BERLIN – A blockade by several thousand activists helped prevent a neo-Nazi march from taking place over the weekend at a World War II military cemetery in eastern Germany, police said Sunday.

A blockade of about 2,200 people including local politicians, trade unionists and anti-Nazis prevented a group of about 1,600 neo-Nazis from marching through the biggest cemetery for soldiers in Germany in Halbe, about 30 kilometres south of Berlin.

More than 2,000 riot police kept the opposing groups separated.

After failing to break through police lines, the rightists gave up and left the Halbe area on Saturday evening, police said.

About 23,000 soldiers and civilians are buried at Halbe which was the scene of one of the last major battles in 1945 before Nazi Germany’s defeat.

DPA

Subject: German news