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Alice in Chains’ Layne Staley slaps the shit out of a Nazi-saluting skinhead in Stockholm, 1993


The late Layne Staley of Alice in Chains modeling the proper reaction to someone throwing up Nazi salutes. Image source.
 
As the world seems to still need a reminder that Slap-a-Nazi-Day should be observed every damn day, let’s take a look at the example set by the late Layne Staley of Alice in Chains when he spotted one in the crowd of an AIC show in Stockholm in February of 1993.

The band was in Stockholm to play a gig at Cirkus during their two-month tour of Europe with Screaming Trees. During the band’s set, Staley took notice of a skinhead close to the stage, acting like a whirling dipshit, creating a one-man moshpit of sorts, beating members of the audience and throwing up Nazi salutes. Once AIC finished up “It Ain’t Like That” (Facelift, 1990), Layne addressed the crowd with the endearing line “We love you fucking Swedish people!” and proceeded to walk to the edge of the stage to speak to a member of Cirkus’ security team. He gestured to the skinhead who had been assaulting people in the crowd and asked him to come up on stage, telling him, “Come on, man. Come join the band—have a good time.” Randy Biro, a contributing vocalist to AIC, was there (as told in the book Alice in Chains: The Untold Story by David De Sola) to see the look on the Nazi numbskull’s mug as he responded to Layne’s invitation asking “Me?”

Staley’s showstopping moment was a puzzle to everyone including the rest of AIC and the Cirkus security team. Biro recalls wondering “why the fuck” Staley was extending an olive branch to a “douchebag” skinhead. During the confusing stand-off, Layne kept encouraging him to come up and join the band on stage, which he finally did. When the skinhead was close enough for Layne, he reached down and pulled the punch-happy asshole up on stage. He then struck him in the face twice so hard the annoying Nazi fell backward into the crowd, who were collectively having a good laugh over what they just witnessed (feel free to insert your “they did Nazi that coming” jokes here). As if Layne’s impromptu romper-stomp of a skinhead’s face wasn’t enough, as the Nazi was being taken away by security, he returned to the microphone and yelled, “Fucking Nazis DIE!”, finishing the rest of their set incident-free.

I wish this was the part where Layne Staley and the band were then shuttled off to the king of Stockholm’s gothic castle to receive the key to the city, but that didn’t happen. And that’s because it’s not actually legal to slap someone (even an aggressive, Sieg-Heiling Nazi) in the face. Layne was in trouble, and he and the band knew it.

After the gig, people were nervously ruminating about the consequences of Layne’s Nazi-slapping incident, and they were right to. John Sampson, Staley’s personal security guard, took the vocalist to a ferry bound for Finland to avoid arrest. As the rest of AIC were leaving their hotel, the local authorities showed up after getting a call from the skinhead Staley had slapped. They confiscated the band’s passports and went to apprehend Layne, who was already on the ferry. The cops boarded the ferry and arrested Staley for the incident at the show. In yet another interesting twist to this story, the skinhead’s brother (who was at the gig), had also gone to the police not to defend his sibling, but to make it clear that his brother had been “picking” on people in the crowd and Layne had stopped him. Since this story really does have a happy ending for everyone except the Nazi, the police congratulated Layne and the band and sent them on their way to the next stop of their tour, Oslo, Norway . Footage of Staley setting a skinhead straight follows.
 

Footage of Layne Staley slapping an aggressive Nazi during an Alice in Chains show in Stockholm on February 8th, 1993.
 
HT: Screaming Trees official FB page.

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
A super glam-looking Layne Staley performing with his high school band ‘Sleze’ in 1985
‘Experiencing Nirvana: Grunge in Europe, 1989’: Sub Pop co-founder Bruce Pavitt on his new book
‘Hype!’: The 1996 documentary that captured grunge’s explosive rise (and immediate co-optation)
Ultramega OK: Soundgarden destroy the Whisky a Go-Go, 1990
‘No Nirvana’: Jane’s Addiction, Sonic Youth, Screaming Trees & more live on UK TV in the early 90s
Blistering, previously unseen Nirvana footage captured the night before ‘Nevermind’ was released

Posted by Cherrybomb
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02.24.2020
12:55 pm
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Chilling images of Hitler celebrating Christmas & decorations inspired by the Nazis


Christmas ornaments produced in Germany during the rise and rule of Adolf Hitler.
 
In the 1930s as Hitler and his Nazis were coming to power in Germany, they began a war on Christmas, a quest to dismantle age-old Christmas traditions and replace them with Nordic/pagan practices and folklore. The Nazis wanted everyone to follow their lead when it came to their image of the holiday—which at some point included displaying swastikas on Christmas trees. In Germany, Christmas is called “Weihnachten” which the Nazis also took it upon themselves to rename Rauhnacht, which translates in English to “the rough night.”

The Nazis’ changes to Christmas included anti-Semitic activities such as actively avoiding doing business at Jewish-owned establishments during the holiday so that their celebrations would be “free of Jews.” Christmas carols were modified to reflect socialist Nazi beliefs and ideology including replacing references to the “Savior” with a nod to Hitler himself, “Savior Führer.” While many of the Reich’s changes to Christmas took hold, there was one aspect of the holiday that they could not do away with—the image the jolly old fat man, Santa Claus—even in Hitler’s Germany, Santa remained a fixture of the newly Nazified celebration.

