As If We Have Enough Problems Already: White Supremacists Are Again On The Rise

It’s been a pretty active week for white supremacists both in the United States as well as in Hitler’s homeland, Austria. And though it may not seem believable to most civilized people, white supremacy has been experiencing somewhat of a very real reemergence, both on illegal and legal fronts.

On the illegal front, we’ve seen horrendous violence take place in Las Vegas, where three people – two police officers and a bystander – were shot and killed in cold blood by a white supremacist couple – who then in some kind of twisted act of Aryan martyrdom turned the guns on themselves. Before that, to apparently clear up any confusion as to their ideals, they placed a swastika on one of their murdered victims.

As investigators now sift through the computers, possessions and communications of the deceased couple, the degree of this crime – in that whether or not it is part of a wider, working, conspiracy, is yet to be determined. But I do believe that I am not being inaccurate at all when I state that there are probably many more well-armed, furious white supremacists out there, all playing out some stage of their fantasy of racial purity, white rebellion and Aryan destruction.

Meanwhile, white supremacists/Neo-Nazis are growing bolder in Europe, where

Strauche, Leader of Austria's Right Wing "Freedom Party." 

they’ve experienced a great deal of mainstream political success by winning elections to local, regional, national and even international bodies. This is especially true in Austria – which was completely part of the Nazi war machine in the 1940’s. There, the so-called “Freedom Party” has captured nearly 20 percent of the votes of the last national election (and larger percentages in others). And it’s only grown bolder in its proclamations and positions. For example, its party leader, Heinz-Christian Strauche has now declared that he’ll run for the mayoralty of Vienna. And just this past Sunday he had this to say on the prospect of an upcoming visit from Turkey’s president:

"We don't need Erdoğan in Vienna. I'll tell him right now: 'Erdoğan, stay at home'."

Strauche later accused Erdoğan of seeking to establish a "parallel society" in Austria. Interesting words, because they could have come directly from the mouth of the late anti-Semitic Vienna mayor, Karl Lueger.

These culprits, though on different sides of the globe, are literally on the wrong side of history. In fact, they worship a history that never happened, at least from the prospective that they understand it. Such individuals are convinced that in former days, when a more “pure” and homogeneous population existed, society was stronger and more vital. But what they fail to understand that the foundations of Revolutionary America – and the greatness that was turn-of-the-century Vienna, were founded in diversity. Allow me to explain further.

The two Las Vegas white supremacists also used a “Don’t Tread On Me” Flag to make their point, apparently harkening back to the rebellious spirit of the American Revolutionaries. But those Revolutionaries were a mixed bag of people - and in fact – all of colonial America was. It wasn’t just English – there were Dutch, Jews, Africans, Swedes, Germans, Native Americans and others. And those English – they hardly regarded themselves as so; rather they were carved up into numerous, rival religious and political sects that as late as the early 1800’s were furiously persecuting and competing with each other. If you’re in search of some kind of racial or ideological purity, Colonial and Early America is no place you’ll find it.

And what about those Austrians who are trying to convince their own people that Austria’s greatest days and glories were the product of some pure Germanic population? If you think that, you’d be wrong again. Any historian will tell you that Vienna’s vitality of the late 19^th and early 20^th century was a result of a massive cultural intersection of Germans, Jews and Slavs. Austria was once part of a heterogeneous empire of dozens of nationalities. It was at the city’s open and diverse coffeehouses and salons (many sponsored by Jewish women) that the greatness of the age was forged. It was where Jews like Freud, Herzl, Trotsky and Mahler produced and defended great ideas and made great art. It was in Vienna of the early 20^th century that gave birth to so many forms of modern expression, which were, by in large, produced by all the ethnicities and religious groups in the city.

These white supremacist are ignorant hypocrites. Like their failed Austrian master before them, they’re preaching not just hate, but lies – their history is a complete falsehood – a factually indefensible distortion. If they’re so bent on selling their views, they should be reminded of how things ended when they were last in charge. I believe it was with the sound of a single, suicidal gunshot in a bunker in ruined Berlin, capital of an obliterated nation.   

