Row over Oldham anti-Nazi meeting

Police are said to have agreed with the council

A 90-year-old holocaust survivor has condemned a council's opposition to an Anti-Nazi League rally he is due to address in Oldham.

Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council refused the league's booking for one of its assembly rooms, saying it wanted the town to remain "calm and peaceful".

The league has now found an alternative venue, a church hall, for Leon Greenman to speak in on Wednesday evening.

This is a precedent for the BNP to set the agenda through fear and intimidation

Debbie Jacks, Anti-Nazi League

Mr Greenman wanted to appear at a meeting in Oldham after the British National Party polled 16% of the votes at the General Election.

He told BBC News Online: "My two-year-old son and my wife were gassed in Auschwitz-Birkanau, where I was grilled, starved and beaten.

"No-one is doing anything about what is happening in Oldham and other northern towns and it is my duty to tell people that if they want a peaceful life then they should.

Council statement

"If they want ignorance and the same things happening in Britain, they should vote for these nationalist parties."

League spokeswoman Debbie Jacks added: "It is an outrage that Oldham Council are not welcoming Leon and providing a room for his meeting.

"This is a precedent for the BNP to set the agenda through fear and intimidation."

The BNP's Nick Griffin polled 16% of the vote

In a statement, the council said it would have been "inappropriate and unwise" to have accepted the booking.

Pre-publicity leaflets had not mentioned the launch of a book. The leaflets had focussed on the BNP and the threat it posed in Oldham, the statement went on.

"The council did not think hosting a meeting of this nature in Oldham at the present time would be helpful in any way.

"It wants Oldham to remain calm and peaceful."

Police shared the view that accepting the booking "could have prejudiced public safety and good order", added the statement.

Motives 'laudable'

David Arnold, president of the Jewish Representative Council, supported the decision.

He said: "The people of Oldham are emerging from a period of wholly unjustified violence and unrest.

"I have no doubt that the motives of the ANL are entirely laudable, but I think they would be much better advised if they ascertained what help the people of Oldham felt they needed.

Mr Greenman was was one of only two survivors out of 700 Dutch people who were deported to Auschwitz.

He said "I survived five concentration camps and an enforced death march through 90 km of ice and snow.

"It was either God or pure luck, and I promised to tell everyone what could happen."