Neo-Nazi March On Yom Kippur Turns Violent In Sweden
Image by Getty Images
More than 30 people were arrested on Saturday as both neo-Nazis and anti-fascists clashed with police during a march by the extreme right-wing Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR) on Yom Kippur in the Swedish city of Gothenburg, police said.
The NMR gathered hundreds of people for the march, many armed with shields and helmets, while many thousands of counter-protestors also hit the streets of Gothenburg.
Membership in Nazi organizations is not illegal in Sweden and the NMR had a permit from the police to march.
Swedish police said on their website that 35 people had been arrested during the day. At least two people were injured, including one police officer who broke his arm.
“Given the intent that many had here today, the scenario could have been much worse,” commanding officer Emilie Kullmyr told daily Dagens Nyheter.
The neo-Nazi march was halted in the early afternoon, before it reached its designated starting point, after a clash with the police. Police put up a ring around the NMR demonstrators to keep them apart from anti-fascists.
A judge ordered the march rerouted away from the city’s main synagogue.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
