Fill the gaps using these words:
reputation
attractive
federal
Holocaust
unemployed
skinheads
1.
If something is ___________ it is very pleasant in some way.
2.
If a person is ___________, he or she has no job.
3.
The ___________ was the organised killing of millions of people during
World War II.
4.
___________ are young men who cut off all their hair.
5.
___________ is the opinion other people have about how good or bad
someone or something is.
6.
___________ means connected to the national government of a country.
Find the answers to these questions in the article:
1. Where
is
Saxon
Switzerland?
2.
What is the NPD?
3.
How many NPD MPs are in the Saxon parliament?
4.
How many people died in the bombing of Dresden?
5.
When was the bombing of Dresden?
6.
When did Adolf Hitler come to power?
Now look in the text and check your answers.
©
Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2005
Taken from the news section in
www.onestopenglish.com
Rebirth of the Reich land
Luke Harding
The German region of Saxon Switzerland is
very attractive with many hills, rivers and
forests. During the communist period, Saxon
Switzerland was in East Germany and was well
known as a centre for walking and water sports
like kayaking. Now it is famous for a different
reason. Sixty years after the end of the Second
World War, Germany's neo-Nazi political party
is coming back.
Last September there were federal elections in
the Saxony region. The neo-Nazi National Party
of Germany (NPD) won 9.2% of the vote,
giving it 12 MPs in the new Saxon parliament
in Dresden. Now members of the NPD are
trying to do things which make people notice
them. Last month, for example NPD MPs
walked out of the parliament during a one-
minute silence in memory of the victims of the
Holocaust in the Second World War. Last
weekend the party and its supporters marched
in memory of the 35,000 Germans killed during
the attack on Dresden 60 years ago by British
and American planes. According to Holger
Apfel, the NPD's 33-year-old leader, the attack
on Dresden during February 13-14, 1945, was a
war crime.
Most German politicians are surprised by the
success of the NPD but this success has been at
a time when more than 5 million Germans are
unemployed. Many people do not trust the main
political parties. Edmund Stoiber, the
conservative leader of Bavaria's CSU party,
says that the situation in present-day Germany
is like the situation in 1932, when millions of
people were unemployed. One year later Adolf
Hitler came to power.
Frieder Haase is the mayor of Koenigstein, a
town 30km south of Dresden. He says the
situation is different now and it is not like 1932.
He says he wants to stop 1933 from happening
again. Koenigstein, with a population of 3,200,
is a small town in the middle of Saxon
Switzerland. During last September's elections
almost 20% of its population voted for the
NPD. Who, then, are the NPD's supporters?
"They look like you and me. They are
completely normal," says Haase. "They work
on building sites. They are women shop
assistants. They don't look like skinheads."
German newspapers have different explanations
for the success of the NPD. They say it is
because Saxony was communist until 1989 or
because 18% of the population is unemployed.
They also say that many people do not like the
red-green government in Berlin. The NPD,
meanwhile, is working hard to increase its
support, particularly among young people -
with barbecues, discos and canoeing trips.
The NPD's new MPs don't look like skinheads
either. They wear suits; they are in their 30s;
and they are very polite. Holger Apfel says that
other political parties do not take him seriously.
"We have very good local structures" he says.
The NPD's views are popular with some
German voters – and above all its argument that
it is time Germans stopped feeling guilty about
being German.
Frieder Haase and other Koenigstein citizens
are fighting against the town's reputation as a
neo-Nazi centre. "The Nazi period is not going
to happen again," Haase says. "Germany lost
the First World War and in 1933 it was a
broken country. Then a big, powerful man
arrived - Adolf Hitler. Things are different
now."
The Guardian Weekly
18-02-2005, page 20
©
Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2005
Taken from the news section in
www.onestopenglish.com
|
