| Frank Collin | |
|---|---|
| 1st NSPA Chairman | |
| In office 1970- – 1977 |
|
| Preceded by | Matt Koehl, National Socialist White People's Party |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Frank Joseph Collin November 3, 1944 Chicago, Illinois; rumored to have been conceived in Dachau |
| Political party | National Socialist Party of America |
| Profession | New Age author |
| Religion | Neo-pagan |
Francis Joseph "Frank" Collin (born November 3, 1944) formerly served as the leader of the National Socialist Party of America, whose plan to march in the predominantly Jewish suburb of Skokie, Illinois was the centerpiece of a major First Amendment decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie. Collin lost that position when his own Jewish ancestry came to light. Later he became a neo-pagan author.
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Frank Collin, a native of Chicago, joined George Lincoln Rockwell's National-Socialist White People's Party in the 1960s. He broke with the NSWPP due to a disagreement with Rockwell's successor, Matt Koehl, who had assumed the leadership role by popular vote after Rockwell's August 25, 1967 assassination by a disgruntled member, John Patsalos, who used the name "John Patler" during his tenure in the NSWPP.
Collin's organization, the National Socialist Party of America, remained relatively obscure until 1977, when it announced plans to march through the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois in retaliation for the City of Chicago banning the NSPA from speaking publicly in Marquette Park. It prompted a landmark legal battle. At the time, Skokie had the largest Jewish population per-capita in the United States, and many residents were Holocaust survivors; it was widely presumed that this is why Skokie was chosen. Ultimately, the NSPA won the right to march, but without their swastika armbands (yet with their Nazi military uniforms).[1] However, the Skokie march was called off when the city of Chicago, at the behest of Skokie's Jewish leaders and residents, decided to allow Collin to speak in the city. (Note: the aforementioned statement is not verified in the documentary "Nazi America: A Secret History". In this documentary the attorney for Collin and his group states that the Justice Department intervened, that it "sat down with the client and asked him what he would need to not march in Skokie". Collin's reply was that he be granted a permit to rally in Chicago, which was subsequently granted. Collin had been banned from holding rallies in Chicago parks because of the shrill nature of these gatherings.)
Collin's downfall began with the revelation that his father, Max Simon Collin, was a Jew whose original surname had been "Cohen". Max Cohen/Collin claimed to have been a prisoner at Dachau concentration camp, where Frank Collin was said to have been conceived. While president of the NSPA, Collin was arrested by Michigan police while having sex with a pair of 10-year-old boys. These revelations led to his dismissal from the neo-Nazi movement. A psychiatrist who interviewed Collin declared that he was "consumed by hatred for his father"; it was argued that Collin rejected his father by becoming a neo-Nazi and adopting and publicly espousing antisemitic beliefs. Collin was convicted of child molestation and sent to Pontiac prison in 1979.[2] He served three years of a seven-year sentence.
After being released, Collin re-emerged into the spotlight as the author, "Frank Joseph". In 1987 he had a book published, The Destruction of Atlantis: Compelling Evidence of the Sudden Fall of the Legendary Civilization. Collin/Joseph is now a self-described neo-pagan and edits The Ancient American magazine, which promotes the theory of diffusion of peoples in and out of the Americas in prehistoric times.[3]
Collin appeared as himself in several documentaries. The video "Chicago Nazis" documented the Skokie march. The History Channel special Nazi America: A Secret History included extensive footage of Collin.[4]
He has also appeared in or inspired several fictional portrayals. Skokie, a 1981 made-for-television film, dramatized the events. George Dzundza portrayed Frank Collin. In the 1980 movie The Blues Brothers, Henry Gibson portrayed a caricature of Frank Collin as an "Illinois Nazi".