American Nazi Party
American Nazi Party | |
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Elections |
The American Nazi Party (ANP) is an American
Shortly after Rockwell's murder in 1967, the organization appointed Rockwell's second in command, Deputy Commander
A former member of the original American Nazi Party, Rocky Suhayda, founded his own organization using the American Nazi Party name and has been active since at least 2008.[12] Suhayda claims Rockwell as its founder despite no direct legal or financial link between it and Rockwell's legacy organization.[13] The one connection between the original American Nazi Party and Rocky Suhayda's group besides ideology is that they sell reprints of Rockwell's 1960s-era magazine The Stormtrooper on their website.
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[14] in the Dominion Hills section of Arlington at what is now the Upton Hill Regional Park. After Rockwell's murder, 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).[15][16][17]
History
Name change and party reform
Under Rockwell, the party embraced Nazi uniforms and iconography.[B]
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 prompted 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 "
The years 1965 and 1967 were possibly the height of Rockwell's profile.
In 1962, ANP member Roy James was sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined $25 for punching Martin Luther King Jr., after pleading guilty to charge of assault and battery and disorderly conduct. King had not wanted to press charges, but Birmingham Judge Charles H. Brown insisted on trying James, calling the incident an "uncalled for, unprovoked assault."[21]
Murder 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 fallen 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.[citation needed]
On August 25, 1967, as Rockwell left the Econowash laundromat at the Dominion Hills Shopping Center, a former follower named
Koehl's succession and ideological divisions
Rockwell's second in command, Deputy Commander
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, which was 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.[citation needed]
Further membership erosion occurred as Koehl, drawing heavily upon the teachings of Hitlerian mystic
On November 3, 1979, some members of the NSWPP and a
In 1982 the Internal Revenue Service took action to foreclose on the group's headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.[25] Koehl 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.
New Order
The Koehl organization changed its name to New Order on January 1, 1983, on the grounds that the people in the area "are not people looking to join revolutionary organizations", saying that it was moving to an area in the Midwest which it would not reveal for security reasons.
The organization briefly attracted the media's attention in October 1983, when it held a private meeting at
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
New Order's Chief of Staff, Martin Kerr, claims that the group is no longer a white supremacist group and focuses on advocating "in favor of [white] people, not against other races or ethnicities...we consider the white people of the world to be a gigantic family of racial brothers and sisters, united by ties of common ancestry and common heritage. Being for our own family does not mean that we hate other families." The SPLC still classifies them as neo-Nazis and as a "hate group."[29][30][31]
Namesake organizations
Since the late 1960s, there have been a number of small groups that have used the name "American Nazi Party."
- Perhaps the first was led by James Warner and Allen Vincent and it consisted of members of the California branch of the NSWPP.[32] This group announced its existence on January 1, 1968. In 1982 James Burford formed another "American Nazi Party" from disaffected branches of the National Socialist Party of America.[33] This Chicago-based group remained in existence until at least 1994.[34]
- A small American Nazi Party operated from Davenport, Iowa, led by John Robert Bishop until 1985.[35][18][36]
- The name "American Nazi Party" has also been adopted by a group run by Rocky J. Suhayda, a member of Rockwell's original ANP in 1967. Although Suhayda's ANP states that Rockwell was its founder, there is no direct legal or financial link between it and Rockwell's legacy organization now called the New Order.[citation needed] Headquartered in Westland, Michigan, Suhayda's ANP website sells nostalgic reprints of Rockwell's 1960s-era magazine The Stormtrooper. 2008 Neo-Nazi presidential candidate John Taylor Bowles was a member. Suhayda holds semi-private yearly meetings at his home and a national convention in California. His followers do not wear uniforms, except for the SA, or Security Arm, and they eschew public demonstrations, frequently criticizing the rival organization the National Socialist Movement for "outing" its members with excessive media exposure.[citation needed]
Notable former members
- David Duke was a member before he went on to establish the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan organization[6]
- Frank Collin, founder of the National Socialist Party of America
- Harold Covington, author
- James Mason, former convict, author, associate of Charles Manson
- Joseph Tommasi, founder of the National Socialist Liberation Front
- The Poor Man's James Bond
- William Luther Pierce, founder of the National Alliance
- Arthur J. Jones, Republican candidate for Illinois's 3rd congressional district in the November 2018 midterm elections
See also
- German American Bund
- Nazism in the Americas
- Neo-Nazi groups of the United States
References
Informational notes
- ^ "The line between the American Nazi Party, the Ku Klux Klan, and other white supremacists has always been blurry."[6]
- ^ The actual date of the change in name is unclear. Kaplan reports it as being in 1966, while Goodrick-Clarke and Green and Stabler report it as occurring on January 1, 1967.[18][19][6]
Citations
- ^ a b Rockwell, George Lincoln. From Ivory Tower to Privy Wall: On The Art of Propaganda Archived August 3, 2014, at the Wayback Machine c.1966
- ^ Holley, Peter (August 6, 2016). "Top Nazi leader: Trump will be a 'real opportunity' for white nationalists". The Washington Post.
- ^ Michigan, NSM (2016). "A Brief History of American National Socialism" (PDF). National Socialist Movement. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 26, 2016. Retrieved March 27, 2018.
