High school students in Kirchseeon have contributed to the fact that a well-known right-wing extremist was finally convicted of incitement to hatred.
Whether one learns at school only for this or also for life is not a new question. What is certain, however, is that at least the young people who attend the Kirchseeon high school and who had an unpleasant encounter with a right-wing extremist at the Dachau memorial three years ago were not badly prepared for life outside of school. Not only did they contradict his neo-Nazi propaganda, they also played a major role in the man’s conviction for it.
The fact that young people can use arguments to put a well-versed propagandist of a regime that has justly been reduced to rubble in his place requires not only civil courage, but also a sound knowledge of recent history. Because the clumsy Holocaust denial along the lines of “never happened” is of course not found among those who like to refer to themselves as the “New Right”. Although their ideology is not new, it has hardly changed since the inglorious end of the Nazi regime. What is new, however, is the method with which this age-old and extremely evil ideology is to be brought to the people. It starts with the appearance: the bald heads in springer boots and bomber jackets, waving Reich war flags and bawling martial slogans, may occasionally still be there, but their smart like-minded comrades are more subtle. Just as the man who had now been convicted of hate speech in the last instance had tried in front of the school group from Kirchseeon.
He wasn’t successful with it, quite the opposite. The students not only objected, they were also able to later describe the facts in front of a court in such a way that the court was convinced that the facts of the incitement to hatred actually existed. That sounds easy at first, but anyone who is familiar with the perfidious arguments of the new Nazis and also knows how far the courts sometimes take freedom of expression in such cases, must pay tribute to the young witnesses: They stood up to a right-wing swashbuckler and also the judiciary several instances convinced that this swearing was no longer a free expression of opinion but crystal clear Nazi propaganda. Set, one plus!