Activist says German police were warned by US authorities of AWD member who went to Germany with possible intention to harm her

This article is more than 10 months old

This article is more than 10 months old

An US activist in Germany who was targeted by the neo-Nazi terror group Atomwaffen Division (AWD) has told the Guardian German police were last year warned by US authorities of “a specific threat to find me and do me harm”.

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The activist, who moved to Germany in part because of the threats she was receiving from the far right in the US, was told last November that German Federal Criminal Police had been warned by US federal authorities about an AWD member who had traveled to Germany with the possible intention of harming her.

She was also advised to take security precautions, including delisting her address from official government records, and to exercise vigilance when walking at night.

The activist, whose name is being withheld due to safety concerns, has been a consistent and vocal critic of the far right, and has participated in prominent anti-fascist demonstrations.

She showed the Guardian Twitter direct messages sent by German police last November, asking her to call them about the threat. German magazine Der Spiegel, who first reported on the transnational warning, confirmed the activist’s account with German authorities.

The activist believes the person who triggered international concerns was allowed to enter the country.

At the time, the activist says, German police told her “they knew who he was, they knew who he was meeting with, and they knew who was behind the threats, but they didn’t know where they were”.

Last week, however, a suspected American member of AWD was denied entry to Germany.

The activist said she had decided to go public about the incident because of the “assassinations and death threats” carried out by extremist groups in Germany in recent months, and the apparent expansion of the accelerationist neo-Nazi group’s operations to Germany.

On 27 October, German Green politicians Cem Özdemir and Claudia Roth received email death threats signed by “Atomwaffen Division Deutschland”. In the threats, the groups claimed to have a list of people marked for assassination. The German expansion of the group have reportedly flyered German universities, and posted propaganda to homes in a Turkish neighborhood.

In June, a far-right extremist confessed to the assassination of pro-refugee Christian Democrat politician, Walter Lübcke.

Also in June, German neo-Nazi “doomsday prepper” group Nordkreuz were found to have assembled a “kill list” of politicians which the group saw as pro-refugee.

In October, a far-right antisemite attacked a synagogue in the city of Halle, armed with homemade firearms and explosives.

AWD has been linked to at least five murders in the US. Several members are currently facing charges ranging from weapons offenses to alleged bomb plots. US AWD members have been banned from traveling to countries including Canada and Germany.

AWD began in the United States, as an outgrowth of the neo-Nazi subculture incubated on the Iron March forum. Earlier this month, when Iron March’s entire archive was leaked by anonymous activists, it was revealed that the website had been the glue for an international network of extremists.

Members of the group embraces a philosophy of “accelerationism”, which seeks to use violence to “hasten the collapse of society as we know it”, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The same perspective was embraced in the manifesto of the man charged with the murder of 51 people in Christchurch last March.

The activist who was the subject of threats from the group urged US authorities to “start treating this as international terrorism, which it is”.