Other changes inflicted by the Nazis during the period before their eventual fall in the mid-1940s was the use of Christmas decorations. If you were not already aware, the tradition of decorating a tree at Christmas time got its start in Germany in the 16th century. The most problematic issue for the Nazis was the gleaming star on the top of the tree—a six-pointed star signified Judaism and the Jewish community. A five-pointed star was associated with communism which was less than appealing to the Nazis as well. Instead, Germans were encouraged to replace tree-topping stars with, you guessed it, a swastika or the symbol for the SS (the “Schutzstaffel” or “Protection Squadron” formed under Hitler). Ornaments were transformed to contain Nazi images, slogans like “Sieg Heil!,” and glass-blown baubles in the image of their beloved leader Adolf Hitler. The metamorphosis took approximately six years to complete, though it would all come to an end in 1944 which marked the very last Nazified Christmas. Hitler would meet his maker four months later on April 30th, 1945.

The images that follow are haunting historical documents of how the Nazis tried to change Christmas (and the world) and failed. 
 

 

 

 
More chilling Nazi Christmas images after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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12.15.2017
08:50 am
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There’s a Tumblr full of Nazis getting punched because that will always be awesome
01.24.2017
09:01 am
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It’s astonishing me how punching Nazis has become a controversial discussion since that wonderful, WONDERFUL footage of fucking evil shitstain and actual neo-Nazi Richard Spencer getting decked by what looks like a Black Bloc protestor went all-consumingly viral over the weekend. I know you’ve seen it so I’m not even going to link it here. It’s been set to music, captioned, and shared on social media in some form or another probably more times than the USA has people.

And there are some milquetoast pearl-clutchers who imagine themselves to be on the left who deplore the assault committed against this actual genocide fanboy…

What idiots and enablers they are! You punch Nazis, because the only language they understand is the language of violence and punishment. There is no “let’s discuss this” with a Nazi. That implies that Nazism is just another point of view that can be discussed.

It’s not. It’s NAZISM.

Nazism is being normalized now, and that’s terrifying. When he got punched, Spencer was being interviewed for television as though white supremacism was just another viewpoint in the political landscape. It’s not. It doesn’t matter how sophisticated his messaging is and it doesn’t matter if he hides behind the euphemistic “Alt-Right” tag (a label he invented in an attempt to make palatable the fact that he’s a neo-Nazi). You don’t normalize a Nazi. And when you deplore his spectacularly awesome and life-affirming assault and say we should have a discussion about his views, YOU’RE contributing to the normalization of Nazis at a time when society needs to be punching them. Love doesn’t fix these people. Neither does punching, but the point isn’t fixing them, the point is showing them they’re vulnerable and robbing them of their newfound boldness in expressing their psychopathic genocidal wills to power. The point is to steal their fearlessness; the alternative is they steal your life. Understood?

If your dad or grandpa went overseas to kill Nazis, relax, it’s OK for you to punch one. If Nazis confined, enslaved, or exterminated any of your family members, it should go without saying that you can punch a Nazi and that’s just fine. Hell, if you went to see Captain America: The First Avenger and cheered when Red Skull’s body burned up in the Tesseract (oh, sorry, spoiler alert, Captain America wins in his own movie), even that qualifies you as a fully licensed puncher of Nazi scum. 

To those who would that say that since I’m hand-waving violence I’m no better than they are, fuck you, I’m SO MUCH better than they are. I’m saying society must immediately put the fear into the growing white supremacist movement (and you don’t even have to literally punch anyone to do that). You, conversely, are essentially talking about appeasing Hitler. Fucking prioritize. Even if you don’t want to commit to taking that swing, merely approving of punching them helps more than hand-wringing over how we mustn’t “dehumanize” them. They debased their own humanity when they became full-time philosophical and political advocates of institutionalized and systemic bigotry.

I’d like to share the perspective of Warren Ellis here—the British author, not Nick Cave’s violin player, though I’ll bet he doesn’t much care for Nazis either:

All I can tell you is, from my perspective as an old English socialist and cultural liberal who is probably way to the woolly left from most of you and actually has a medal for services to free speech — yes, it is always correct to punch Nazis. They lost the right to not be punched in the face when they started spouting genocidal ideologies that in living memory killed millions upon millions of people. And anyone who stands up and respectfully applauds their perfect right to say these things should probably also be punched, because they are clearly surplus to human requirements. Nazis do not need a hug. Nazis do not need to be indulged. Their world doesn’t get better until you’ve been removed from it. Your false equivalences mean nothing. Their agenda is always, always, extermination. Nazis need a punch in the face.

Which brings us to “Nazis Gettin’ Punched.” It’s a single-purpose Tumblr page that’s exactly what it says on the box. “A satisfying repository of images, still or in-motion, actual or fictional, featuring those who espouse Nazi ideology being struck by mighty but non-lethal blows.” Plenty of Captain America and other comics panels are to be found there, along with stills and clips from TV and film (including Raiders of the Lost Ark, unsurprisingly), and even one marvelous real-life example, depicting righteous takedowns of the actual worst people in the history of Western Civilization. Because if there’s one thing you’d goddamn think sensible people could all agree on: wasting pigs is radical, man.
 

 

“April 13, 1985, Växjö, Sweden. Danuta Danielsson, 38, the daughter of a concentration camp survivor, strikes a marching Neo-Nazi with her handbag. This photo was taken by Hans Runesson, and was named “Picture of the Century” by the Photographic Historical Society of Sweden.”
 

 
More Nazis getting what’s coming to them, after the jump…

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Posted by Ron Kretsch
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01.24.2017
09:01 am
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That time the ‘Star Trek’ crew took on Nazis from outer space
11.28.2016
02:37 pm
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Captain James T. Kirk (played by actor William Shatner) and Mr. Spock (played by actor Leonard Nimoy) in a scene from ‘Patterns of Force,’ show during season two of the original ‘Star Trek’ television series.
 

