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Neo-Nazism

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The term neo-nazism is used to refer to any social or political movement seeking to revive Nazism or a racist form of Fascism, and which postdates the Second World War. Often, especially internationally, those who are part of said movements do not use the term to describe themselves, either eschewing the terms neo-Nazism and/or Neo-Fascism (out of either: tactical avoidance of the stigma surrounding them, or actual ideological distinctiveness from them) or rejecting the 'neo' prefixing their commitment to Fascism or National Socialism. The use of the neo- prefix is not universally used to describe Neo-Nazi groups either, and there are also Neo-Nazi groups that specifically use the prefix.

This article is part of the
Neo-fascism series.

Image:Fasces2.jpg This series is linked to the Politics and Elections series

Varieties of Neo-fascism

Neo-Nazism
Neofascism and religion
Crypto-fascism
Neo-Nazi groups of the United States


Origins of Neo-fascism

Fascism
Nazism
Clerical fascism


Neo-fascist political parties and movements

American Fascist Movement
American Nazi Party
Aryan Nations
British Movement
British Nazi Party
Creativity Movement
Fronte Sociale Nazionale
German Empire Party
Italian Social Movement
Libertà di Azione
National Alliance
National Renaissance Party
National Socialist Front (Sweden)
National Socialist Japanese Workers Party
National Socialist Movement (United States)
National Socialist Party of America
November 9th Society
Political Soldier
Socialist Reich Party
Union Movement


Relevant Lists

List of fascists


Related Subjects

Fascist symbolism
Roman salute
White nationalism
Nazi-Skinheads
Nazi Punk
White Power
Christian Identity
Holocaust denial
Conservative Revolutionary movement
National Bolshevism
International Third Position
Anti-fascism

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Contents

Background

Groups and movements that do not include as core tenets racial nationalism, antisemitism, or praise for Hitler, are discussed on the page Neo-Fascism. Groups and movements that have been called Neo-Fascist but are constructed around a religious identity or theology are discussed on the page Neofascism and religion.

The exact ideals adopted by a Neo-Nazi group movement can vary, but it often includes an allegiance to Adolf Hitler, the insignia of Nazi Germany (e.g. the swastika (not the type used in Hinduism, Buddhism, or Jainism), extreme lack of tolerance, the Sig Runes, the red-white-black color scheme which actually was inherited from Imperial Germany), and other features specific to Germany's Third Reich (1933 to 1945). This usually includes anti-Semitism, racism, and/or xenophobia, and may also include elements such as nationalism, militarism, and homophobia. These groups often draw membership from people who blame their society's problems, such as the disintegration of national unity and culture, and multicultural friction, on non-white immigrants and a Jewish World Conspiracy.

In the United States, dedicated Nazi groups are only a sub-type of a wider array of hate, anti-semitic, and white supremacy groups. Many of the other organizations operate in conjunction with, or at least sympathize with the Nazi focused groups. The actual Nazi groups tend to pay homage to, but are often less focused on, the specific tenets of the German Nazi party than some international groups. In particular, they may look more to the German-American Bund and ideals of American Nazism of the 1920s and 30s.

It is exceptionally difficult to determine the exact extent of neo-Nazi organizations, because these groups are aware that public opinion concerning them is extremely negative, not to mention the existence of organizations dedicated to monitoring their activities (such as ADL and SPLC). While a small minority of neo-Nazis continue to draw public attention, the vast majority operate underground, in order that they may recruit, organize and fund-raise without interference and the constant harassment which plagues openly Nazi movements. Current knowledge of Nazi activity though, indicates that it is at least a global phenomenon, with organized representation in literally every Western nation in the world, as well as strong cooperative networks and connections between groups internationally, making Nazism today the strongest it has ever been since the fall of the Nazi German government, and stronger than the original Nazi Party during the period in which it came to power. This would be of more serious concern if Nazi groups weren't marginalized by default due to the stigma inherent to their obviously emotionally and historically sensitive politics.

