Cookie Monster Used By Far Right As Symbol In Germany, Say Police

Cookie Monster Used By Far Right As Symbol In Germany, Say Police
The Sesame Street character Cookie Monster, which is allegedly being used as a far right symbol
The Sesame Street character Cookie Monster, which is allegedly being used as a far right symbol
ASSOCIATED PRESS

German police are probing an unlikely new symbol for neo-Nazi extremists - the Cookie Monster from Sesame Street.

The trend was first noticed when far-right activist Steffen Lange was arrested in March for walking into a school in the German state of Brandenburg, dressed in full cookie monster regalia, and handing out neo-Nazi pamphlets to children, along with an accomplice.

After teacher complaints, police came to arrest the men, who are in their thirties, and a search of their home computers revealed more Cookie Monster-themed leaflets and neo-Nazi material, according to Germany's Focus newspaper.

But police have warned the symbols are continuing to be used by the far-right in Brandenburg to recruit children.

Internet images show the cookie monster standing side-by-side with Adolf Hitler, with the caption "Who ate my cookie?"

It is not the first children's cartoon to be co-opted by the far-right.

In November, Neo-Nazis Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boenhardt, part of a right wing terrorist group called the National Socialist Underground, produced a DVD featuring the Pink Panther.

It claimed responsibility for the murders of several Turkish small-business owners in Germany between 2000 and 2006.

German police are now probing whether hundreds of unsolved killings and attempted killings over the past 20 years were committed by neo-Nazis.

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