Echoes of An Infamous Anti-Semitic Jersey Past Are Heard in A New Report

This week the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) published its annual report on Anti-Semitic incidents in the Garden State. The results, as reported in many of our area’s papers, are mixed. While it is true that an overwhelming majority of Jewish people living in New Jersey go about their daily lives without having to face this historic scourge, still, 78 incidents occurred in 2013. According to the ADL, these incidents involved acts of vandalism, assault and threats. 

Racism and discrimination in all their perverse forms are bad, but ‘modern’ Anti-Semitism is its own kind of historical nemesis. I’ve been in education for over a decade, and I can honestly tell you, most New Jerseyans, despite our state’s Holocaust awareness requirement, fail understand the danger of organized Anti-Semitism to humanity in particular, and it’s long history in New Jersey (of all places!). It’s worth a retelling.

Medieval anti-Semitism is rooted in the Christian Bible, which has been interpreted as blaming Jews for the conspiracy to arrest and kill Jesus. Much of this hatred was fed to Europeans over the centuries by the Catholic and later Luther-inspired Protestant Churches. To be fair, this belief in collective Jewish guilt has been formally renounced by the Roman Catholic Church and most Protestant Churches. Over the past three decades, in fact, the Papacy has gone to great lengths to embrace good Jewish-Catholic relations through Papal Synagogue visits and various edicts. I do not think that I would be inaccurate in stating that, at least in New Jersey, if any Christian priest or preacher got up on next Sunday morning and told his or her congregation that Jews were “Christ Killers” the parishioners would simply walk out, throw the preacher out, or both. But this kind of anti-Semitism isn’t what motivates modern day Jew haters anyway.

Modern, formerly "respectable” Anti-Semitism is not ancient. It’s not even German. It’s not from the Arab world and it had nothing to do with the Spanish Inquisition or the Crusades. It wasn’t born in the desert or amongst some maniacal civilization. It emerged, largely, from one of the most cosmopolitan centers of European civilization, from a city that still prides itself on its Baroque architecture, its cobblestone streets, and its sumptuous coffeehouses. Modern-day Anti-Semitism was born in Vienna, Austria, between 1880 and the outbreak of World War I.

These people, whoever they are – be they punks, White Supremacists, or Klansman, who are going around New Jersey committing acts of hatred are believers, for the most part, in this kind of anti-Semitism. Though Modern Anti-Semitism’s origins are a bit complex, the movement really crystalized and gained respect and electoral power in Turn-of-The-Century, cosmopolitan Vienna. It was there that, in the effort to gain votes and create some kind of national identity out of a diverse population, leaders pointed to the Jews as a common enemy. These anti-Semites stipulated that Jews, both religious and secular, were a cancer on humanity. These people preached, to great success, that Jews, through their achievements in the professions, were climbing to the top of their fields in a conspiratorial plan. This “plan,” was to be executed at the ‘right’ moment, on some kind of international basis, when Jews would strike to enslave and degrade all Christians. The conspiracy theory took several forms, but this was the most common one. In the meanwhile, most Anti-Semites said, Jews, by increasing their power and influence, were out to make the lives of Christians impoverished and marginal.

The moment of “respectable crystallization,” happened with the election of one of the great urban mayors of the early 20^th century: Dr. Karl Lueger. Today Austrians like to forget about his intense anti-Semitism, as he was responsible for much of the modernization of Vienna. But at the time, Lueger’s intense hatred for the Jewish people – who comprised of a sizable minority of Vienna itself – was well known. Lueger used his tremendous oratory and persuasive powers to convince city voters that Jews were the main problem. In 1907, a few years before his death, Lueger told one reporter:

“A Jew must remember that neither Germany, nor Austria, nor Poland is his land. He must remember that wherever he may be, he is a stranger to the native population…I do not care about the welfare of the Jews. If their life here is miserable, let them go away.”

Today any big city mayor who made such a statement would be branded as crazy…insane. But these were the words of one of the most popular, elected politicians in the civilized world, and his words would not go unheeded. Under Lueger’s rule, Jews would be discriminated against, publicly assaulted, ridiculed and pushed out of organizations of all kinds. But his admirers were many, including one down-on-his-luck, failed artist and frequent inhabitant of the city’s homeless shelters and rooming houses named Adolf Hitler.

Now wait just a second. I thought this was a blog about New Jersey? What does an infamous Austrian mayor who died in 1910 have anything to do with anti-Semitism in, say, Newark or the Jersey Shore?