“You should make a very convincing Nazi.”

—Mr. Spock complementing Captain James T. Kirk’s snazzy Nazi uniform in the 1968 ‘Star Trek’ episode ‘Patterns of Force.’

 
If just reading the title of this post gave you a sudden case of the “what the fucks” then you better sit down, because if you’ve never seen the episode titled “Patterns of Force” from the original Star Trek television series (season two, episode #21), then your mind is about to be blown.

Like many of you, I spent a bit too much time on my couch last week watching movies. I happened to catch a sweet Star Trek marathon on the tube that was in the midst of showing some groovy early episodes. After thoroughly enjoying the amusing “I, Mudd” (season two, episode eight) I decided to see what other episodes were coming up and caught an image of Spock dressed like a Nazi. Was I drunk? Yeah, sure, probably a little, but my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me. As the episode unfolded things only got weirder.

“Patterns of Force” was originally broadcast back in February of 1968. Just a bit over 20 years since the end of WWII making it reasonable to assume that people who had opposed the Nazis during that time, or who were, you know, survivors of the Holocaust, were probably sitting down to watch one of the most popular shows on television. Only this time beloved intergalactic odd couple Captain James T. Kirk and his adroit Vulcan pal Mr. Spock (along with Dr. McCoy) end up on planet Ekos, a place that has embraced every aspect of Nazi culture and German society from the 1940s. Shortly after the episode begins we even get treated to images of Adolf Hitler and the ugliness of Nazi Germany in an authentic newsreel that is playing on a video monitor on the streets on Ekos. “Patterns of Force” plays the Nazi card to the hilt utilizing images of swastikas, actors costumed in Nazi-esque uniforms, and plenty of those nasty “seig heil” salutes we’re once again seeing thanks to some of the alt-reich supporters of our president-elect. Dialog for the show included the use of the word “Fuhrer” which was used to address Ekos’ fictional leader, the mundane sounding “John Gill.” 

It’s worth mentioning—as I know that many of our readers are history buffs—that there are several inconsistencies with the Nazi costumes that would have made Lemmy Kilmister cringe. Such as the black “Gestapo” uniforms that were modeled after the garb worn by the Waffen SS in “Patterns of Force” and the fact that you can clearly see the name “Adolf Hitler” embroidered on both McCoy and Kirk’s cuffs during the episode. Which makes little sense to begin with as Hitler didn’t actually exist on Ekos. That said Patterns of Force is nothing short of chilling given the current circumstances we’re all supposed to be “getting used to” here in the U.S. Especially when you consider that the plot line focuses on Ekos’ desire to eliminate inhabitants of neighboring planet “Zeon” who they refer to as “Zeonist pigs.” Sound familiar? Despite the grim parallels to horrific past events and the deeply disturbing ones that are occurring with increasing frequency now, it’s an absolute must see moment of television history which I for one will never be able to scrub out of my mind. Because once you see Mr. Spock dressed up like a member of the SS, you can never unsee it.

And here’s another interesting factoid about “Patterns of Force” that helps reinforce my thoughts about the episode: In 2011 “Patterns of Force” was shown in Germany for the first time since it aired in the U.S. back in 1968. Though it had been released on video in the mid-90’s with German-language dubbing, it had never been shown on television. And even then it was only allowed to air after ten o’clock with a warning that the content should not be viewed by anyone under the age of sixteen. And that was a full 66 years after the end of WWII. I’ve included an array of stills from “Patterns of Force” as well as a short clip from the episode featuring Kirk and Spock trying to figure out how the fuck what happened during WWII could actually be happening again in outer space.

Imagine that...
 

 

Kirk, Spock and McCoy all decked out in their “Adolph Hitler” designer Nazi uniforms.
 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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11.28.2016
02:37 pm
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The Reich Stuff: The grim Nazi propaganda magazine aimed at women


An issue of ‘Frauen Warte’ a Nazi magazine marketed to women, 1940.
 
Frauen Warte (or “Women’s Worth” at least when translated using Google) was a women’s interest magazine put out by the Nazi party starting in 1935. Published twice a week Frauen Warte was full of recommendations and “advice” on how to properly raise children so they would be strong enough to “defend their fatherland with their lives,” how to clean and maintain their homes, and fashion advice that fell within the Führer’s tastes of respectability. Frauen-Warte even went so far as to include specific sewing patterns for clothing for women to make for themselves and their children. In more than one issue during the magazine’s run, a school set up by the Nazi party called the Reich Brides’ and Housewives’ School in Husbäke in Oldenburg was discussed in great, rather enthusiastic and misogynistic detail.
 

A page from ‘Frauen Warte’ detailing the activities at the Brides’ and Housewives’ School in Husbäke in Oldenburg.
 
Brides and aspiring housewives (according to Nazi doctrine a woman’s place was to get married, have children and care for their family) would attend the school for a period of six weeks during which they would learn various skills to help them succeed as they embark on their “careers” as housewives, such as cooking, sewing, how to properly decorate their homes, creating and maintaining a household budget, and of course, how keeping their hardworking German men “comfortable” when they comes home from work. During this time women were also told to adhere to the following guidelines in order to ensure they would emulate the “ideal” German woman:

Women should not work for a living
Women should not wear trousers
Women should not wear makeup
Women should not wear high-heeled shoes
Women should not dye or perm their hair

Various articles in the propaganda masquerading as a magazine included such topics as “The Expert Housewife of Today,” the bleak sounding “Ready to Die, Ready to Live” (whose focus was to encourage women to propagate even during wartime), and “Strength from Love and Faith” that stated that all Hitler really wanted for his birthday was for his followers (in this case specifically women) to work hard. To reinforce Hitler’s feelings about the role of women, the failed painter and leader of the Third Reich even wrote for the rag about the importance of a woman’s role when it to the advancement of the Nazi’s quest for global domination.