Significant Nazi revivalists

Significant people in the effort to revive Nazism include Colin Jordan, George Lincoln Rockwell, Savitri Devi, Francis Parker Yockey, William Pierce, Eddy Morrison and David Myatt and kel.

Holocaust revisionism

Image:Mass Grave Bergen Belsen May 1945.jpg

Many Neo-Nazi groups also espouse denial of the Holocaust, claiming that the intentional mass murder of 6,000,000 Jews in gas chambers is a grossly exaggerated lie, that the German Nazi government had no extermination policy, or at least that the extent of the Holocaust is greatly exaggerated. Some doubt that Neo-Nazi Holocaust revisionists believe these claims, and accuse them of using it as a means to make their ideology more palatable by removing the stigma of association with genocide. Those who don't deny mass killings by the Third Reich (usually those uninitiated into the claims of revisionism) have engaged in pointing out 'immoral equivalencies' (e.g. the fire bombing of cities, the ethnic cleansing of Germans in Eastern Europe) and/or justifications for the executions (e.g. retaliation or punishment for sabotage, terrorism, or subversion).

Neo-Nazism and the law

Some Neo-Nazi groups espouse violence, and for this reason they are a source of concern to law enforcement. However, it is often surprisingly difficult to implicate Neo-Fascists in violence or illegality in any meaningful way. This is because these groups have adopted a proxy system whereby organizations which the Nazis intend to be financially, politically and socially successful are made to be extremely professional and respectable, whereas other, less important organizations and individuals are almost always the ones responsible for intimidations, violent acts and terror tactics. This makes it extremely difficult to track neo-Nazi criminal liabilities, because the culprits are often obscure and unimportant within the larger Nazi movement, and when groups or individuals are found guilty of crimes in these cases, they are almost always of little financial or political worth to the Neo-Nazi goals. In this way, prominent neo-Nazis may inspire, incite or even order violent crimes without much fear that their involvement will be traced in any meaningful way back to an organization which has a great deal to lose.

Notable North American exceptions to this fact are Matthew F. Hale and the World Church of the Creator, which has essentially ceased functioning effectively since he was imprisoned for soliciting the murder of a federal judge, and Richard Butler of Aryan Nations, which lost a 6.2 million dollar lawsuit after low level security personnel at his compound opened fire on a passing vehicle. Aryan Nations has since lost its headquarters and paramilitary training grounds and split into three separate organizations, two of which claim to be the true successor to the group, but all of which are significantly reduced from the sum of the former groups parts.

Neo-Nazism in Germany

Image:Neo-nazi.jpg Nazi iconography remains to this day heavily restricted in Germany. As German law forbids the production of Nazi devotionalia, such items come into the country mostly (illegally) from the USA and northern European countries. Rock bands such as Landser have been outlawed in Germany, yet bootleg copies of their albums printed in the US and other countries are still sold. Current Neo-Nazi websites mostly depend on hosting in the USA and Canada and use other terms for Nazi ideas and symbols. They also invent new symbols reminiscent of the swastika and other symbols used by the Nazis, e.g. the sun disc, sun wheel, hooked cross, wolf's cross, wolf's hook, black sun, or dark star (see fascist symbolism).

In Germany immediately after World War II, Allied forces and the new German governments attempted to prevent the creation of new Nazi movements through a process known as denazification. With this and the total defeat of the Nazi regime, there was little overt neo-Nazi activity in Europe until the 1960s. Some former Nazis retained their ideology and racist beliefs, however, and passed them down to new generations (see Socialist Reich Party, Wiking-Jugend).

After German reunification in the 1990s, neo-Nazi groups succeeded in gaining more followers, mostly among teenagers in Eastern Germany. Many were new groups that arose amidst the economic collapse and subsequent high unemployment in the former East Germany. The activities of these groups resulted in several violent attacks on foreigners, creating a hostile atmosphere for foreigners in some towns. The violence manifested itself especially in attempts to burn down the homes for people in search of asylum in Germany.

