American Nazi Party

American Nazi Party
Leader George Lincoln Rockwell (1959–67)
Matt Koehl (1967–2014)
Rocky Suhayda (2014–present)[1]
Founder George Lincoln Rockwell
Founded 1959 (1959) (as World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists)
Ideology American Nazism
Neo-fascism
Political position Far-right
International affiliation World Union of National Socialists
Party flag

The American Nazi Party (ANP) was first an American political party founded by George Lincoln Rockwell. Its headquarters were in Arlington, Virginia. Rockwell founded the organization as the World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists (WUFENS), but renamed it the American Nazi Party in 1960.[2] The party was based largely upon the ideals and policies of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party in Germany during the Nazi era, and embraced its uniforms and iconography.[3][upper-alpha 1]

The Rockwell organization broke up shortly after he was assassinated in 1967. Since the late 1960s, there have been a number of small groups that have used the name, "American Nazi Party".

Headquarters

The WUFENS headquarters was located in a residence on Williamsburg Boulevard in Arlington, but was moved as the ANP headquarters to a house at 928 North Randolph Street (now a hotel and office building site). Rockwell and some party members also established a "Stormtrooper Barracks" in an old mansion owned by the widow of Willis Kern[7] in the Dominion Hills section of Arlington at what is now the Upton Hill Regional Park, the tallest hill in the county. After Rockwell's death, the headquarters was moved again to one side of a duplex brick and concrete storefront at 2507 North Franklin Road which featured a swastika prominently mounted above the front door. This site was visible from busy Wilson Boulevard. Today, the Franklin Road address is often misidentified as Rockwell's headquarters when in fact it was the successor organization's last physical address in Arlington (now a coffeehouse).[8][9][10]

Name change and party reform

Under Rockwell, the party embraced Nazi uniforms and iconography. [upper-alpha 2]

After several years of living in impoverished conditions, Rockwell began to experience some financial success with paid speaking engagements at universities where he was invited to express his controversial views as exercises in free speech. This inspired him to end the rancorous "Phase One" party tactics and begin "Phase Two", a plan to recast the group as a legitimate political party by toning down the verbal and written attacks against non-whites, replacing the party rallying cry of "Sieg Heil!" with "White Power!", limiting public display of the swastika, and entering candidates in local elections. On January 1, 1967, Rockwell renamed the ANP the National Socialist White People's Party (NSWPP), a move that alienated some hard-line members.

The new name was a “conscious imitation” of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Rockwell wanted a more “ecumenical” approach and felt that the swastika banner was impeding organizational growth. Matt Koehl, although a purist National Socialist, succeeded Rockwell as the new leader and this ended the American Nazi Party. Rockwell was assassinated by one of his own members. Thereafter, the members engaged in internecine disputes, and they were either expelled by Koehl or they resigned. After the assassination of Rockwell, the party dissipated and ad hoc organizations usurped the American Nazi Party logo. Those included James Burford in Chicago and John Bishop in Iowa.[11]

The years 1966 and 1967 were in many ways the apogee of Rockwell's fame and organization.[11] Famously, he was interviewed by Playboy magazine, an event that stirred controversy within the ranks.[11][12] At the time Rockwell had about 500 followers.[4]

Before he could fully implement party reforms, Rockwell was assassinated on August 25, 1967 by a disgruntled follower, John Patler, who was part of a splinter group.[4]

Assassination of Rockwell

An assassination attempt was made on Rockwell on June 28, 1967. As Rockwell returned from shopping, he drove into the long driveway of the "Stormtrooper barracks" located in Arlington's Dominion Hills subdivision and found it blocked by a felled tree and brush. Rockwell assumed that it was another prank by local teens. As a party member cleared the obstruction, two shots were fired at Rockwell from behind one of the swastika-embossed brick driveway pillars. One of the shots ricocheted off the car, right next to his head. Leaping from the car, Rockwell pursued the gunman. On June 30, Rockwell petitioned the Arlington County Circuit Court for a gun permit; no action was ever taken on his request.

