December 27, 2012
Neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups often stage events around the anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s April 20th birthday. Many of these events are held explicitly to celebrate Hitler’s legacy of anti-Semitism and world vision of Aryan supremacy.
Several neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups around the country are planning such events on April 19 and 20, 2008. Many of them plan to feature speakers who espouse a virulently anti-Semitic, racist, and anti-immigrant ideology.
- On April 19, the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement (NSM) has scheduled a rally and march in Washington D.C., “against illegal immigration.” Scheduled speakers include Ted Junker, a former German SS soldier during World War II and the founder of a Wisconsin museum devoted to Adolf Hitler; Hal Turner, a white supremacist radio host based in New Jersey; Jay Faber, a pastor for the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations; and other NSM leaders and members. The NSM is currently the largest neo-Nazi group in the United States. The group promotes its virulently anti-Semitic and racist ideology at rallies throughout the country, with members wearing Nazi uniforms and openly displaying swastikas to a degree unusual even among white supremacists.
- On April 19, members of Stormfront, an Internet forum popular among white supremacists and anti-Semites, plan to host a “racialist cookout” in Morganton, North Carolina. This event, “open to all white racialists,” is advertised as “family friendly.” Stormfront is the largest white supremacist Internet forum and reportedly contains over 120,000 members. Don Black, former Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, operates the forum out of his Florida home.
- On April 19, 2008, the Portland chapter of the neo-Nazi group Volksfront plans to host a gathering. Volksfront, a virulently racist and anti-Semitic group, has become the most active neo-Nazi group on the West Coast and maintains close alliances with many other hate groups. One of its primary goals is to establish an autonomous whites-only living space in the Pacific Northwest and, to this end, the group claims to have purchased several acres of property in Oregon and Washington State.
- On April 20, the neo-Nazi American National Socialist Workers Party (ANSWP) plans to host a gathering in honor of Hitler’s birthday in Chicago, Illinois. Scheduled speakers include group leader Bill White; Art Jones, a long time pro-white activist, former member of the white supremacist National Socialist White People’s Party, and a frequent candidate for elective office; Michael Burks, the Kentucky ANSWP leader and former member of the Imperial Klans of America, a Ku Klux Klan group; and Ted Junker, a former German SS officer during World War II and the founder of a museum devoted to Adolf Hitler, located in Wisconsin. An offshoot of the NSM, the Roanoke, Virginia-based ANSWP was founded in the summer of 2006.
- On April 20, the neo-Nazi National Socialist Order of America (NSOA) plans to begin the National Socialist Leadership Training School, a year-long correspondence course open to NSOA members. NSOA formed as an offshoot of the NSM in October 2007 and is led by John Taylor Bowles, former NSM South Carolina chapter leader and National Election Director.
- On April 26, Crew 38, a group associated with the neo-Nazi Hammerskin Nation, plans to host an “Adolf Hitler Memorial and BBQ” in Houston, Texas. The event will include live entertainment and a swastika lighting. The Hammerskin Nation is one of the most violent and best-organized neo-Nazi skinhead groups in the United States. The number 38 is significant to the Hammerskins, as it stands for “Crossed Hammers,” (“C” as the third letter of the alphabet and “H” the eighth), which is the group’s symbol.