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.   

The Darkness Rising (Again) in Europe

This past Memorial Day they were there for all to see, for everyone who attended the parades in New Jersey’s many towns and cities. They were old, to be sure, but still robust enough to put on the uniform and give the people a good show. They are our heroes, our World War II vets. They are defined by their monumental achievement. They personally, along with our Allies, destroyed Adolf Hitler’s murderous empire. Those men marching past Chase Bank, the local bagel place and Dunkin’ Donuts, them, those guys, they stormed the beaches of Normandy, liberated the Concentration Camps at Dachau, fought Nazis hand-to-hand past the Rhine River into the heart of the evil empire itself. Their best friends died beside them, some shot, some froze to death. They took the war to the heart of the Fascist enemy and won.

We take that victory over fascism, over Nazism, for granted today, and we pretty much always had. Wars are fought for different reasons, sometimes the wrong reason. This was not one of them. There was no way that Hitler’s hateful, genocidal legions were to be allowed to march across the globe. They knew it in 1941. We know it now. There was only one way to deal with Fascism, and that was to obliterate it. Decent people all over America, people who hated violence, knew this and acknowledge it now. Pacifism and tolerance are wonderful, but you can’t work with Nazis. No way. So that part of history has faded into legend, to be woven into Indiana Jones movies and exciting TV miniseries. But there’s one problem.

They’re back.

Yes, you read that correctly. Neo-Nazism has been around since the 1950s. Illegal in Germany, it is acknowledged as silly and heinous here. The idea of bringing out the anit-semitic ideas of Adolf Hilter and his genocidal concept of White, Aryan supremacy was long considered absurd. Sure, criminals and Klansman believed that crap, but not decent people. Not voters. Not anyone with a well-functioning brain in their head.

But they have returned.

Hitler’s intense, murderous hatred has returned to Europe, and in a big, big way. It’s crept up on us, much like the original movement of Nazism in the late 1920s did when it gravitated from a zany German fringe movement to the elected heart of the then-German Weimar democracy.

Whoever thought stormtrooping thugs led by anti-semitic politicians was in the past needs to look in two places. Hungary, our NATO ally in central Europe, and Greece, the birthplace of democracy.

Over the past two years, and you can’t make this stuff up, Fascism has been reborn as a viable political movement in Hungary. And when I say “viable,” I mean a political movement with almost 50 members in the democratically-elected Hungarian Parliament. They call themselves the Jobbiks, or those who seek to “bring about a better Hungary.” But they’re Fascists and Neo-Nazis and make no secret about it. While their suited politicians win elective office, their organized army, the so-called “Hungarian Guard,” grows daily. The Guard is, of course, modeled after the Nazi’s S.A. militia. The colors of the shirts are different, the symbols on the armband are a bit varied, but the message is the same. If you’re Jewish, or if you’re an immigrant, or gay or non-conformist in any way, then die…before we kill you first.

To bring attention to this rising movement, Worldwide Jewish organizations have been holding meetings in the Hungarian capital, and Jobbik has responded. This month, thousands of Jobbik members and their sympathizers protested these gatherings, marching with their own symbols, but with swastikas too. Jobbik members openly taunted conference participants with anti-semitic slurs and threw debris, much like their pre-War brethren did to Jews on Kristallnacht. Just last week, several Jobbik members of Parliament informed the legislative body that the museum at Auschwitz contained many “inaccuracies.” Holocaust denial for sure, but prepping for the future.  

Now Hungary is a relatively small country in the heart of modern, connected Europe. It has none of the attributes or military potential, say, of a defeated but infuriated post-World War I Germany. But that’s not the point. Jobbik is reaching out, making efforts to network with other far right, Neo-Nazi, Fascist groups throughout Europe who share their regressive ideals. One of these groups is situated in the birthplace of democracy itself, in Greece.

Golden Dawn’s main symbol is unmistakably designed after the Swastika. This movement, like Jobbik in nearby Hungary, is filled with thugs and street brawlers who preach hatred for immigrants and diversity. And like Jobbik, Golden Dawn has been experiencing a lot of success on the national electoral front. At this moment 18 members of the Greek Parliament are Golden Dawn members. Not one, not a pathetic three. Eighteen, and their influence is growing.

Golden Dawn, like a parasite, has attached itself to the Greek body politic by preaching the values of hate, particularly ethnocentrism. Its youth organization, like the Hitler Youth it is modeled on, is growing rapidly as well. Its ranks are filled with the sons and daughters of the unemployed, the bitter and the downright irrational. Like the Hitler Youth before it, it indoctrinates and militarizes children with genocidal ideas while going on camping trips, hikes and visits to National Monuments like the Acropolis in Athens. These trips are filled with marches and songs and stories about the greatness of Greece, with the democratic part conveniently skipped over, of course.

Again like Jobbik, Golden Dawn is reaching out. Its tentacles are spreading throughout the Greek diaspora, not only through Internet sites but with direct visits from Golden Dawn members to places like the United States and Australia. Overseas Greeks (for the most part) aren’t fooled though; they’re well educated in the democratic principles of their ancestors. But Golden Dawn is making more inroads in its efforts to establish links with politicians and parties in Europe.

Europe’s economy is taking a beating right now. It’s not the 1930’s, exactly, as Europeans enjoy a far more comprehensive welfare state than in those years, but they’re suffering nevertheless. And there is a real possibility in the near future that one of these radical, Fascist parties could gain real power. It is important to remember that Hitler and the Nazis came to power as a minority party, as part of a parliamentary coalition of nationalist groups.

It’s amazing how the world is connected, how history interweaves all. Again, though in a somewhat different era, we grow blind by a rising menace overseas. We don’t know what these people are ultimately capable of, because so many of us think that history can no longer produce such horrors from Europe. But those old Vets…they know what we could be up against. If you don’t believe me, ask them. 

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.