NAZIS ON TOUR

Youths take part in fight clubs and combat training during meet-ups in rural Germany

- BY MARK MCGIVERN Chief Reporter

A SCOTTISH far-right group sent young men to a boot camp in Germany to join forces with European fascists.

The sinister Caledonia Club sent a contingent to the camp where they took part in fight clubstyle bouts, carried out combat training and marched in towns while waving Saltires.

Extremist recruits at the camp - organised by German neo-Nazi party Der Dritte Weg (The Third Way) marched through the countryside in the rural Thuringia region with other extremists from the Netherlands, Germany and England.

More than 100 activists took part in hand-to-hand combat.

training and lectures in "national revolutionary" and "white power" political ideas.

Recruits at the "Der Dritte Weg Youth Weekend" were addressed by the party chairman, Matthias Fischer, a veteran of the German far-right scene who is affiliated with several extreme groups.

David Lawrence, of the Hope Not Hate anti-fascist group, said the Caledonia Club was part of a wider movement of violent, right-wing groups such as the anti-immigrant US Proud Boys.

He said: "These fascist groups are blending physical training with political extremism and that gives them a powerful radicalisation tool.

"Young men start to associate positive changes in their bodies with extremist ideologies, and it can ferment this very intense kind of in-group loyalty.

"Der Dritte Weg has established itself as one of the premier neo-Nazi groups in western Europe. They have been trying to establish links to other Nazi groups overseas.