Racist Skinheads and other far-right extremists in Luxembourg are few in number, but they have been responsible for several attacks in recent years.

Following the outbreak of neo-Nazi Skinhead violence in the eastern German town of Hoyerswerda in September 1991, a number of assaults occurred in Luxembourg over the next few months. Two Skinheads beat a man, for no apparent reason, in a pub in Rumelange. In Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg's second-largest city, a Skinhead gave a man a public beating, again for no apparent reason. In another episode, four people paraded through the streets of Rumelange with a Nazi flag, shouting "Heil Hitler," "Seig Heil," and "Luxembourge to the Luxembourgers." They then tried attacking a residence housing refugees from the former Yugoslavia, and finally they beat a man in the street. The offenders in each case spent several months in jail.

On August 13, 1994, the anniversary of the death of Rudolf Hess, a group of 150 neo-Nazi Skinheads crossed the border from Germany to demonstrate in front of the German embassy in Luxembourg. The police intervened, and within hours the Skins were deposited back at the frontier and told not to return.

A neo-Nazi skinzine called Das Kroitz has been produced in the town of Petange, in southern Luxembourg. (For the newsletter's name, the letters "eu" in the word Kreuz -- German for cross -- are replaced with "oi".)

The Skinhead's views are shared in Luxembourg's political arena by an extremist party known as the National Bewegung (National Movement). Led by Pierre Peters, the National Bewegung has campaigned on an anti-foreigner platform directed against Portugese and other foreign workers. The party performed poorly in the most recent elections. (Anti-Defamation League, 53)

Work Cited

Anti-Defamation League. The Skinhead International: A Worldwide Survey of Neo-Nazi Skinheads. New York: Anti-Defamation League, 1995. Anti-Defamation League, 823 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017.

Disclaimer: not all skinheads are neo-nazis or white supremacists. There are many skinheads who are non- or anti-racist, and who come from a variety of different religious and cultural backgrounds. Nizkor recognizes their achievements in anti-racism: they are part of the traditional, non-racist skinhead subculture and are not the perpetrators of the hate crimes discussed here.

Unless otherwise specified, the word "skinhead" within these pages refers only to neo-Nazi and white supremacist skinheads, the perpetrators of hate crimes and participants in racist organizations. We cannot edit the body of the text above, because it was not written by Nizkor, and to change the wording would be fraudulent. Please keep in mind that not all skinheads are racist.

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