("Arson attack" is a translation of the German word Brandanschlag, which implies throwing Molotov cocktails into houses (fire-bombing) in an attempt to burn them down.)

These events preceded demonstrations (Lichterketten, "candle chains") with hundreds of thousands of participants protesting against right-extremist violence in many German cities. In turn, these precipitated further massive neo-Nazi demonstrations, which continue today. Demonstrations often erupt in violence as Nazis and their anti-Fascist counter-protestors clash in the streets. Image:Neonazimarch.jpg Official German statistics for the year 1990 record 178 violent crimes motivated by right-wing extremism (Gewalttaten). In 1991 there were 849 and in 1992 there were 1,485, with a significant concentration in the eastern Bundesländer (1999: 2.19 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants in the eastern Bundesländer and 0.68 in the western ones). After 1992 the numbers went down, although they have risen sharply again in subsequent years. Because public opinion and media coverage concerning Neo-Nazi ideologies is still extremely negative, local authorities often attempt to suppress large scale organizations by such groups (sometimes unsuccessfully, and almost always only temporarily) when they reach a certain size.

A trial was held before the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitution Court), the highest court in Germany, about the prohibition of the NPD (National Democratic Party), considered (though not proven to be) a neo-Nazi party. In the course of the trial it was discovered that some high-ranking party members who should appear as witnesses worked as informants for the domestic intelligence service, the Verfassungsschutz (Constitution Protection). The trial turned into a major political scandal. It was first temporarily suspended and then finally rejected by the court because of the unclear influence of informants in the actions and image of the NPD. This issue has raised similar concerns globally, as attempts by all sides to discredit Neo-Nazi parties often hinge on the availability of evidence that such groups are violent or illegal in some way. With informants and infiltrators in such groups so common, and the very purpose of these agents being to confirm suspicions of malevolent intent, it becomes difficult to discern whether a violent or illegal action is the product of the actual Nazi Party, or of the infiltrators own personal desire to see the party discredited.

In 2004, the NPD received 9.1% of the vote in the parliamentary elections for Saxony, thus earning the right to seat parliament members. The other parties are refusing to enter into discussion with the NPD.

Neo-Nazism in Austria

Immediately after the Allies had liberated Austria in 1945, the anti-Nazi parties - Socialists (SPÖ), Conservatives (ÖVP) and Communists (KPÖ) - passed important measures to overcome the effects of Nazi rule. According to the law of May 8, 1945, the NSDAP was banned and Nazi activity forbidden, thus giving the Austrian Constitution a strong anti-Nazi character. Up to the present day the main instrument in combatting neo-Nazi activities is a legal one.

The "denazification" programme insisted upon by the Allies and designed to purge the State apparatus and society as a whole of Nazi followers was not successful, mainly because of the sheer size of the problem and the bureaucratic shortcomings apparent in the programme's administration. This failure was reflected primarily in the fact that ex-members or sympathisers of the NSDAP were not "purged" of their opinions, prejudices or behavioural patterns. Even in the war's immediate aftermath, there began a fundamental change in the political climate which soon put an end to the oft-cited anti-Fascist "spirit of 1945."

During the Cold War the status of the Nazis, who always purported to be in the forefront of the struggle against "Bolshevism," was once more enhanced. Over 500,000 registered Nazis were allowed to vote at the 1949 General Election. Along with their families they represented a reservoir of voters which none of the three parliamentary parties felt they could ignore. As voters, as members or officials of established political parties, a considerable number of ex-Nazis were integrated into the SPÖ and the ÖVP, in the process of which a whole plethora of political and attitudinal concessions were made to them: suppression of the history/memory of the Nazi era, a fall-off in the prosecution of Nazi war criminals, the re-instatement of Nazi civil servants, teachers, professors, lawyers, policemen, etc. The opportunism of the democratic parties was counterproductive, the "national bloc" (nationales Lager) reconstituted and, placing itself, as always, in the Pan-Germanic tradition, came to be partially identified with the extreme right- wing political spectrum.