What a man proves through heroic courage, the woman proves in eternal patient suffering. Each child that she brings into the world is a battle she fights for the existence or nonexistence of her people.

This feel-good article finishes up with a passage seemingly straight from Satan’s own playbook requesting that anyone reading the magazine (which had a circulation of 1.9 million readers by 1939) follow Hitler “on this path through the raging fire of war.” Which as we know was what the Germans figuratively and quite literally did. A large volume of detail including covers of the magazine, numerous articles and photos from the magazine (which you can see in this post) have been cataloged by Randall Bytwerk, a Professor Emeritus of Communication Arts and Sciences Calvin College in Michigan in the German Propaganda Archive hosted by Calvin College’s website. Issues of Frauen Warte published between the years 1941 and 1945 (which put out its last issue shortly before the Nazi’s unconditionally surrendered in France in May that same year) can be seen over at The University of Heidelberg website. If this is of interest to those of you that collect these kinds of artifacts copies of Frauen Warte are fairly easy to come by online.
 

1939.
 

1939.
 
More good housekeeping tips from the Nazis, after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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09.28.2016
09:14 am
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(Way more than) Everything you always wanted to know about the Nazi Skinhead music scene


 
Today’s post is about the new book The White Nationalist Skinhead Movement: UK & USA, 1979 - 1993 released last month by Feral House publishing.
 

 
It should be noted that the use here of the term “Nazi Skinhead” is my own broad-brushstroke, informed by being at numerous ‘80s punk shows ruined by “White Nationalist Skinheads”—sometimes at the wrong end of a Doc Marten. This is not a term used by the authors of The White Nationalist Skinhead Movement to describe their subject.  Having just admitted my own bias on the topic of “Nazi Skinheads,” let me add that as a student of the history of youth subcultures and countercultures, I am endlessly fascinated, as a topic of study, by the Skinhead movement and its extreme right-wing offshoots.

When I first heard that Feral House was publishing the definitive guide to Nazi Skinhead history, my curiosity was piqued because I was fairly certain they would get it right. Feral House’s Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal is the go-to reference on the Satanic fascist Black Metal scene and is an absolutely compelling read. I was hoping for a similarly riveting examination of the White Power Skinhead scene.

Before going into where the book succeeds and fails, I feel the need to point out that the title, The White Nationalist Skinhead Movement: UK & USA, 1979 - 1993, may be a bit misleading. The book is more specifically a history of the “Rock Against Communism” (or RAC) music scene than an overview of Nationalist Skinheads as a political counterculture. Indeed, the original (more appropriate) title of an earlier self-published version of the book was When the Storm Breaks: Rock Against Communism 1979-1993.

It should also be noted that the majority of the enormous 610 page book is devoted to the British RAC scene. Only about 60 pages at the end of the book discuss the American RAC bands, and seems to be an added afterthought compared to the extremely well-researched history of the UK bands such as Skrewdriver, and Brutal Attack and their ilk. Actually “well-researched” is kind of an understatement. And that leads me to the pros and cons of The White Nationalist Skinhead Movement —which are mostly one in the same.
 

 
When an author goes about compiling information for the definitive history of a subject—particularly a subject they may have an affinity for—they are forced to decide between paring that knowledge down to a narrative which would make for a fascinating read to the novice, or sharing every shred for the like-minded obsessive seeking an authoritative reference. Authors Robert Forbes & Eddie Stampton took the latter route here. The wealth of information culled from interviews and historical records (mostly fanzines, naturally), would be a boon to those already immersed in the White Power music culture—not simply your basic Nazi Skinhead, but your Nazi Skinhead music über-nerd. If you are a member of this small target-audience, then you will likely find no fault with this weighty tome. If you happen to be taking all of this in as someone with a passing interest in the history of the Oi! music scene and its racist offshoots, then you are likely to become bored with plowing through the minutae of every RAC gig and band-member change. Because it’s ALL in there. I’ll be honest, this book was a struggle for me to make it through—simply because it was just TOO MUCH. Sure, it’s fascinating to see how the popularity of a group like Skrewdriver unfolded from their beginnings as an “apolitical” punk band, through line-up changes, to finally finding a rabid audience among White Power Nationalists; but entire portions of interviews with scenesters are reprinted describing “what it was like the first time I saw Skrewdriver,” when one or two pull quotes would have sufficed. The whole premise is bogged down under the weight of trying to include EVERYTHING.
 

 
The authors seem close to their subject matter. One of them perhaps too close for comfort, if you are the sort of person who is a stickler about giving your money to those who hold opposing ideologies to your own. According to this review of When the Storm Breaks, “Eddie Stampton is involved with the Nationalist movement, Robert Forbes writes from a neutral position, intrigued by the subject but not involved in the dogma.”

The end of the book contains the following disclaimer:

The political views expressed in this book may or may not necessarily be those of the authors. No hatred is aimed at any people or races mentioned within, however, for realism when relating to certain events or situations, the authors feel some quotes from others will need be entered into the text to make the mood or feelings of those at said events or situations as true as possible. The authors must stress their own aversion to any acts of hatred or violence towards others. This book is a historical commentary, nothing more and nothing less.