- ^ "Nazis in Arlington: George Rockwell and the ANP". Boundary Stones: WETA's Washington DC History Blog. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
- ^ “The Stormtrooper Magazine [American Nazi Party publication],” Social Welfare History Image Portal, accessed June 17, 2020, https://images.socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/items/show/266.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Green & Stabler 2015, p. 390.
- ^ Potok, Mark (August 29, 2001). "The Nazi International". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved May 13, 2016.
- ^ Wolter & Masters 2004, p. 65.
- ^ Van Ells, Mark D. (2007). "Americans for Hitler – The Bund". America in WWII. Vol. 3. pp. 44–49. Retrieved May 13, 2016.
- ^ "Death of an Arlington Nazi". www.northernvirginiamag.com. December 30, 2010. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
- ^ "Longtime Neo-Nazi Matthias "Matt" Koehl Dies". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved April 24, 2022.
- ^ "A Guide to the American Nazi Party Recruiting Materials, c. 1966 American Nazi Party Recruiting Materials Ms2015-060". August 12, 2016. Archived from the original on August 12, 2016. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
- ^ Loeser Consulting. "American Nazi Party (USA), Historical Flags of Our Ancestors – Flags of Extremism – Part 1 (a–m)". www.loeser.us. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
- ^ a b Schmaltz 2013.
- ^ Fenston, Jacob (September 6, 2013). "Arlington's Uneasy Relationship With Nazi Party Founder". WAMU. Retrieved May 13, 2016.
- ^ Weingarten, Gene. "It's Just Nazi Same Place" The Washington Post (February 10, 2008)
- ^ Cooper, Rebecca A. "Java Shack glimpses its past as Nazi headquarters" Archived August 16, 2011, at the Wayback Machine TDB.com (March 8, 2011)
- ^ a b c d e f Kaplan 2000, pp. 1–3.
- ^ a b Goodrick-Clarke 2003, p. 14.
- ^ Haley, Alex (1966). "Playboy Interview: George Lincoln Rockwell". Playboy Magazine. Retrieved May 12, 2016 – via Internet archive.
- ^ "Rockwellite Sentenced to Jail for Assaulting Negro Clergyman". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. March 20, 2015. Retrieved October 29, 2023.
- ^ "1967: 'American Hitler' shot dead". BBC News. August 25, 1967. Retrieved August 7, 2009.
- ^ E. Miller, Michael (August 21, 2017). "The Shadow of an Assassinated American Nazi Commander Hangs Over Charlottesville". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 10, 2019.[dead link](subscription required)
- ^ "Agent Tells of '79 Threats by Klan and Nazis". The New York Times. May 12, 1985. sec. 1, p. 26, col. 1. Retrieved September 27, 2007.
- ^ Kaplan 2000, p. 156.
- ^ "Nazi Party to Relocate". The New York Times. December 27, 1982. Retrieved July 26, 2022.
- ^ "Death of an Arlington Nazi". www.northernvirginiamag.com. December 30, 2010. Retrieved March 27, 2018.
- ^ "Swastikas on Wilson". Arlington Magazine. August 12, 2013. Retrieved March 27, 2018.
- ^ "A look at Wisconsin's 'hate' groups". www.WisconsinWatch.org. November 12, 2017. Retrieved April 28, 2018.
- ^ "Across Wisconsin, recent rises in hate, bias incidents spark concern". Retrieved April 28, 2018.
- ^ "Neo-Nazi". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved July 28, 2022.
- ^ Kaplan 2000, pp. 1–3, 558–562.
- ^ Kaplan 2000, pp. 3, 33.
- ^ Anti-Defamation League. Danger: Extremism, New York; Anti-Defamation League, 1996, p. 177
- ^ "Special Collections Manuscript Collections | Bishop (John Robert) papers, 1951–1977 and undated". augustana.libraryhost.com. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
- ^ Marks 1996, p. 58.
Bibliography
- Green, Michael S.; Stabler, Scott L. (2015). Ideas and Movements that Shaped America: From the Bill of Rights to "Occupy Wall Street" (3 vols.). Santa Barbara, California: ISBN 978-1610692519. Retrieved May 12, 2016.
- Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas (2003). Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 978-0814731550.
- Kaplan, Jeffrey, ed. (2000). ISBN 978-0742503403.
- Marks, Kathy (1996). Faces of Right Wing Extremism. Boston: Branden Books. ISBN 978-0828320160.
- Obermayer, Herman J. (2012). American Nazi Party in Arlington, Virginia 1958–1984. CreateSpace Publishing. ISBN 978-1494366865.
- Schmaltz, William H. (2013). For Race And Nation: George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party (1st ed.). River's Bend Press. ASIN B00CNFX7BE.
- Wolter, Erik V.; Masters, Robert J. (2004). Loyalty On Trial: One American's Battle With The FBI. New York: ISBN 978-0595327034.
Further reading
- ISBN 0-8147-3111-2
- ISBN 0-8147-3155-4
- Schmaltz, William H. (2000). Hate: George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party (Paperback). Washington, D.C.: Brassey's Inc. ISBN 1574882627.
- Simonelli, Frederick J. (1999) American Fuehrer: George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-06768-1
External links
- Federal Bureau of Investigation - American Nazi Party monograph, June 1965 – Detailed report on George Lincoln Rockwell and the original American Nazi Party