The origin of Nazis sounds very much like the founding of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). A bunch of Germans gathered in a beer hall lamented the fall of Germany during World War 1. They formed a social group called the German Workers Party to complain about their fates and blame others for Germany’s defeat. They promoted the “stab-in-the-back” conspiracy theory that Germany didn’t lose on the battlefield but that it was Jews and those who signed the Armistice of November 11, 1918, that caused Germany’s downfall.
The original members of the German Workers Party had their version of the “Lost Cause” adopted by the South after the Civil War in America. The KKK in America didn’t sprout wings until they got a charismatic leader, Nathan Bedford Forrest, that expanded the Klan to 40,000 in its early years. The German Workers Party got Adolf Hitler and changed their name to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP), more commonly called the Nazi Party.
The Nazis weren’t content to keep their hatred of others in Germany. People of German ancestry worldwide were encouraged to praise “German values.” In America, the Amerikadeutscher Volksbund, better known as the German Bund, was formed in 1936. They considered themselves patriotic Americans of German stock. The Bund soon had 70 divisions across the United States and created 20 youth and training camps.
In 1937, over 1,000 men wearing uniforms and swastikas marched by a New Jersey reviewing stand while celebrating the opening of a 100-acre camp in Sussex Hills. Guests included Italian-American Facists who addressed the Bund as “Nazi Friends.”
By 1939, The German Bund filled Madison Square Garden with 20,000 strong. The American version of the Nazi Party was entrenched throughout America, from coast to coast and in the Midwest as well.
When researching the German Bund espousing “German values,” I couldn’t help but think of Marjorie Taylor Greene talking about “Anglo-Saxon values” or a current pretender to the throne talking about “Western values.” The same type of racist speech that empowered the Nazis of yesteryear is prevalent today. I’m here to suggest that they got it from their mama figuratively, if not literally.
American Nazis in the 1930s — The German American Bund — The Atlantic
It is sometimes implied that the growth of the Neo-Nazi movement in the United States just happened based on ideas that hit home on a population open to receiving them. Nobody mentions that the Nazis were already here before World War II, during the war, and their numbers actually grew after the war ended.
The German Bund went quiet during World War II, disbanding the day after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. On December 11, 1941, America declared war on Germany and arrested 76 Bund leaders, seizing their records. Over 11,000 Germans and German-Americans were interned in the United States. They weren’t rounded up en masse like Japanese-Americans; they were likely selected from German Bund lists and their membership in the Nazi Party. Some living detainees are upset they didn’t get the $20,000 in reparations given to Japanese people; I’m still waiting on 40 acres and a mule.
When World War II ended, over ten thousand Nazi war criminals were estimated to have come to America. Dozens came through Operation Paperclip, which brought top scientists to America, including Wernher Von Braun, who later helped NASA develop the Saturn V rocket, which took us to the moon. Others arrived through more normal immigration systems like the Displaced Persons Acts or the Refugee Relief Act. America often knew these were war criminals they were letting in. The Immigration and Naturalization Service called on them, verified who they were, and then did nothing. Nazis that came to America linked up with the Nazis already here. They kept to themselves, seldom intermarrying because they thought almost everyone else inferior. Their children were raised by Nazis; what did we think they would become when they grew up?
The Klan and the Nazis mostly got along but weren’t best buddies. The Klan occasionally reached out to the Nazis, but the Nazis thought of the KKK as idiots and kept their distance. The Klan supported going to war against Germany in WWII. They did have several enemies in common, including Jews, Black people, and communists. Another common foe that got them to join forces was the U.S. Government. The Civil Rights Movement and government efforts that ended segregation and empowered Black voters were too much. Then there were disgruntled vets, unappreciated on their return from Vietnam. In 1979, for the first recorded time, they killed together in the Greensboro Massacre, riding in a caravan of vehicles (in separate cars) and shooting up an anti-Klan demonstration, killing four. What happened then was a precursor to seeing Confederate and Nazi flags together in Charlottesville, VA, in 2017.
The Massacre That Spawned the Alt-Right — POLITICO Magazine
There are currently over thirty Neo-Nazi organizations operating in America. Like the Klan, they are decentralized, except for Unite the Right rallies on January 6, and aren’t often seen together where they meet most often in chat rooms and websites on the Internet.
Neo-Nazis among protesters who stormed US Capitol
There was a time when Nazis believed the hype about Aryan dominance and were very selective about who could join. Neo-Nazis ranks are expanding to include brown people as well. Mass murderer Mauricio Garcia was loaded up with Nazi-related tattoos. He had social media content from Nick Fuentes, who got kicked out of CPAC but was welcome to dine with Donald Trump. You don’t even have to be white anymore to be a white nationalist; you just have to hate the right people.
The NeoNazi movement is here and still growing. You may have laughed at the Blues Brothers movie (1980) that portrayed a group of inept Nazis chasing Jake and Elwood across Chicago. The Blues Brothers sold shirts and posters saying, “I Hate Illinois Nazis.” I didn’t realize then that Illinois Nazis were a real thing like they are in New York, New Jersey, Florida, and 46 other states.
We can ignore the Neo-Nazis of today like we do what’s left of the Klan and the other 700+ hate groups active in America. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) says the number of hate groups has declined, although overall membership is up. Hate groups are consolidating and organizing, and it’s about time we pay them more attention, or at least stop throwing out the red carpet and consider them your base. I was tempted to include photos of Elon Musk’s Nazi salute and Pete Hegseth’s tattoos, but you already know.