Coded tattoos or styles of haircut have long been ways for neo-Nazis to signal their support for the far right, but on Thursday Austria closed down one avenue for hidden symbolism – car number plates.
More than 30 number and letter combinations for personalised registration plates that contain allusions to the Nazis are being made illegal. Austria has some of the toughest laws against glorification of nazism and Holocaust denial.
The list has been drafted by the anti-fascist Mauthausen Committee (MKÖ), which works with survivors of Nazi concentration camps in Austria. The country’s transport ministry said more could be added.
Legislation that came into force on Thursday also outlaws ISIS and IS – references to Islamic State.
One of the most common symbolic references to Nazism is the number 88 – as H is the eighth letter of the alphabet it is code for Heil Hitler. Also banned is the combination 1919, which represents SS, and 18, which stands for Adolf Hitler by the same logic. Hitler’s birthday, on 20 April, can be coded as 420.
Several combinations were already banned when personalised number plates were legalised in 1989, including HJ, which stands for Hitlerjugend or Hitler Youth, as well as NS for national socialism.
Transport minister Alois Stöger said in a press statement that fascist ideology had no place in Austrian society.
“When it comes to this issue, nothing is too small,” he said. “Therefore, it has been my personal concern that we find a way to ban the relevant licence plates codes.”
The committee would react to any newly emerging letter or number code linked to any extremist movement, the ministry said.
“The [neo-Nazi] scene has developed these codes and legislators have to pay attention to current trends,” a spokeswoman for the MKÖ told Die Welt when the measures were first announced.
Austria’s 1947 national socialism prohibition law makes it punishable by up to 10 years in prison for people to operate in a manner characterised by the Nazis, which can include Hitler salutes or wearing Nazi uniforms.
That sentence can increase to up to 20 years if suspects are found to be planning dangerous activities. In 1992, the law was amended to make it illegal to “deny, grossly play down, approve or try to excuse” the Holocaust or “other National Socialist crimes against humanity”.
Germany, which has similarly tough anti-nazification laws, prohibits some number plate combinations but the rules are imposed at a local level.
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