Killed Palme, Neo-Nazis Say : ‘Traitor’ Willy Brandt Next, Group Declares

STOCKHOLM —  A neo-Nazi group has claimed responsibility for the assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme in a letter made public today by Sweden’s national news agency.

The group, calling itself the European National Socialist Union, said in the letter to the Swedish news agency TT: “We are behind the killing of Palme. German traitor Willy Brandt will be next.”

Brandt, 72, a close friend of Palme, is a Social Democrat and a former West German chancellor. TT, quoting a source in the Swedish security police, said neither Swedish authorities nor West German police have any information on the group.

“It might be a newly founded international organization, set up by a former West German Nazi officer,” TT quoted the source as saying.

3rd Group to Make Claim

The news agency said the letter, mailed in Sweden, said “the ENU sentenced Olof Palme to death at its annual conference at Berchtesgaden last September.”

The letter, handwritten in English, said the group’s aim in killing Palme “was to rid the world from so-called statesmen who pave the way for Bolshevism.”

At least two other claims of responsibility have been made in Palme’s killing on behalf of West German leftist terrorist groups.

Palme, 59, was fatally shot the night of Feb. 28, while walking home on a well-lighted Stockholm street with his wife, Lisbet.