GERMAN TEENS FORCE BOY TO PARADE WITH ANTI-SEMITIC SIGN

German boy forced to parade with anti-Jew Nazi sign
BERLIN (Reuters) - Teenagers in Germany's former communist east forced a 16-year-old classmate to parade around school wearing a sign with an anti-Semitic Nazi-era slogan, police said on Friday. "The boy was forced by three of his classmates who were 15 and 16 years old to walk around the schoolyard during the lunch break, wearing a sign around his neck which said 'I'm the biggest pig in town, only with Jews do I hang around'," a police spokesman told Reuters.

The anti-Semitic slogan was used by Nazis to humiliate Germans who were friendly with Jews in 1933 when Adolf Hitler's Nazi party came to power, the spokesman said. Displaying Nazi symbols and slogans is illegal in Germany, except for scientific or educational purposes.

"It is not clear whether those teenagers were actually aware of the meaning but, at 16, I think they should have been," the spokesman said. The incident happened in the town of Parey, in Saxony-Anhalt state.

Police said they have identified three suspects. It was unclear what would happen to the under-aged suspects since the investigation has not been completed, the spokesman said.

Last month Germany's far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) strengthened its foothold in the former communist east, winning more than 7 percent of the vote and six parliamentary seats in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The NPD's success there means that far-right parties are present in three of the six eastern German state assemblies.