The Order (group)
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The Order, also known as the Bruder Schweigen or Silent Brotherhood, was a neo-Nazi organization active in the United States between 1983 and 1984.
The Order described themselves as a "white nationalist revolutionary group"'. The group was partly modeled on, and was named after, a fictional group in the novel The Turner Diaries, which was written by William Luther Pierce under the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald. The Order's goals included the establishment of a homeland where Jews and those of non-white ancestry would be barred. They often refer to the United States federal government as ZOG, an acronym for Zionist Occupied Government.
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[edit] History
The Order was founded by Robert Jay Mathews in late September, 1983 at Mathews' farm near Metaline Falls, Washington. A fundamental goal of The Order was revolution against the Government of the United States, which was seen by the Order and other neo-Nazis as the being controlled by a cabal of prominent Jews.
In order to fund these goals, the Mathews-led Order committed a series of violent crimes. Their first criminal effort was unspectacular: the robbery of a sex shop, which netted them less than $400. Afterwards, the Order were much more effective, committing several lucrative bank robberies, as well as bombing theaters and synagogues. The Order ran a large counterfeiting operation, and executed a series of armored car robberies, including one in Ukiah, California that netted $3.8 million.
After being arrested on counterfeiting charges, one member of the Order informed FBI agents of the group's membership roll and its methods. Based on this information, authorities were able to track down Mathews in December, 1984. He was living in a cabin on Whidbey Island and he refused to surrender to the FBI. During a shootout, the cabin became engulfed in flames and Mathews perished. Mathews is held in high esteem within the white nationalist subculture. One website declares that "Robert Matthews died a hero and a martyr to our Race. God rest his soul." [1] The band Dresden wrote a song called To Robert Mathews in Valhalla [2].
Ultimately, ten members of The Order were tried and convicted under Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) statutes. In a separate trial, three other members of The Order were tried convicted of violating the civil rights of Alan Berg, a liberal, Jewish radio talk show host in Denver, Colorado who was assassinated on the evening of June 18, 1984 in front of his home as he was exiting his car.
To date, no one has been charged in the actual shooting death of Berg. However, David Lane, the getaway driver for Berg's assailants, is serving what amounts to a life sentence with no chance of parole: 190 consecutive years on the charges of racketeering, conspiracy, and violating Berg's civil rights. Lane is regarded by many white supremists as a hero and a political prisoner; his Fourteen Words: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children", have become a prominent motto of many white racialists and white racialist organizations. Berg's murder and the subsequent trial form the basis of Steven Dietz's 1988 play God's Country, and also loosely inspired Eric Bogosian's play Talk Radio (later adapted into a film by Oliver Stone). A highly inaccurate version of the Order story was also the subject of the movie Brotherhood of Murder.
In another trial, fourteen men were charged with sedition. Thirteen of them were acquitted, and the judge dismissed the charges against the fourteenth for lack of evidence. In all, over seventy-five men and women were tried and convicted of various charges connected to The Order.
The Order's size and influence seems to have diminished in recent years. Their goals, described in detail in the book, The Turner Diaries, have not come to fruition. However, the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995 is similar to the fictitious bombing of a federal building in Washington, D.C. described in the book. The "Free the Order" website describes a number of people as political prisoners. [3]
[edit] Oath and motto
Like many neo-Nazi groups, the Order had a system of oaths and mottos which were reminiscent of fraternal organizations. The first members of the group were recruited from the Aryan Nations and the National Alliance organizations.
The nine founding members of the group swore an oath that began:
"I, as a free Aryan man, hereby swear an unrelenting oath upon the green graves of our sires, upon the children in the wombs of our wives, upon the throne of God almighty, sacred is His name, to join together in holy union with those brothers in this circle and to declare forthright that from this moment on I have no fear of death, no fear of foe; that I have a sacred duty to do whatever is necessary to deliver our people from the Jew and bring total victory to the Aryan race..."
A motto on the Order's crest reads "Brüder schweigen", which means "Brothers remain silent" in German. It is sometimes erroneously translated as "Silent Brotherhood."
[edit] References
- Kevin Flynn, and Gary Gerhardt, The Silent Brotherhood ISBN 0-451-16786-4.
