Archive/File: orgs/american/jewish-defense-league jdl.0794 Last-Modified: 1994/07/28 Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish Subject: A JDL White Paper Rep From: arthur.ginsberg@dscmail.com (Arthur Ginsberg) Message-ID: <1.45397.3740.0N27D762@dscmail.com> Date: Thu, 28 Jul 94 06:40:00 -0640 THE HITLER CULT IN AMERICA by Moshe Phillips Education Director Jewish Defense League Introduction There is a movement in the United States that is anti-American and anti-Christian, yet it claims to be more Christian and more patriotic than anyone else in the nation. Neo-Nazi organizations, that have had a very long history of violence in America, are now more widespread and radical than ever before. They claim they are going to save America from the Blacks, Jews, Communists, immigrants, homosexuals, Catholics, Free Masons, and others that threaten the existence of America as a national home for White Christians. The Neo-Nazis worship Adolph Hitler as the greatest hero the White Race has ever produced. The leaders of the Neo-Nazi groups have attracted a large following of young, violent Skinhead gangs. White supremacist groups have set up armed compounds throughout the nation where paramilitary training is conducted and armed fanatics wait for the start of a future "Race War". Today's Neo-Nazis are far from being the insignificant and basically harmless bunch of lunatics that they are sometimes characterized as. Neo-Nazis are much more dangerous than David Koresh and his Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas was. The Neo- Nazis want nothing less than the violent overthrow of the United States government and the creation of the Fourth Reich in America. The members of these various groups have proven that they are prepared to wage a war of terrorism. Their armed camps have the potential to be the sites of tragedies far worse than the Branch Davidian disaster in the Spring of 1993. Neo-Nazis have shown that they are more than willing to die as martyrs for their cause. The Hitler Cult The Hitler Cult is by no means a strictly American phenomena. It is an international movement that has grown larger and more radical every year. The Hitler cult is unlike most other cults. It is a political cult, not a religious cult. It is a cult of personality, and the cult figure, Adolph Hitler, is dead. The cult has many factions that are often very different factions. Nazism first came to the United States prior to World War Two. The Nazi party in America found fertile ground during the Great Depression. Populists such as Father Charles Coughlin, Henry Ford, Huey Long and Charles Lindbergh attracted large followings, as did the Nazis. Father Coughlin used radio because it was the best way for him to reach the largest segment of the American people. Radio was an extremely important part of pop culture in the 1920's and 1930's. Coughlin must have known that he was a gifted speaker and that radio was therefore the perfect vehicle for him to carry his message. Radio was also good for him to use because he was able to pay radio stations to broadcast his show. If the economy in the United States continues to worsen then the Neo-Nazi rhetoric against Jews could be even more popular now than Coughlin's was sixty years ago. Many in the large German-American immigrant community became heavily involved in the Nazi Party. Eventually Nazi activity was outlawed. In 1944, over thirty suspected Nazis and Nazi sympathizers were arrested on charges of sedition and treason by the FBI. In the 1950's the Civil Rights movement grew in the South. The Ku Klux Klan had been disbanded in 1939, and was virtually dormant throughout the 1940's. As the Civil Rights movement grew strong so did the Klan as it focused on anti-integration activity. The Klan remained a viable organization throughout the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's 1980's and 1990's. The Klan attracted younger and more polished leaders such as David Duke. Duke later left the Klan and founded the National Association for the Advancement of White People (NAAWP) and eventually went on to become a state senator from Louisiana and a candidate for governor. The Klan soon changed its ideology to include anti-immigration and anti-Homosexual activity as well as anti-black, anti-Jewish and anti-Catholic activity. In the 1970's the Neo-Nazis began to seriously challenge the Klan for activists, as the Nazis garnered much more headlines than the Klan. In the late 1970's the Nazis marched through the town of Skokie, Illinois where numerous Jewish survivors of the Holocaust lived. The march and subsequent protests had been one of the largest news stories of the year. The American Civil Liberties Union (A.C.L.U.) came to the legal aid of the Neo-Nazis and insured their right to march. Nazism as a Cult that Contradicts Christianity One of the first acts of the Nazi Party in Germany after Hitler's rise to power was to establish a single state sponsored Nazi Christian church to replace the Protestant congregations in Germany. An obscure minister who was a longtime Nazi sympathizer was named "Reich's Bishop" and placed in charge of the Nazi christian church. Of course, the mainstream