Four German citizens, two sisters and their spouses in their 20s and 30s, were arrested on Monday for paying tribute to Adolf Hitler in front of his childhood home in Austria. The Austrian police caught the four nationals performing a Nazi salute and took them in for questioning. The display of Nazi symbols is prohibited by law in both Germany and Austria, two countries with strict laws against the dissemination of Nazi ideology.
During their interrogation by the police, the women claimed that the salute was not meant seriously and was merely a joke. However, officers said they found a chat with the others on her cellphone in which they shared Nazi-themed messages and pictures.
Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, in Braunau am Inn, Austria. After lengthy debates over the future of the house where he was born, work started last year on turning it into a police station. As it is currently a pilgrimage site for Hitler supporters, those working to transform it into a police station hope that this will make the site less attractive to neo-Nazis.
