his real agenda. But there were times when his identity was suspect, such as during an encounter with a skinhead, who described himself as a ``student'':
``The tall youth looked at Svoray almost lazily. His voice took a calculated nasty edge. `Maybe you are a Jew after all. You ask funny questions. Americans are big friends of the Jews, or a Turk. Actually, you look like a Turk.' ''
Attacks on Turks have indicated that ``looking like a Turk'' in today's Germany can be nearly as risky as being a Jew was in Hitler's time. Some Germans despise their country's liberal asylum policy and the refugees it has attracted and have lashed out at such foreigners, sometimes under the nose of the police, who have been slow to intervene.
Why weren't the German news media focusing on the problem? Svoray learns that serious attacks on refugees were covered after the fact, but not through investigative reporting about root causes. A German journalist told Svoray that it was his newspaper's policy to ignore or downplay ``lesser incidents'' because ``these are publicity seekers, these people. To put them in the paper every time they do some cruel or stupid thing only encourages them to do more.''
Svoray's account of the right-wing movement, co-written with New York writer Nick Taylor, is reinforced with material gathered from tapes made by a sophisticated listening device and photographs snapped by a hidden camera. At times Svoray openly used a camera and microphone to gather his material, saying it was for his fictitious publication.
In Hitler's Shadow skillfully blends suspenseful elements of a fictional spy yarn with the frightening real-life account of an extraordinary odyssey that may have helped turn the tide of history.
In 1993 acts of right-wing violence in Germany had dipped to 2,232 from more than 2,500 the previous year. There were seven deaths in 1993 compared with 19 in 1992, and arson attacks numbered 311 in 1993, compared with 693 the previous year.
On the other hand, the number of right-wing criminal acts, proven and alleged, rose 37 percent, to 10,561, in the same period, according to the book's epilogue. This increase is partly due to a policy of greater police vigilance and to a heightened awareness by outraged Germans.
Most frightening in Svoray's account are the profiles of the people he encountered, including fanatical, Holocaust-denying extremists, unreconstructed Nazis and sadistic skinheads, some of whom are fighting in Croatia to gain military experience that could prove useful in a coup at home. According to Svoray, these elements are waiting the opportune moment to consolidate their power, give their movement political legitimacy and march to the drumbeat of a charismatic leader. In Hitler's Shadow may eclipse their day in the sun. MEMO: Barrett R. Richardson is a retired staff editor who teaches English
part time at Old Dominion University.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo of book jacket
by CNB