For 24 years, the residents of Wunsiedel in Southern Germany have watched neo-Nazis marching through their town to visit the grave of Rudolph Hess, Adolf Hitler's Deputy. This year, they
took a different approach:
Instead, the group Rights versus Rights (Rechts gegen Rechts) had come up with a new way to protest the annual neo-Nazi march: For every meter the neo-Nazis walked, local businesses and residents would donate $12.50 to a nongovernmental organization devoted to making it easier for neo-Nazis to leave behind their hateful politics.
The counter protest was kept secret, unveiled only when the neo-Nazis arrived for their march. Residents painted signs of encouragement on the pavement, hung banners, dropped confetti and supplied bananas to encourage the neo-Nazis to march on!
Watch the video of the counter protest here:
Residents ended up donating more than $10,000 euros to the EXIT-Germany organization:
EXIT-Germany is an initiative founded by criminologist and former police detective Bernd Wagner and the former neo-Nazi leader Ingo Hasselbach. Supported by the Amadeu-Antonio foundation and the Freudenberg foundation EXIT-Germany has been working since summer 2000 to provide assistance to self-help for dropouts from right-wing environments. The program is also supported by the „Mut gegen rechte Gewalt“ („courage against right-wing violence“) initiative of the German magazine „Stern“. EXIT-Germany is financed through donations, the Amadeu-Antonio foundation and currently through the EXIT-Germany project „Changing Sides — Exit as Entrance into a new life“ which in turn is financed by the federal program „XENOS Ausstieg zum Einstieg“ („XENOS Exit to Entrance“).