Christian religious institutions were too deeply rooted to be abolished overnight. Instead the Nazis embarked on a long range program of suppression, subversion and harassment the goal of which was to substitute a Nazi version of Christianity in place of traditional Christian religions. Large numbers of Protestant and Catholic clergy and lay leaders were arrested, fined and stripped of authority. The Neo-Nazi Party hierarchy in Germany had a fascination with occult objects and the occult. Much of the Nazi Party's symbolism and the S.S.'s ceremonies and rituals came from Teutonic legends and mythology. A Nazi magazine on the Golden Rule in 1939 stating: "This fundamental law of Christianity completely contradicts our moral conscience, contradicts above all the warrior-like nature peculiar to the soul of our race." Children in Nazi Germany were taught to pray to Hitler instead of to Jesus Christ. Grace before meals given to poor children by the Nazi Welfare Committee ended: "For this food, My Fuhrer, I render my thanks. Another official child's prayer stated: "Fuhrer, my Fuhrer, my faith and my light, Heil my Fuhrer." The Origin of the Neo-Nazi Movement in the United States The American Nazi Party (A.N.P.) was founded in 1958 by George Lincoln Rockwell. Rockwell openly called for the murder of Jews and for Black Americans to be "sent back to Africa". Rockwell's headquarters were in Arlington, Virginia. His frequent public demonstrations and marches in nearby Washington D.C. featuring Nazi banners and protesters in Nazi stormtrooper uniforms gained him a certain following and notoriety. Rockwell openly proclaimed Adolph Hitler as the hero of the "white race". Rockwell was assassinated by a fellow Nazi in 1967. His official successor was "Commander" Matt Koehl. Koehl introduced many changes into the A.N.P. including the decision to downplay publicity stunts and concentrating on organizing and leadership training. Koehl was one of the first Neo-Nazi leaders to stress the need to recruit young men. Koehl eventually changed the name of the A.N.P. to the National Socialist White People's Party (N.S.W.P.P.) and later to the New Order. During the early period of Koehl's leadership many Neo-Nazi splinter groups formed throughout the U.S. Skinheads: Neo-Nazi Street Warriors Neo-Nazi Skinheads first began to surface in the United Sates over ten years ago. Their appearance is now familiar: shaven heads, Neo-Nazi tatoos, Doc Martin steel tipped work boots, and flight jackets. Many Neo-Nazi leaders including Tom and John Metzger of WAR and the leaders of the Aryan Nations and the Church of the Creator were quick to realize the value of recruiting angry young White people to their movement. The Skinheads have earned a reputation for violence and are responsible for the murder of many innocent victims throughout the country. The cable television network Home Box Office (HBO) aired an HBO original documentary about skinheads and Neo-Nazis in 1993, titled "Skinheads U.S.A.: Soldiers of the Race War". The documentary featured a Neo-Nazi Skinhead group called the Aryan National Front. The group was lead by long time Ku Klux Klan organizer Bill Riccio. The program featured an intimate picture of Riccio's compound outside of Birmingham, Alabama. The compound was heavily armed yet manned by a group of rather young and undisciplined Skinheads. The documentary showed the group distributing flyers in downtown Birmingham showing a portrait of Hitler and stating the slogan "Adolph Hitler was right, White People Unite." The program also showed the group watching videos of old footage of Hitler's speeches and Nazi rallies. Riccio was shown praying to Odin, the ancient Nordic god of war, before a march and rally. At another rally Riccio and his Aryan National Front burned an American flag that they referred to as a "Zionist snot rag". The main supplier of Neo-Nazi literature, promotional items and paraphernalia for Skinheads in both the United States and Europe is the Lincoln, Nebraska office of the NSDAP/AO (the National Socialist German Workers Party/ Overseas Organization). The NSDAP is run by Gerhard (Gary) Luack. His newspaper, "The New Order" features advertisements for stickers that show a swastika and read "Fight crime ... Deport Niggers". Other Neo-Nazis are attempting to reach young new recruits through the use of new methods such as Skinhead rock music, Nazi video games and computer networks. The Neo-Nazis are using Computer Bulletin Board Systems (BBS's) to attract a more intelligent element to their ranks. The Los Angeles area based White Aryan Resistance (WAR) organization is lead by former Ku Klux Klan leader Tom Metzger and his son John. John Metzger first gained national attention when he and other Skinhead leaders appeared on the Geraldo Rivera's syndicated television talk show "Geraldo". The show turned violent as a melee broke out on stage and Rivera ended up with a broken nose. The White Aryan Resistance's newspaper, known also as "WAR" featured an article that stated the principles of WAR's ideology, which says that the White Race cannot depend on Christianity, which it calls a "Jewish religion" or on any other organized religion but can