At the same time, the front of the book contains a “Rest in Peace” dedication to notable Nazi Skinheads, including Clive Sharp of No Remorse, Ian Stuart of Skrewdriver, and Nicky Crane (famously violent Skinhead who later came “out” as homosexual). Some may be bothered by the inclusion of such a dedication, while others will overlook it in the interest of having an authentic insight.

Continues after the jump…

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Posted by Christopher Bickel
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01.04.2016
08:14 am
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Nazis and KKK held a pro Confederate flag rally in SC because it’s all about ‘heritage, not hate’


Scenes from July 18 KKK rally at the South Carolina statehouse. All photos by Bickel. Click on image for larger version.
 
Saturday, July 18th, a few dozen people associated with North Carolina’s Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan piled into their Klown Kars and made the trip to Columbia, South Carolina to rally in protest of the recent removal of the Confederate battle flag from the statehouse grounds. In what is either a case of absolutely dreadful planning or some statehouse staffer’s idea of a joke, a permit was also granted for a rally of Black Educators for Justice, a New Black Panther Party affiliated group, for the same day.

Though the rally for Black Educators for Justice, held earlier in the day on the North face of the statehouse grounds, was sparsely attended, by the 3:00 pm when it was time for the KKK to rally on the South face of the grounds, a few thousand counter-protesters had arrived. Dozens of uniformed officers created a perimeter to allow the Klansmen entrance to a double-barricaded “free speech zone” without being attacked by the counter-protesters who were not at all happy about the Klan’s presence.

The majority of pro-flag protesters were from out of state, the bulk of the group, being comprised of the North Carolina Klan chapter. Some protesters held a banner of the Neo-Nazi NSM, based out of Detroit. Four of the protesters identified themselves as being from Sumter, South Carolina but denied, at least earlier—in front of the barricades—that they were affiliated with the KKK.

Having no PA and being far removed from the crowd of much-louder counter-protesters, the Klansmen could basically only yell and point and attempt to bait the crowd. They came off a bit like wrestling “heels” with their baiting, which would have been actually hilarious if the spectacle weren’t so seriously pathetic. One skinhead made monkey sounds to mock African-American counter-protesters. After an hour or so of police-protected slurring of the crowd, the group attempted to leave the statehouse grounds under guard. The police could not prevent some violence and scuffles.

This video and this video show some of the resistance that occurred. Here is a short clip of a protester being arrested for having a knife, in violation of a statehouse weapons ban.

The counter-protesters chased the Klan members from the statehouse area with cops trying to keep up and prevent violence.

According to one eyewitness the Klan and associates were chased into a parking garage to the top floor where there was very little police protection. Confederate flags were ripped from the hands of the protesters, and some were, according to the witness, “given a little chin music.” After being let out of the parking garage in their vehicles, under the protection of police, one Klan member tried to speed off and hit a pole or tree. The driver was almost pulled from vehicle by the crowd, but police showed up and interjected. According to the witness, “a pop or two was given and a window or two smashed, then after being protected by police, the Klansman was allowed to leave. Overall the crowd, and surprisingly the police, were very restrained.”

Police arrested five people: one for disorderly conduct, two for simple assault and two for breach of peace.

Here is a gallery of photos from the event. Click on any of the photos to see a larger version.
 

This skinhead climbed the North face statehouse steps while the Black Power group was setting up their podium, and seig-heiled the crowd.
 

Protesters gathered for the Black Educators for Justice rally that occurred just before the KKK rally.
 

Anti-flag protester, John Holmes. See video at bottom of this article for an exchange between him and the seig-heiling skinhead.
 

 

These protesters identified themselves as being from Sumter, SC—but did not claim KKK affiliation.
 
More heritage, not hate, after the jump…

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Posted by Christopher Bickel
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07.19.2015
11:06 am
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Inside the Warsaw Ghetto: Summer 1941

0001warghet.jpg
 
Since 1596 Warsaw has been the capital of Poland. In Polish Warsaw (“Warszawa”) literally means “belonging to Warsz”—a 12th-13th-century nobleman who owned land in the Mariensztat district. Warsaw was home to Europe’s largest Jewish population—around 337,000 in 1939, and 445,000 by 1941.

When Germany invaded Poland on September 1st 1939, the Nazis quickly surrounded the capital city and launched a deadly blitzkreig that claimed many lives and destroyed buildings. The Germans were now in control of the country and in November 1939, an edict issued by Hans Frank, the Governor General, decreed all Jewish men, women and children over the age of ten had to wear a Star of David armband to identify themselves. All Jewish shops had to be similarly marked with a Star of David, and severe restrictions were placed on the Jewish population. Further laws limited the amount of money Jews were able to withdraw, with strict rules on buying produce, letting and owning property and travel.

In March 1940, groups of Polish gangs launched a series of violent attacks on the Jewish population—stealing money, gold, food, clothes and anything they could find of any value. These attacks lasted for eight days until the Germans intervened.

In February 1940, the Germans proposed plans to create a Jewish quarter or ghetto, where all Jews would be contained. On the Day of Atonement, October 1940, a decree was issued establishing a Jewish ghetto. All Jews had to relocate to this ghetto, which meant 30% of the population of Warsaw was packed into only 2.4% of the city’s area—some 400,00 people living in 1.3 square miles, an average of 7.2 people per room.

