September 4, 2007
Austria probes soldiers making Nazi salutes on YouTube
Austrian prosecutors are investigating young soldiers seen exchanging Hitler salutes in a video that appeared on the Internet, Defense Minister Norbert Darabos said on Tuesday. Reuters reports.
"In a statement, Darabos said suspects had been tracked down and were being questioned over the incident in an army barracks in Salzburg, captured by a mobile-phone camera and posted on YouTube.
Any display of Nazi propaganda or symbols is a crime in Austria, which took decades to acknowledge it was more a willing party than a victim of Nazi Germany's Third Reich.
In the video shown on YouTube before being removed, a young man in army uniform marches by and stretches out his right arm in a Hitler salute. A second, shaven-headed soldier does the same, shouting: "Heil Hitler!"
"There is zero tolerance for such actions. .... Such Nazi-style acts are punishable in the Alpine republic by up to 10 years in prison."
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