only depend on White Power for the survival of the White Race. The Neo-Nazis have also targeted for recruitment white convicts. Several members of the Neo-Nazi terrorist group the Order were ex-convicts. The Neo-Nazi Aryan Brotherhood (A.B.), the Whites only prison gang, has been active in the California prison system since the late 1960s. In the early 1970s Robert Beausoliel, a convicted murderer and an accomplice of Charles Manson, was the leader of the Aryan Brotherhood at San Quentin Prison. An Important Lesson to Learn from Waco There are at least three other heavily armed compounds in the United States that are very similar to the Branch Davidian compound that was outside of Waco, Texas. The difference between the Branch Davidians and the other three is that the other three are teaching their members that the coming "Apocalypse" is going to be caused by Jews, and therefore Jews are to be hated and killed. Immediately after the Branch Davidian cult's compound near Waco, Texas burned down, United States Attorney general Janet Reno was asked by reporters if she had any information about other similar cults. Reno failed to respond positively. This is very understandable, as her main concern at the time was to defend the FBI's actions that day. However, in fact, there are at least three other armed camps, that have many characteristics in common with the Branch Davidians sect's compound. The three camps are all heavily fortified and their members are believed to be heavily armed with automatic weapons. The compounds' members have come from throughout the nation and belong to non-mainstream Protestant Christian sects. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Federal Bureau of Investigations have already investigated the groups that own the complexes as well. The other fortified complexes like the one in Waco, are also lead by charismatic individuals who call themselves Christian ministers and believe that "the end is near" and that the "Day of Judgement" is coming soon. These groups like the Branch Davidians, house children within their compounds. These similarities alone should be very frightening, but what is different about the other three armed compounds is that they are owned and operated by Neo-Nazi groups with a long history of terrorism, violence, and murder. The oldest of the three compounds is at Hayden Lake, Idaho, near Coeur d'Alene. The compound is operated by the Aryan Nations and was first organized in 1974. The head of the compound is the Reverend Richard Butler, who founded the Church of Jesus Christ Christian, the largest group in the white supremacist "Christian Identity" movement. Butler teaches that white Christians are the true "Chosen People" and that the Jews, who control the government and the media, are the children of the devil. The Aryan Nations compound resembles an Army base, with a guard tower, barracks, armory, security fence and a main gate. The Aryan Nations compound has been the scene of the Aryan World Congress, the annual national convention of Neo-Nazis, Skinheads, Klan members, and other extremists. The purpose of the Aryan World Congress was to forge a united Neo-Nazi movement. Members of the Neo-Nazi terrorist group known as the Order were often guests at the Aryan Nation's compound. Members of the Order were prosecuted for the murder of Jewish Denver talk radio show host Alan Berg on June 18, 1984. Members of the Order are believed to have received paramilitary training at the compound. Besides Berg's murder members of the Order were convicted of robbing Brink's armored trucks throughout the Northwest. The heists netted the Neo-Nazis millions of dollars. Another armed compound is in Otto, North Carolina, and is operated by a group known as the Church of the Creator. The leader, Ben Klassen, also calls himself a Christian minister and his Neo- Nazi doctrine is similar to the Aryan Nations' ideology of hate, violence and preparation for a future "Race War". The third compound is in Mill Point, West Virginia, and is operated by the white supremacist group the National Alliance. Dr. William Pierce, a longtime Neo-Nazi activist is the leader. Dr. Pierce had been George Lincoln Rockwell's chief aid in the 1960s. Dr. Pierce is the author of the 1978 novel The Turner Diaries, a novel which he published under the pseudonym Andrew MacDonald. The novel is about a white racist revolutionary leader who leads a terrorist campaign against the Jews and the United States government. The Order allegedly used The Turner Diaries as the blueprint for its attacks. These three are the largest compounds, but other, smaller Neo- Nazi organizations have their own similarly armed and fortified sites in other parts of the country. The most notable of which is in New Berlin, Wisconsin, and is owned by former American Nazi Party leader Matt Koehl. Koehl is currently the head of the Neo- Nazi group the New Order. The FBI and the ATF should intensify their investigations of these Neo-Nazi compounds and the individuals and organizations that are associated with them before another disaster like the one in Waco occurs. Ms. Reno's important task is to insure that the leaders of the Neo-Nazi compounds do not