Fascist Krick arrested in Holland

March 2002, Searchlight

Wanted German nazi Michael Krick was arrested at the Hook of Holland ferryport while trying to make his way to Oldham on 18 January. The attempted attendance of on-the-run Krick, born 17 October 1976, at the Oldham gathering of 19 January 2002 indicates the town's growing importance in the eyes of the violent right-wing extremist spectrum internationally.

Oldham, it appears, is now coming to be regarded as a "European issue", to such an extent that Krick, who had taken refuge in the Netherlands after being sought by the German authorities, was prepared to risk arrest on an international warrant, in an effort to travel to the town.

Since the age of 16, Michael Krick has been engaged as a militant nazi involved in violence, including attacks on a youth-centre and a refugee centre. His political debut was as an activist in the Sauerlander Aktionsfront (SAF) - in the German federal state of Nordrhein-Westfalen - which has good links with Dutch nazis. Indeed, members of the SAF, including Krick, were often seen around Constant Kusters, now chairman of the fascist Nederlandse Volks Unie (NVU-Dutch People's Union), and Martijn Freling, a former ANS and CP'86-activist, who has fallen out of the picture some years ago.

The SAF's looked promising, until its two leaders, Andre Zimmerman and Thomas Kubiak, died in a car-accident in 1997. Their deaths made a big impact on Krick's life and, at their funeral, he was arrested with 52 others because the ceremony, despite a heavy police presence, was turned into a nazi demonstration, complete with shouts of "Sieg Heil" and swastika-banners on the coffins.

Because Krick had not obeyed restrictions on his behaviour imposed upon him in an earlier criminal conviction and because - at the funeral - he had violated the laws concerning the display of illegal symbols and the dissemination of national-socialist propaganda and had threatened a police officer and resisted arrest, he was duly convicted and sentenced to eighteen months in prison. It should be noted that before this conviction, Krick had already been convicted of malicious wounding, insulting the State and inciting racial hatred.

Right-wing extremists in the Netherlands, the NVU especially, expressed solidarity with him in their magazines and, after, his release in 1999, Krick was a frequent visitor to the Netherlands, making speeches at meetings and being member of security squads at nazi demonstrations there. He also figured prominently in a Rudolf Hess commemoration march in Valkenburg.

During the period from December 2000 until the end of January 2001, Krick was wanted by the German justice authorities after failing to appear in courts in Dortmund and Berlin to face renewed charges of displaying illegal symbols.

Already "underground" in Germany, he fled to the Netherlands in February 2001, wanted in Germany on suspicion of having assisted another nazi, Christoph Schulte, in escaping to the Netherlands to evade arrest on charges of an attempted murder in Munich. Schulte was later arrested near Rotterdam but Krick remained on the loose.

In the Netherlands, Krick - by now one of Germany's most wanted nazis - was sheltered by members of the NVU, whose secretary is the several-times convicted German extremist, Christian Malcoci. He also started to put himself about.Only days after Schulte's arrest, Krick, together with Ed Polman, an NVU activist and leader of the hate rock band Landstorm, was involved in a fight in Rotterdam's central station.

Krick's refuge in the Netherlands was in Den Bosch where he hung out at the home of Daisy Brouwer, his girlfriend. She is an NVU activist and was a Landstorm groupie. During his stay there, Krick made no effort to hide his presence but, astonishingly, the Dutch authorities sat on their hands while their German opposite numbers claimed not to know his whereabouts.

Since the end of the 1990s, Krick has become one of the most important propagators of armed nazi resistance against "the system". Fellow nazi Kay Diesner - now serving life for the murder of a police officer in 1997 - is a role model for him as is another German nazi, Michael Berger, who committed suicide after murdering three police officers in 2000.

Krick advocates building cell structures, with leaderless groups to conduct the struggle against the police, the justice authorities and political opponents [a similar view to that of Combat 18]. He also publicly advocates the gathering of the names, addresses, family members and other personal details of police officers and judges in particular and cites the murderous activities of the Basque terrorist ETA as a good example to follow.

Now that he has been arrested, it remains to be seen whether he will be extradited to Germany. The German justice department has to request his extradition, and Dutch authorities have still to make up their mind about prosecuting him for speeches made at nazi meetings last year. For 13 months, Krick has had room to operate in the Netherlands and is unlikely to be the last German nazi hiding there, especially not as long as the safe-house structure of the NVU remains intact.

The Thoughts of Michael Krick
Krick on a nazi internet-forum after the 11 September 2001 New York terror attacks:

"I congratulate the 'terrorists', that was good work, very conspirative! Direct action is what we need! Destroy Z.O.G.!" (...) "The WTC was (haha) a sign for jewish (sic) capitalism. Now it's gone. That is a good sign for us!" (...) "Direct but intelligent action is needed now!!! The next synagogue is near you, it opens every Saturday! Let your fantasy run free !! We've talked enough, now it's the time for action !!!" (...) "I would prefer to see a synagogue burn, on a Saturday, when all the itzigs are inside!!! (...) Napalm op de klachtenmuur!!!" [The last sentence means "Napalm the Wailing-Wall" in Jerusalem.]

6 May 2001 at Niftrik, Netherlands to a swastika-wearing audience

"Attack the system and its slaves, who are trying to annihilate our race. Judges and prosecutors have also names, addresses and family. Make them clear we won't take this any longer and let your fantasy work. Everybody draws his own limits. The Basque ETA should be our example. It's about our future, our children, our species. No mercy or regret, the White Aryan Resistance is alive and will scare our enemy and give them their rightful end. Organise in cell-structures according to the principles of Leaderless Resistance and support the National-Revolutionary struggle!"

From Jeroen Bosch of Anti-Fascist Action in Utrecht