29 German police officers have been suspended for allegedly sharing neo-Nazi content on their phones, including depictions of refugees in gas chambers.
More than 100 files containing far-right material were shared on WhatsApp groups dating back to 2012, with the most recent message sent on August 27 this year.
The images included depictions of Adolf Hitler, the swastika flag and the shooting of a young black person, officials confirmed.
The interior minister of the North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW), the western state where the officers are based, said an investigation had been launched into the ‘disgusting neo-Nazi, racist and anti-refugee vitriol’.
Herbert Reul told a press conference on Wednesday: ‘This news has hit the police at its core. It is a disgrace for the NRW police’.
The minister added that the case had left him ‘speechless’ and had ‘shaken police to the bone’.
The material was exchanged in at least five WhatsApp groups used entirely or largely by police officers who worked at the same police precinct in Muelheim an der Ruhr.
The existence of the content emerged by chance, after authorities in Mülheim confiscated the mobile phone of a police officer who was being investigated for sharing classified information with a journalist.
More than 200 police officers were involved in raids on 34 police stations and private homes linked to 11 main suspects on Wednesday morning.
‘We have to ask unpleasant questions of ourselves,’ Reul said. ‘Who knew about this? Why was this tolerated for years? By whom?’
It is illegal to display Nazi symbols in Germany, meaning some of the officerscould be charged with disseminating Nazi propaganda and hate speech. Others are accused of not reporting their colleagues’ actions.
The case puts a spotlight on neo-Nazi ideology in Germany’s police forces – an issue that senior security officials have previously downplayed even as they warned of the growing threat of far-right violence in the country.
German prosecutors said last month they were investigating a retired police officer suspected of sending threatening emails, signed with the name of a gang of neo-Nazi killers, to prominent figures of immigrant backgrounds.
The case emerged a month after Germany’s top security official at the federal level, Horst Seehofer, rejected calls for an investigation into the extent of racial profiling by the police, insisting that there was ‘no structural problem.’
On Wednesday, Seehofer’s spokesman cautioned against making ‘sweeping allegations’against the whole German police.
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