Greek Jewish groups protested strongly yesterday over news that a prominent German neo-Nazi politician will appear at a far-right rally in Athens this weekend.

In a public letter, the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece “expresses its strong protest against the insulting presence” in Greece of Udo Voigt, president of Germany’s far-right NPD party.

According to a report in Greece’s Ta Nea daily, Voigt is to attend a rally today by Dimitris Zafeiropoulos, the far-right Patriotic Alliance party’s candidate for mayor of Athens in Greece’s October 15 municipal elections.

The Jewish board’s president, Moses Constantini, said Voigt’s planned presence in Greece “represents the resurgence of Nazi prototypes and symbols, as well as lack of respect for the memory of the victims.”

Greece’s small Jewish community was nearly wiped out in the Nazi occupation during World War II. More than 65,000 Greek Jews - nearly 90 percent of the Jewish population at the time - were killed. (AP)