On August 25, 1967, while leaving the Econowash laundromat at the Dominion Hills Shopping Center, an assassin, hiding on the roof of the building, fired two bullets into Rockwell's car through the windshield. One missed, the other hit his chest and ruptured his heart. His car slowly rolled backwards to a stop and Rockwell staggered out of the front passenger side door of the car, stood briefly while pointing upward at the strip mall's rooftop where the shots had come from, and then collapsed on the pavement. He was pronounced dead at the scene.[7][13] Rockwell's assailant was John Patler, a former ANP/NSWPP member whom Rockwell had ejected from the party for allegedly trying to introduce Marxist doctrine into the party's platforms.

Koehl succession and ideological divisions

Rockwell's deputy commander, Matt Koehl, a staunch Hitlerist, assumed the leadership role after a party council agreed that he should retain command. Koehl continued some of Rockwell’s reforms such as emphasizing the prospect of a future all-white society, and toning down public denigration of non-whites. Koehl retained the swastika-festooned party literature and the pseudo-Nazi uniforms of the party's "Storm Troopers" which were modeled on those worn by the Nazi Party's Sturmabteilung. In 1968, Koehl moved the party to a new headquarters on 2507 North Franklin Road, clearly visible from Arlington's main thoroughfare, Wilson Boulevard. He also established a printing press, a "George Lincoln Rockwell Memorial Book Store", and member living quarters on property nearby.

The party began to experience ideological divisions among its followers as it entered the 1970s. In 1970, member Frank Collin, who was himself secretly the son of a Jewish father, broke away from the group and founded the National Socialist Party of America in Chicago, which became famous for its attempt to march through Skokie, Illinois, home to many Holocaust survivors. This led to the United States Supreme Court case, National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie. Other dissatisfied members of the NSWPP chose to support William Luther Pierce, and formed the National Alliance in 1974.

Further membership erosion occurred as Koehl, drawing heavily upon the teachings of Hitlerian mystic Savitri Devi, began to suggest that National Socialism was more akin to a religious movement than a political one. He espoused the belief that Adolf Hitler was the gift of an inscrutable divine providence sent to rescue the white race from decadence and gradual extinction caused by a declining birth rate and miscegenation. Hitler's death in 1945 was viewed as a type of martyrdom; a voluntary, Christ-like self-sacrifice, that looked forward to a spiritual resurrection of National Socialism at a later date when the Aryan race would need it the most. These esoteric beliefs led to disputes with the World Union of National Socialists, which Rockwell had founded and whose leader, Danish neo-Nazi Povl Riis-Knudsen, had been appointed by Koehl. Undaunted, Koehl continued to recast the party as a new religion in formation. Public rallies were gradually phased out in favor of low-key gatherings in private venues. On Labor Day 1979, in a highly unpopular move for some members, Koehl disbanded the party's paramilitary "Storm Troopers".

On November 3, 1979, some members of the NSWPP and a Ku Klux Klan group attacked a Communist Workers' Party protest march in Greensboro, North Carolina. The alliance of neo-Nazis and Klansmen shot and killed five marchers. Forty Klansmen and neo-Nazis were involved in the shootings with sixteen Klansmen and neo-Nazis being arrested. The six strongest cases were brought to trial first, but the two criminal trials resulted in the acquittal of the defendants by all-white juries. However, in a 1985 civil lawsuit, the survivors won a $350,000 judgment against the city, the Klansmen, and the neo-Nazis for violating the civil rights of the demonstrators. The shootings became known as the "Greensboro Massacre".

New Order

The Koehl organization changed its name to New Order on January 1, 1983, reflecting the group's Nazi mysticism, and it is still known by that name today.

The organization briefly attracted the media's attention in October 1983, when it held a private meeting at Yorktown High School in Arlington, Virginia. A non-uniformed gathering of members was held indoors while the police kept a crowd of counter-protesters at bay outside. This event marked the last publicized appearance of Koehl and the New Order in Arlington. From that point forward the only outward sign that the group was still operational was the annual appearance of the swastika and Betsy Ross American Revolutionary War flags flying from the party's nondescript headquarters building on North Franklin Road every April 20 (Hitler's birthday).