The respectability that Lueger gave to such hatred had transatlantic consequences, and this influence spread quickly. How quickly? He died in 1910; within a decade his organized, articulate anti-Jewish rhetoric would assist the growth of two of New Jersey’s most infamous – and powerful – hate groups: the Klan and the Nazis.

The Anti-Semitic Klan, partly due to the ‘respectability’ that Lueger and others had given the hatred of Jews and Judaism, spread rapidly here. Klan groups and “klaverns” organized by the thousands and the repressive organization established its headquarters in Newark. Amazing as the sight would be today, during holiday parades in several New Jersey towns and cities, Klan members marched by the hundreds – even the thousands – to promote their nefarious cause. Their organization published newsletters and newspapers and endorsed candidates running for local and state offices. 

The Klan held huge ceremonies in the summertime, particularly at the Shore. One New York Times article claims that a July 1924 rally near Long Branch drew 20,000 supporters. The Klan participated in open, publiziced acts of terrorism. In April of 1922 they burned a huge cross on top of Paterson’s Garrett Mountain that was visible throughout much of Passaic County. While publicly promoting itself as another civic organization, Klansmen terrorized Jews, Catholics and immigrants through assaults and even bombings. Amazing right? Yes, it happened right here, in New Jersey. And it wasn’t over.

The Klan’s national power faded in the late 1920’s due to a variety of factors, one being a major murder scandal involving its Grand Wizard. The movement’s deterioration was reflected in New Jersey as well. But by the early 1930’s, Anti-Semitism was back in the Garden State and in a big, terrifying way.

In the years before the Second World War, New Jersey was home to a major

New Jersey Nazi Camp, Andover, 1938

Nazi movement that called itself “The Bund.” Like its evil twin in Germany, New Jersey’s Nazis dressed up in brown uniforms, held gatherings in beer halls, and established their own “base camps” in places like Andover. Yes, I am not kidding here. In the mid-1930’s, there was a Nazi camp, with real, goose-stepping, Hitler saluting, anti-Jewish stormtroopers, in Sussex County.

Area residents, like my grandmother who lived in Irvington at the time, grew concerned and frightened. When a collection of Nazi organizations from New Jersey and New York sold out Madison Square Garden for a rally in the mid-1930’s, the movement was on the borderline of – and its frightening to say – respectability. I would like to report that it was the outrages of the Nazis in Germany that led to the Jersey Bund’s decline, and that is frequently taught, but it was more likely the efforts of the state and Federal governments to squash the movement that probably brought on its end. And, of course, The War.

So here we are again, sort of, but on a much smaller basis. The Neo-Nazis or the Anti-Semites or whomever you want to call them are in our presence, but they’re not respectable. The average New Jersey resident, of course, knows from our present perspective what these kinds of ideas lead to: violence, mass death, collective sadism…etc. We’re all decent people, right? We’ll continue to work together as a diverse community towards the future. Yes, we’ll have our disagreements, but this is all our land. We still believe in those ideals…don’t we?

Man, I hope so. But the ADL’s report of 78 Jersey-based incidents in 2013 does shake my faith. A little bit.   

Some of the Earliest Warnings of the Hitler Menace Came from New Jersey

One of our state’s greatest treasures can be found in its academic institutions, particularly in the two largest ones, Rutgers and Princeton. It’s a shame that more people in New Jersey do not take advantage of the numerous free lectures, seminars, exhibits and presentations that occur at these institutions on a frequent basis. Just a glance at their well-publicized calendars shows a wide variety of speakers, many authorities and trendsetters in their industries and disciplines. Every year, present and former governors, senators, scholars, teachers, businessmen and witnesses take to the lecterns of these schools to tell riveting stories, propose innovative ideas and sometimes, to warn.

This is where it gets interesting. Many of the greatest events in history, both famous and infamous, have been discussed, dissected, analyzed in our universities. But there have been times in the past, right here in the storied academic halls of New Jersey, which witnessed the most prophetic, dire warnings. Like a scene from a Spielberg movie, there have been times when the halls of Princeton and Rutgers have invited in voices from the political wilderness, to accurately inform of great peril.

