Twenty-nine police officers in Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) region have been suspended for sharing pictures of Adolf Hitler and refugees in gas chambers.

NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul was quoted by BBC as said it was a “disgrace for NRW police”. 

“This is the worst and most repulsive kind of hate-baiting… Right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis have absolutely no place in the North Rhine-Westphalia police, our police,” he added.

The neo-Nazi imagery, including the Swastika was shared in far-right chatrooms.

There were 11 main suspects and a raid involving more than 200 police officers was carried out on 34 police stations and private homes.

Some of the police officials are facing charges of spreading Nazi propaganda while others are being accused of not reporting their colleagues who committed such an act.

Displaying Swastika is considered to be illegal in Germany. The Nazi salute and saying “Heil Hitler” is also banned in public.

In recent decades there has been a relative rise in number of people who sympathise with right wing and extremist elements present in German society decades after defeat of the ideology.