Archive/File: pub/people/s/schmidt.hans/press/arrested-germany.0895
Last-Modified: 1995/08/30

	BONN, Germany (AP) -- The American publisher of a German-language
publication that questions whether Nazis murdered millions of Jews
during World War II has been arrested in Germany, his wife said
Monday.
	Hans Schmidt, 68, was stopped trying to board a plane home at
Frankfurt airport last Wednesday and was being brought Monday to
the northeastern city of Schwerin to face charges, Rosita Schmidt
said by telephone.
	Schmidt, of Pensacola, Fla., publishes U.S.A. Bericht, a
right-wing publication Mrs. Schmidt described as ``historical
revisionist.'' The term refers to those who deny the systematic
murder of Jews during World War II.
	Schmidt faces charges of inciting racial hatred at the
Mecklenburg-West Pomerania state court in Schwerin, said Judge
Soeren Gemes.
	The March arrest warrant said the charge was based on a November
1994 copy of Schmidt's publication that used terms like ``Jewish
contamination.''
	Gemes had few other details and said he didn't know when Schmidt
would come before the court.
	Mrs. Schmidt described her husband's publication as ``more or
less secret'' because it is published for readers in Germany, where
it is illegal to deny the Holocaust occurred.
	``In America, he has freedom of speech, he can write whatever he
likes,'' Mrs. Schmidt said. She called her husband's arrest
``unjust.''
	Schmidt, a German-born American citizen, has lived in the United
States for 46 years, his wife said. Before his arrest, he had been
in Germany for two weeks on vacation. Mrs. Schmidt spoke from
outside Vienna, where she was visiting friends.
	American right-wingers are the main suppliers of propaganda for
the estimated 60,000 right-wing extremists in Germany, where it is
illegal to publish such material.
	A leading American neo-Nazi, Gary Lauck, was jailed in Denmark
in March and is fighting extradition to Germany, where he has been
charged with distributing racist and Nazi propaganda.
	Police arrested 29 neo-Nazis Monday, bringing to 84 the number
detained in eastern Germany over the past three days to prevent
them from holding rallies to mark the eighth anniversary of Hitler
deputy Rudolf Hess' death.
	The youths will be jailed for a week, authorities said.

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