follow in the footsteps of David Koresh and cause the death of innocent children. There is an important lesson to learn from the standoff in Waco. Armed extremists must not be allowed to build fortress like complexes and cause violent confrontations to develop where innocent children will be killed by a fanatical, hate-filled leader. The Populist Party: The Neo-Nazis Try Political Legitimacy For a longtime the American media has incorrectly portrayed the Populist Party as being on the "Conservative-fringe". The Philadelphia Daily News published one factually inaccurate article titled "Populists like 'Rambo' for prez" (May 4, 1991 page 62). The Populist Party is the political party of the Liberty Lobby a Neo-Nazi group that sponsors both the Washington D.C. based newspaper "The Spotlight" and the Institute for Historical Review (I.H.R.). "The Spotlight" had a weekly circulation of approximately a quarter million in the early 1980's. The I.H.R. is the largest group in the United States that promotes such lies as the Holocaust and the Nazi murder of Six Million Jews are myths and "Zionist propaganda". The Populist Party is a racist, anti-Semitic, extremist hate group. In 1988 the Populist Party's candidate for President was none other than David Duke the one time leader of the Ku Klux Klan. Bo Gritz, the Populists 1992 candidate for president and the Populists themselves claim that he was the model for the Rambo character made famous by Sylvester Stallone in the successful movie series. This is a lie. The character of Green Beret John Rambo was created by David Morrel and first appeared in his 1972 novel "First Blood". Rambo was half Italian and half American Indian and a Vietnam combat veteran. This hardly sounds like Bo Gritz. Gritz and the Populists try to hide their racist agenda through subterfuge and lies. Case Study: The Weaver Family Standoff In August and September of 1992 ATF and FBI agents surrounded the home of Randy Weaver and his family in Idaho. Randy Weaver was a fugitive who was wanted on charges of illegally selling firearms. In the ensuing battle a Federal officer and Weaver's son and wife were killed. A family friend of the Weaver's Kevin Harris was seriously wounded. Weaver, a special forces veteran, was involved with the Aryan Nations he and his family were well armed with semiautomatic assault rifles and pistols. Weaver and his family had moved to the mountains of Idaho in order to live alone in the woods and escape what they saw as the self-destruction of society. The standoff finally ended after eleven days. Populist Party candidate Bo Gritz talked Weaver into surrendering to the authorities. A crowd of over one hundred friends and supporters of the Weavers, including Skinheads, were there when Weaver gave up. Five heavily armed Skinheads had been arrested during the standoff, when they tried to join the Weavers. Conclusion The question that remains to be asked is what are the limits that the United States can put on Neo-Nazi propaganda and Neo-Nazi activity without violating the laws of the United states Bill of Rights and the Constitution. The Neo-Nazi organizations that advocate violence and the mass murder of fellow Americans must be made illegal. It is not a Constitutional right to plot genocide. Genocide is murder and conspiracy to commit murder is illegal. All the talk about the Constitutional right to free speech must be kept in the context of remembering that it is illegal to yell "fire" in a crowded theater because it is dangerous to innocent individuals. It is much more dangerous to individuals to speak about putting people in gas chambers and ovens. The question that Americans must ask is "Are Neo-Nazis entitled to free expression?" For Further Information: For further information the following books are recommended: * Brotherhood of Murder By Thomas Martinez & John Gunther * Talked to Death: The Murder of Alan Berg and the Rise of the Neo-Nazis By Stephen Singular ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Moshe Phillips is the Education Director of the Jewish Defense League of Philadelphia. Mr. Phillips has researched, lectured and written extensively on Israel, Jewish history, Anti-Semitism and Neo-Nazism. The JDL can be contacted at Jewish Defense League P.O. Box 6664 Philadelphia, PA 19149. The Jewish Defense League Computer Bulletin Board System (BBS) can be reached at (215) 464-5174. * QMPro 1.0 94-1836 * ...and then on other days it just rains. * QMPro 1.0 94-1836 * C:\DOS C:\DOS\RUN RUN\DOS\RUN RUN\RUN\RUN
Home ·
Site Map ·
What's New? ·
Search
Nizkor
© The Nizkor Project, 1991-2012
This site is intended for educational purposes to teach about the Holocaust and
to combat hatred.
Any statements or excerpts found on this site are for educational purposes only.
As part of these educational purposes, Nizkor may
include on this website materials, such as excerpts from the writings of racists and antisemites. Far from approving these writings, Nizkor condemns them and
provides them so that its readers can learn the nature and extent of hate and antisemitic discourse. Nizkor urges the readers of these pages to condemn racist
and hate speech in all of its forms and manifestations.