By mid-November, a wall surrounding the ghetto was built. The wall was over eleven feet high with broken glass and barbed wire on top and was constructed by the German company Schmidt & Munstermann, who were responsible for building the Treblinka concentration. The wall was paid for by the same Jewish community it was built to imprison. Access to and from the ghetto was limited to mainly food and supplies. The Jewish population inside the ghetto were allocated daily rations of 181 calories. The Germans intended to starve the imprisoned population. During 1941 Jewish deaths rose from 898 in January, to 5,560 in August. The average monthly mortality rates for the seventeen months from January 1941 to May 1942 was 3882. But death was not quick enough for the Germans, and in May 1942, 254,000 Jewish ghetto inhabitants were transported to Treblinka for extermination.

Willy Georg was an old German soldier who made money taking photographs of young German soldiers. During the summer of 1941, Georg was given permission to enter the Jewish ghetto and take photographs of the inhabitants. Georg shot four rolls of film, but as he was shooting a fifth roll, a German military policeman stopped him and confiscated his camera, he was then escorted out of the area. However, the policeman had not searched Georg and he was therefore able to sneak out the four rolls of shot film. He developed these films and carefully stored them along with the prints for the next fifty years until the late 1980s when he met Rafael Scharf, a researcher of Polish-Jewish studies, to whom he gave his pictures. These photographs were then published in the book Warsaw Ghetto: Summer 1941 in 1993.
 
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More of Willy Georg’s powerful photographs of the Jewish ghetto, after the jump…
 

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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03.26.2015
10:10 am
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Republicans block historical marker of Ku Klux Klan massacre
01.19.2015
04:04 pm
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On November 3, 1979, members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party shot and killed five protesters at a “Death to the Klan March” in Greensboro, North Carolina. Of the protestors killed, four were members of the Communist Workers’ Party (the organization responsible for the march), and one was a supporter. Despite clear video evidence and many witnesses, both of the two criminal trials resulted in acquittals by all-white juries. Six years later, a civil suit accusing police of collaboration with the Klan resulted in a $350,000 judgment against the city and both hate groups, but to this day only one plaintiff (the widow of a doctor who ran a clinic for low-income children) has received her payment.

Despite none of this being in dispute, the Greensboro Massacre, one of the darker moments in American history, is currently the subject of a partisan friction. Recently, the North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Advisory Committee voted to erect a commemorative marker reading, “The Greensboro Massacre—Ku Klux Klan and American Nazi Party members, on Nov. 3 1979, shot and killed five Communist Workers’ Party members one-tenth mile north,” but the project remains in deadlock over objections from City Council members. The marker’s major suporters on the council are two black Democrats, and a few members remain ambivalent. Those most ardently opposed? You guessed it—two white dudes from that Grand Old Party!

The idea that this is some kind of conflict is both frustrating and predictable, but in lieu of a diatribe, here’s actual footage of the Greensboro Massacre. It’s violent, but not gory; the ugliest thing about seeing it is knowledge of the future, where justice is evaded and history is whitewashed.
 

 
Thank you Eric M. Fink

Posted by Amber Frost
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01.19.2015
04:04 pm
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The ordinary faces of evil: Mugshots of female Nazi concentration camp guards
10.22.2014
08:41 am
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Frieda Walter: sentenced to three years imprisonment.
 
Though their actions were monstrous, they are not monsters. There are no horns, no sharp teeth, no demonic eyes, no number of the Beast. They are just ordinary women. Mothers, sisters, grandmothers, aunts, widows, spinsters. Ordinary women, ordinary human beings.

In the photographs they look shameful, guilty, scared, brazen, stupid, cunning, disappointed, desperate, confused. These women were Nazi guards at the Belsen-Bergen concentration camp during the Second World War, and were all tried and found guilty of carrying out horrendous crimes against their fellow human beings—mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, daughters, sons. Interesting how “evil” looks just like you and me.
 
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Hilde Liesewitz: sentenced to one year imprisonment.
 
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Gertrude Feist: sentenced to five years imprisonment.
 
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Elizabeth Volkenrath: Head Wardess at Belsen-Bergen: sentenced to death. She was hanged on 13 December 1945.
 
More Nazi mugshots, after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
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10.22.2014
08:41 am
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The inexplicable world of Asian ‘Hitler chic’
08.06.2014
01:38 pm
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The concept of “Asian Nazis” is, of course, an extremely WTF??? proposition from the very start. It’s not really easy to figure out why such a subculture exists, exactly, but certain factors—low intelligence on the part of the participants, an affinity for militarism in general and naturally, you’d think, good old-fashioned anti-semitism—would obviously come into play.

It’s truly a difficult (and ridiculous) subject to be “fair” about, but from what I’ve read, Germany’s role in WWII is not really something that’s taught much in schools in the region. Furthermore, some Asian Nazis fetishists claim that their affinity for Nazis chic comes from a love of “the fashion,” like a form of cosplay. This implies both an innocence, and a profound (but plausible) ignorance, of what they’re doing and the outward image it projects. Nazi cosplaying occurs in Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, parts of China and South Korea. Obviously, other than to the Asian Nazis enthusiasts themselves, who are too stupid to realize it, the optics of the matter telegraphs adject idiocy loudly and clearly. At least to visitors. Locally, not so much.

And besides that, how many of these self-styled Asian Nazis have even met a Jew? Even a single Jew?
 

 
That’s what I thought about while I was looking at the Fun With Asian Nazis Tumblr (subtitle “fascism as a fashion accessory”) and then stumbled down a “Hitler Chic” Internet K-hole right afterwards. These people should be strapped to chairs and forced to watch Schindler’s List with their eyes pinned open like Alex in A Clockwork Orange.
 

This instant Hitler costume was marketed for seven years in Japan before a complaint from the Simon Wiesenthal Center saw it withdrawn. A spokesperson for the manufacturer said that they had never had a complaint: “This was meant purely as a joke, as something that would easily be recognizable.”
 