Through my research, I found one of those moments. I wish I could have been there. The setting was right out of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” The scene was Princeton’s stately, neo-gothic Mc Cosh Hall. There, inside, in a lecture hall that is perhaps one of the most architecturally impressive of its kind, a professor took to the lectern. It was a cold November day in 1931.

Mc Cosh's famous lecture hall, Princeton University

First, it should be stated that it wasn’t the only lecture that day, or week, on campus. According to The Daily Princetonian, other speakers were discussing the current political issues in the Hoover Administration. Another, Dean Wycks, gave a talk on “Mystical Appreciation.” Several professors were also to give a series of short talks on their most recent books. The Garden Theater was showing a play titled “Traveling Husbands,” which promised, in its half-page ad, to be told with “Speed and Sparkle…You’ll enjoy every minute of it!”

But this lecture was different, though we can only see that from our present point of view. The talk was given by one Professor William Starr Myers of Princeton’s Politics Department. The subject was one that was really yet to be addressed in higher academic circles, but Myers now felt that it deserved much wider attention. The title: Hitler of Germany As Menace to the World.

It was, to be honest, a rather audacious title for a lecture at the time. Germany in 1931 was still a functioning, troubled democracy and an economic mess. Whether the recently defeated state would hold together under the then-present circumstances was debatable. In earlier articles the university paper, when mentioning Hitler at all, described him inaccurately as a “prank” or a “monarchist” seeking to reestablish the Kaiser to power. But this was one of the first lectures that I’ve found where a speaker clearly says no, this man is dangerous, not in some abstract political way, but someone for Americans to be very, very aware of.

Myers opened his talk by comparing Hitler to “Scarlet Fever,” then a horrendous contagion universally feared. Hitler, like a tumor, was taking advantage of Germany’s chaotic economic situation to gain absolute power:

“Hitler has used many of his own pet prejudices in outlining his party’s declaration of principles, especially anti-Semitism and state control of all institutions. These ideas have gone far toward popularizing National Socialism in Germany…”

The professor went on to warn his audience that Hitler’s dictatorial aspirations included foreign conquest, or what Hitler would call "Lebensraum" as well:

“If however Hitler does gain control, he no doubt will try to expand to Russia…an attempt which might kill him off and bring a happy ending to National Socialism.”

Myers observations were dead on. Hitler did certainly come to power as part of a democratic coalition of right-wing political parties in 1933. And the dictator’s obsession with destroying Judaism and the Soviet Union would undeniably consume much of Nazi Germany’s energies. Hitler indeed killed himself in his Berlin bunker in April of 1945 as Soviet troops closed in.

In the coming months, Princeton welcomed several other speakers who discussed Nazism and its possible widespread effects on Europe and the rest of the world. But from my research it was only Myers' prophetical voice, speaking in the earliest days of the fascist crisis, who got it right. And it happened right here, in New Jersey.

Victory on Springfield Avenue: Newark's 1933 Battle Against the Nazis

Newark’s history is epic. I tell my students daily, here at Arts High, that the city’s past is its own unique reflection of major world and national events. To learn about the city is to learn about America. Out of all of the events in the history of the city –and there are so many fascinating ones – a few stand out. One in particular concerns the people of Newark and their immediate answer to one of the most infamous movements in modern history.

In 1933, long before Hitler’s legions marched across Europe massacring millions in the name of Aryan Supremacy, the people of Newark stood up to be counted. Newark’s residents, as American soldiers, would indeed face the Nazis on the battlefields in the 1940’s, on the beaches of Normandy, in the freezing woods of France and Belgium and on the streets of wartime Germany. Newark’s residents would fight the Nazis on the high seas, and hundreds would pay with their lives, drowning in the icy deep of the North Atlantic. But before all of this, before Kristallnacht, before Stalingrad, before the Holocaust…was the Battle of Springfield Avenue.

Yes, you read that right. One of the first significant, all-out battles against Nazism did not occur in some remote German village, deep in Bavaria. It wasn’t in the skies over London. It happened right here, in Newark, outside of a meeting hall at 593 Springfield Avenue. It must have been an amazing sight.

In October of 1933 fortune flowed in Hitler’s favor. The Depression had devastated Germany, of course, and the entire industrialized world. The Nazi chorus of racial supremacy, of anti-Semitism, and anti-communism resonated all over Germany. Hitler had come to power, though his first months as Chancellor were shaky ones. The Nazi movement had yet to win a majority in the democratically elected German parliament, and had entered into a ruling coalition with other conservative, nationalist parties. There was still time for decent people to stand up against the Nazis, but as we know, most Germans did nothing…or worse.

