Two German men were arrested on Thursday on suspicion of spearheading a far-right group that posted pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic material online, prosecutors said, according to The Associated Press.
A suspect accused of co-founding the “Goyim Party Germany” group in 2016 and identified only as Fadi J. in line with German privacy laws was arrested in the Dutch town of Heerlen, federal prosecutors said.
The second suspect, Marcus B, who allegedly joined the group in 2018, was arrested in Berlin. Their apartments were searched, as were those of six other suspects.
German prosecutors said the group ran a website on which material denying the Holocaust and downplaying or approving of the crimes of the Nazi regime was posted. They said the site also featured “deeply disparaging anti-Semitic propaganda,” including a call to kill Jews.
The two men were administrators for the group and played a leading role, prosecutors said, adding they would seek Fadi J.'s extradition from the Netherlands to Germany.
The arrests come amid a rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Germany in recent years.
According to data released in May, Germany recorded the highest number of anti-Semitic crimes nationwide since 2001 last year, with the vast majority of the anti-Jewish crimes reported ascribed to far-right wing perpetrators.
The most notable violent attack was the Yom Kippur attack on the synagogue in Halle on October 9. The perpetrator shot and killed two passersby after being unable to shoot his way into the synagogue.
Following the Halle attack, the German government promised at the end of November to introduce a law making it possible to increase penalties when a crime involved an anti-Semitic motive.