Here’s a display from Chinese retailer Izzue. The company’s fourteen stores were festooned with swastikas back in 2003 before some foreigners complained, prompting Izzue to take out a full page newspaper ad apologizing that read in part “We have absolutely no intention to recognise or promote Nazism and [we intended] no political implication ... on the usage of the swastika.” The store’s marketing manager Deborah Cheng told the South China Morning Post: “This is Hong Kong, and Chinese people are not sensitive about Nazism.” She added that “most of the complaints are from foreigners.”

See a pattern developing here?
 

The happy couple. Is there a baby Adolf in their future?
 

Chilling with Ronald McHitler outside of the Hitler fried chicken chain in Thailand.


This Thai-language billboard reads: “Hitler is not dead” to advertise a wax museum. Until the Israeli envoy noticed it, no one had raised an eyebrow.
 

Imagine buying your “Bart Simpson as a Rasta” shirt in a store selling tie-dyed Third Reich clobber?

An actual Korean skin product commercial.

And finally, here’s a totally fucking berserk Nazi-themed music video from Mongolia. I’ve posted this Third Reich meets P. Diddy item in the past, but it’s worth repeating. Wait for The Carpenters interlude!!!
 

 
Via Nick Abrahams

Posted by Richard Metzger
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08.06.2014
01:38 pm
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Nazi shirts celebrating Germany’s World Cup triumph pop up on Amazon.de
07.15.2014
07:03 pm
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Nazi World Cup shirt
“Final Victory / World Champions 2014”; a Nazi cross topples Rio’s Christ the Redeemer
 
The combination of Argentina and Germany surely put the subject of World War II in the minds of some onlookers—it turns out that not all of them were outside of Germany. After Germany’s impressive 1-0 victory over Argentina on Sunday, “Unbekannt” (Unknown) has produced Nazi-themed T-shirts to mark the great victory of “Die Mannschaft” (“The Team”—as the German national team is often called).

The iconography is unmistakable, but in order to help with the vocabulary: we all know what “Blitzkrieg” means—the term “Blitzsieg” punningly replaces the word for “war” (Krieg) with the far more innocuous yet in this context still somewhat sinister word for “victory” (Sieg). “Endsieg” means “Final Victory”—as Wikipedia points out, “The term is today almost exclusively used with reference to its meaning in the Third Reich.” (In other words, the use of the word can’t be brushed aside as a reference to the referee’s final whistle or some such.) That Wikipedia entry is worth reading in full, as it points out the complex uses such a term is put to in the present day, many of them sarcastic; Germans are far too aware of their loaded history to throw around such a term lightly. The German word for “World Champion(s)” is “Weltmeister.”

As of this writing, those shirts are still available on Amazon.de. It’ll be interesting to see how long it takes for Amazon.de to pull them and issue an inevitable apology.
 
Nazi World Cup shirt
“Germany Brazil 7-1 Lightning Victory”
 
Nazi World Cup shirt
“Blitzkrieg / Victory 2014 / Germany World Champions”
 
Nazi World Cup shirt
 
via Kraftfuttermischwerk

Posted by Martin Schneider
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07.15.2014
07:03 pm
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‘Der Untermensch’: Choreographing queerness under Nazi rule
05.07.2014
11:09 am
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When the movie Frances Ha came out, named for its choreographer protagonist, I had hoped for a renewed interest in modern dance—perhaps a small, young fandom would emerge over Martha Graham’s Appalachian Spring, or maybe Twyla Tharp’s The Catherine Wheel, which has the added cool cred of a score by David Byrne. Tragically, most folks are still pretty put off by dance, and I can never find a date to anything at The Joyce. However, the perspicacious readers of Dangerous Minds are always willing to try new things, right, especially when they’re as bold as Der Untermensch (German for “under man”, “sub-man”, or “sub-human”), a short dance film from Quebecois dancer and choreographer Simon Vermeulen. The concept is as daring as they come:

Staged against minimalist backdrops and accompanied by a hypnotic original score, this highly cinematic contemporary dance film abstractly depicts the persecution of homosexuals at the hands of the Third Reich.

That’s right; not only is it modern dance, it’s gay, French-Canadian political modern dance. If you’re intimidated by the medium, allow me to give you my simple dance appreciation advice for the unsure: it’s art made with the body. You have a body, too. Don’t overthink it. There’s no “plot,” and the performance isn’t literal, so Der Untermensch is pretty accessible, and whether you’re a fan or not, the visceral performance and abstraction of theme is absolutely captivating.
 

Posted by Amber Frost
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05.07.2014
11:09 am
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What if the Nazis had won? A 1960s top 40 radio sampler
03.28.2014
01:54 pm
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Alternate history is a fascinating genre of fiction. You have your anachronistic nostalgia, like steampunk, but that tends to be largely aesthetic, and I’m not that into parasols or goggles. (Also, the glorification of less technology tends to overlook some really inconvenient historical realities, like how inefficient steam power actually was.) I prefer my alternate histories to be horrifying dystopias, and “what if the Nazis won?” certainly fits the bill. There are some critically acclaimed novels based on that very premise—Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle,  Robert Harris’ Fatherland, and Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America, but this has to be the first time a video game has been set in a world where Hitler triumphed.

The Wolfenstein video game franchise has produced nine editions in total (the original in 1981), all of which are based on fighting Nazis. The latest incarnation, Wolfenstein: The New Order, takes place in the 1960s, where the player navigates a Nazi-controlled Europe in hopes of launching a counter-offensive against the regime. What appeals to me, of course, is the custom-made soundtrack—the “commercial” below is for a compilation of the 1960s “Nazi pop” that will play throughout the game.