The Nazi cause spread like a virus overseas, extending its darkness into the German global diaspora. In 1933, New York, Philadelphia and Newark were home to Germans - hundreds of thousands of them, actually. These people were, for the most part, not the least bit sympathetic to Nazi ideals. They were Americans. America’s German community had roots that went back to the late 1840’s.

In 1933, the Depression had taken its toll in the northeastern United States. Psychologically, millions of men suffered from the personal humiliation, the shameful idleness and sudden poverty of the age. Newark was particularly hard hit because along with this crisis many of its banks had closed and taken the life savings of thousands. Into this abysmal situation, a few thousand Germans and their sympathizers here in Essex County accepted and eagerly promoted Nazism. Their organizations went by a few names, some as harmless as “Friends of the New Germany” or “The German Bund,” but at their meetings, their cause was obvious. They were Nazis. Street brawling, goose-stepping, Hitler-saluting, Swastika band-wearing, genuine Nazis.

New Jersey’s Nazis were an aggressive bunch, and they were growing rapidly. They had money and aid from the homeland. They established their own gathering places and campgrounds, particularly in Andover, New Jersey, way out in the western part of the state. By the summer of 1933, they were posed to enter the mainstream of New Jersey politics and culture, but to do that, they had to go to the state’s foremost political, economic and cultural hub: Newark.

Their organizers had apparently had significant success, because on the evening of October 17, 1933, they had gathered over 800of their followers in a hall on one of the city’s principle arteries, Springfield Avenue. We don’t know exactly what went on in this meeting, but if it was like any of the other recorded ones, there were lots of anti-Semitic speeches, dispersing of free copies ofMein Kampf (Hitler’s bloated, rambling book of his bizarre interpretation of history) and beer. Plenty of beer. And perhaps even some conspiracy making. Conceivably there was some fundraising, or a plan to picket a local synagogue. These Nazis were serious, but they had a problem.

The good people of Newark were on to them.

The decent people of Newark, over 1000 of them, were waiting for the meeting to end, right outside the hall.

What we know is this: when the meeting ended, the Nazis poured onto the wide avenue. We don’t know who pushed whom, though there are reports of “Nazi bodyguards” charging into the crowd. What followed was a genuine battle. There were screams and men armed with metal pipes. Almost 200 Newark city police officers were called in. There were injuries. The city government labeled it a full-fledged riot. Arrests followed – most of them were Nazis – but a portion of the city’s people had spoken. Their words were clear. Nazis were not welcome in Newark. In fact, they should get the hell out of the city altogether.

After the brawl, the city’s civic groups immediately ramped up and coordinated their anti-Nazi efforts. Local Christian Ministers and Rabbis denounced Hitler from their pulpits, and tried to warn their parishioners of what could be coming. Even a local veterans group of former World War I German and Austrian soldiers denounced Fascism and praised their Jewish members. Local German organizations banned the Swastika from their parades and festivals…which were considerable community events in Newark at that time.

The Nazis never got a chance to take over the city of Newark. Once the war started the authorities closed in on them (whether it was constitutional or not), suspecting such groups of treasonous activities and attempted communications with the Fatherland. Many New Jersey German-born Nazi leaders lost their citizenship, were arrested and faced with financial ruin. Their camps were closed in Andover.

Okay, let’s shift back to today. My Arts High Students always enjoy these important lessons, because they bring up many interesting issues. First, how broad are the First Amendment’s protections of free expression? Should it be interpreted to allow hate groups to function and even prosper? Should the Constitution protect those who have openly declared to undermine it, to annihilate its principles and innocent people? Is it better to have hate groups functioning in the sunlight where decent people can see them, rather than drive them underground? And most importantly, how would you react if you woke up one day, and saw hundreds of Nazis, or members of Al Qaida, or Klansmen, or some other declared enemy of the United States marching proudly?

In 1933 a sizable portion of the Brick City’s population stood up, literally, against Nazism and hate. The Battle of Springfield Avenue was more than a decade before D-Day. Fortunately, the Nazis lost both.