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

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