INTERVIEW-World Jewish body fears anti-Semitism becoming "fad"

By Andras Gergely

BUDAPEST, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Resurgent anti-Semitism may be turning into a fad amongst young people as the Holocaust fades from memory, the World Jewish Congress (WJC) said on Monday.

The WJC is worried about groups like the "Hungarian Guard", who wear black uniforms and insignia reminiscent of the Nazi era, and other far-right movements active in Germany and eastern European states like Poland and Serbia.

"What is creating an environment in which 16 or 17-year-olds are suddenly becoming interested again in neo-Nazism and fascism?," WJC Secretary-General Michael Schneider said after meeting Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany.

"Is it just because they are the disaffected, the socially deprived, or is it their parents who are inculcating it from an early age or is it simply another fad of revolt against established societies?," Schneider said in an interview.

Most of the groups involved are small in number and unlikely to topple governments, but the problem could explode if ignited by a shock like a downturn in the economy, he said.

"It's like dropping a stone in a pond," said Schneider, who worked in Hungary for an American-Jewish relief organisation before the end of Communism in 1989.

"There is a strong ripple around 50 people that does move outwards and resonate with a wider group of people. That's always a dangerous situation."

The Hungarian Guard, which denies it is anti-Semitic, has drawn criticism for its uniform and use of a red-and-white striped flag linked to the fascist Arrow Cross regime which sent tens of thousands of Jews to death camps.

Launched in August, the Guard is backed by the far-right Jobbik political party.

The red-and-white flag has also become ubiquitous at anti-government protests which injured hundreds last year and restarted again this autumn.

Germany, whose Third Reich murdered 6 million Jews during World War Two, is fighting rising right-wing motivated crime and racist attacks, especially in the former communist East.

An annual study by the WJC and Tel-Aviv University said global manifestations of anti-Semitism in 2006 reached the highest level since 2000.

"I get the feeling that 60 years after the Holocaust it's become kind of no longer a shameful thing to express anti-Semitic feelings, as if the Holocaust was old history," Schneider said. (Reporting by Andras Gergely; Editing by Keith Weir)