By the mid-1980s, membership defections, trouble with the Internal Revenue Service, and the high cost of living in the Washington, D.C. area, forced Koehl to relocate the group's headquarters. He ceased printing the organization's White Power newspaper, sold its Arlington, Virginia real estate holdings, and dispersed the group's various operations to scattered locations in Wisconsin and Michigan. A secluded 88-acre (360,000 m2) rural property called "Nordland" was purchased in New Berlin, Wisconsin, to serve as living quarters and to host annual meetings and ceremonial events.

Today the New Order operates quietly far from the public spotlight, eschewing the confrontational public rallies that were once a hallmark of its previous incarnations. It maintains a web page and a Milwaukee, Wisconsin post office box providing information and template material promoting National Socialism. It has no members but rather "registered supporters" who pledge to mail in donations on a monthly basis. Financing is also obtained through sales of books and other merchandise under an affiliate business, NS Publications of Wyandotte, Michigan. The NS Bulletin, a newsletter, is sent to supporters on a quarterly basis. The group holds occasional ceremonial gatherings at undisclosed private locations such as an annual observance of Hitler's birthday each April 20.

Namesake organizations

Since the late 1960s, there have been a number of small groups that have used the name "American Nazi Party".

Notable former members

See also

References

Explanatory notes

  1. ↑ Despite sharing ideological roots, the phrase 'American Nazi Party' should not be confabulated with the German American Bund or German American Federation (German: Amerikadeutscher Bund; Amerikadeutscher Volksbund, AV), which was an American Nazi organization established in 1936 to succeed Friends of New Germany (FONG), the new name being chosen to emphasize the group's American credentials after press criticism that the organisation was unpatriotic.[4][5] The Bund was to consist only of American citizens of German descent.[6] Reportedly, it had about 20,000 adherents.[4]
  2. ↑ "The line between the American Nazi Party, the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists has always been blurry."[4]

Citations

  1. ↑ Holley, Peter (August 6, 2016). "Top Nazi leader: Trump will be a ‘real opportunity’ for white nationalists". The Washington Post.
  2. ↑ Rockwell, George Lincoln. From Ivory Tower to Privy Wall: On The Art of Propaganda c.1966
  3. ↑ Potok, Mark (August 29, 2001). "The Nazi International". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved May 13, 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Green & Stabler 2015, p. 390.
  5. ↑ Wolter & Masters 2004, p. 65.
  6. ↑ Van Ells, Mark D. (August 2007). Americans for Hitler – The Bund. America in WWII. 3. pp. 44–49. Retrieved May 13, 2016.
  7. 1 2 Schmaltz 2013.
  8. ↑ Fenston, Jacob (September 6, 2013). "Arlington's Uneasy Relationship With Nazi Party Founder". WAMU. Retrieved May 13, 2016.
  9. ↑ Weingarten, Gene. "It's Just Nazi Same Place" Washington Post (February 10, 2008)
  10. ↑ Cooper, Rebecca A. "Java Shack glimpses its past as Nazi headquarters" TDB.com (March 8, 2011)
  11. 1 2 3 4 Kaplan, Ryden & Noel 2000, pp. 1-3.
  12. ↑ Haley, Alex (1966). "Playboy Interview: George Lincoln Rockwell". Playboy Magazine. Retrieved May 12, 2016 – via Internet archive.
  13. ↑ "1967: 'American Hitler' shot dead". BBC News. August 25, 1967. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
  14. ↑ Kaplan, Ryden & Noel 2009, pp. 1-3, 558-62.
  15. ↑ Kaplan, Ryden & Noel 2000, pp. 3, 33.
  16. ↑ Anti-Defamation League. Danger: Extremism New York; Anti-Defamation League 1996 p.177
  17. ↑ Marks 1996, p. 58.
  18. ↑ Rucke, Katie (February 26, 2014). "The Rebirth of American Nazism". Mint Press News. Retrieved May 12, 2015.

Bibliography

Further reading

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