The pre-order for Wolfenstein also includes a package of “artifacts,” like postcards and military patches, but it’s the soundtrack that really establishes the mood for a game. There’s prom-worthy slow-dances, bubblegum pop, growling rockabilly, beach-blanket bingo surf rock, and even some Teutonic psychedelia. You can listen to the whole thing here. I feel like the fact that I speak absolutely no German actually frees up my ear to recognize the attention to sonic detail.
 

 
Via A.V. Club

Posted by Amber Frost
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03.28.2014
01:54 pm
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‘Juden Raus’: Nazi-era anti-Semitic board game where you deport the Jews
03.21.2014
02:09 pm
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Juden Raus!
 
Who would have guessed that the Holocaust wouldn’t make for a perfectly peachy board game for the little German children of the Third Reich? As it turns out, getting rid of all the Jews just isn’t that much fun. (Of course, given sound game design principles, just about anything can be made fun, but foregrounding one’s own small-minded intolerance and hatred and desire to exile a minority group is probably not the first step in that creative process.)

In 1935 the Nuremberg Laws were passed in Germany—these laws codified the desire of the Nazis, at a minimum, to segregate Jews from all areas of public life. In effect the laws—which communicated the idea, “You’re not wanted here!”—were a powerful argument for accelerated out-migration. Those Jews who could afford it and who also avoided the tragic tendency to rationalize away the hatred directed towards them, got the point, and left if they hadn’t already done so. As the years ticked by, the urgency of getting some kind of exit visa would only increase.

A year after the Nuremberg Laws, a company called Günther & Co. released a Parcheesi-style board game; its title was one of the ugliest phrases in human history—Juden Raus! The title is best translated as, “Jews, Get Out” or possibly “Get Rid of the Jews” depending on your conception of agency, and is the most succinct possible expression of the official German attitude towards Jews under the Third Reich. (The word “official” is important here. Anti-Semitism was certainly popular enough to become a key pillar of the ideology of the state, but just as Tea Partiers don’t like Obamacare, not all Germans were equally afflicted by the disease.)
 
Juden Raus!
“Juden Raus! Das Neue Gesellschafts-Spiel” (“Out with the Jews! The Game of the New Society”)
 
In the game, young Germans across the Reich were encouraged, in what practically seems a parodic Firesign Theatre-style intervention, to move the six “Jew” game pieces around the board in such a way as to secure them on spots outside the metaphorical “wall” of the German state such that they would be transported “Auf nach Palästina!” (Off to Palestine!). Each game piece came with a conical “dunce”-style cap with a grotesque Jewish caricature on it. On the board itself were two little pieces of doggerel that helped explain the goal of the game: Zeige geschick im Würfelspiel, damit du sammelst der Juden viel! (“Show skill in this dice game, so that you gather up all the Jews!”) and Gelingt es Dir 6 Juden rauszujagen, so bist Du Sieger ohne zu fragen! (“If you succeed in chasing six Jews out, you’re the winner, without a doubt!”) At a guess, the inherently cooperative nature of something like the Holocaust interferes with the competitive imperatives of a good board game. In other words, how did the game work, exactly? If I exile three Jews and you exile just two, then I win? It doesn’t quite make sense.
 
Juden Raus!
“Off to Palestine with you, little Jew!”
 
Surprisingly, the best evidence we have suggests that the Nazis themselves didn’t like the game. Why? Because it had the effect of trivializing such the, er, “noble” task of purifying Germany. In one of the most remarkable bits of prose I have ever read, the Nazi newspaper Das Schwarze Korps in December 1938 published a brief review in which they sharply criticized the game.
 

This invention ... is almost a punishable idea, perfectly suitable as grist to the mills of hate of the international Jewish journaille, who would show around such a piece of mischief as a proof for the childish efforts of the nazistic Jew-haters with a diabolic smirk, if it would appear before her crooked nose.

-snip-

Jews out! yes of course, but also rapidly out of the toy-boxes of our children, before they are led into the dreadful error that political problems are solved with the dice cup.


 
In a recent academic paper about the game, which they aptly label “History’s most infamous board game,” Andrew Morris-Friedman and Ulrich Schädler get in the final word:
 

What insights are achieved from “Juden Raus!” about Nazi culture? It is hard to imagine a family sitting at a table playing a game that taught racial hatred. Yet it seems there were people like Rudolf Fabricius who imagined that some families would do just that. Fabricius was one of those mere supporters who thought to make some profit by following in the wake of Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda. Today most people react with disbelief or disgust when informed of the game’s existence. “Juden Raus!” shows that after decades of propaganda, anti-Semitism was so deeply rooted in German society in the 1930s, that someone thought it would be a good subject for a children’s game. Racism is present in many board games, but “Juden Raus!” is unique in its portrayal of how racism manifests itself in society and is a terrifying example of the banality of evil.

 
In my research for this post, I stumbled across a more contemporary attempt to depict the full horror of the Holocaust in the form of a board game. Brenda Brathwaite’s 2009 game Train turned the task of loading little yellow people onto trains for some undisclosed final destination, with the reveal, late in the game, that the destination is actually Auschwitz, although the game’s suitably grim visual design gives the punchline away well before that point is attained.
 
Train
 
Here’s a 2009 video from The Wall Street Journal about Brathwaite’s game Train:
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Alfred Hitchcock’s unseen Holocaust documentary to be restored
Witty, macabre playing cards comment on the fresh horrors of the Nazi concentration camps

Posted by Martin Schneider
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03.21.2014
02:09 pm
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