In the aftermath of the 1949 elections, when ex-Nazis, organized in the VdU (Verband der Unabhängigen; Association of Independents), put up candidates and won seats, the Austrian Right went through a gradual process of growth. The withdrawal of Allied troops from Austria (1955) encouraged the consolidation of right-wing groups (some had existed before 1933), which now represented the entire Right - from unashamed neo-Nazis to "moderate" Pan-Germans.

Because of disagreements between the small liberal and the much more powerful "national" (German) wing, the VdU split in 1955, but re-formed itself one year later as Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (FPÖ; Freedom Party of Austria). Then and now the FPÖ is the only party represented in the Austrian Parliament which declares its adherence to the "German cultural community" (Party Programme). The first leaders of the FPÖ were former Nazis, Anton Reinthaller, for example, had been a Government Minister in the Nazi era, Friedrich Peter, an SS officer.

The Austrian public saw itself confronted with the organized Right for the first time in 1959, on the occasion of the "Schiller Celebrations", when "national" (Pan-German) youth, sport and cultural organizations took to the streets. Within student and university bodies the so-called Burschenschaften and schlagende Verbindungen (fraternities of male uniformed students), the FPÖ's students' organization RFS and its graduate equivalent FAV (Freiheitliche Akademikerverbände) attained considerable influence.

In 1960, during the so-called "South Tyrol Crisis", such right-wing extremists, along with German Kameraden, gained widespread notoriety by involvement in terrorist acts ("freedom struggle") in Italy. Prominent among these was Norbert Burger, the ex-RFS leader and subsequent chairman of the neo-Nazi NDP (Nationaldemokratische Partei). The influence which the extreme Right had gained in the universities became dramatically apparent five years later, during the so-called "Borodajkewycz Affair". Hundreds of students demonstrated in favour of the antisemitic university professor Borodajkewycz and were involved in street battles, in the course of which Ernst Kirchweger, a former concentration camp inmate, was beaten to death.

During the 1960s and 70s, Friedrich Peter, Chairman of the FPÖ, endeavoured to anchor his party within the democratic party system, preparing the ground for the entry of the FPÖ into a Coalition Government with the Socialists in 1983. This development led, on the other hand, to the formation of a group around Norbert Burger (condemned in absentia by an Italian court for terrorist offences in South Tyrol), which split from the FPÖ in 1966 and set up the NDP (Nationaldemokratische Partei). In contrast to its German counterpart of the same name which had some electoral successes in the mid-1960s, the Austrian NDP (banned as a neo-Nazi organization in 1988) found little resonance in an electorate moving to the left in the late 1960s.

Because of the politically-motivated and misguided tolerance shown by the authorities and Government in Austria, extreme right-wing groupings continued with their activities in the 1970s as well. The volume Rechtsextremismus in Österreich seit 1945, issued by DÖW in 1979, listed nearly 50 extreme right-wing organizations active in the country. Their true significance and influence, however, waned gradually due in no small part to effective liberalization programmes (emphasis on Austrian identity, democratic traditions) carried out in secondary schools and universities. The most striking evidence for this change was the declining vote attained by the RFS at student elections, which fell from 30% in the 1960s to 2% in 1987. At the polls for the student representative body (Österreichische Hochschülerschaft) in 1995, the RFS could muster only 4%, in contrast, its "mother party" FPÖ won 22% of the votes at the General Election in the same year.

At the beginning of the 1980s neo-Nazi student groups never attained more than 1 % of the student vote and went through a period of stagnation and defeat. The single exception in this regard manifested itself in Carinthia, Austria's most southern province. There, old conflicts with Slovenia (then part of Jugoslavia) on the border issue or disagreements concerning the rights of Carinthia's Slovenian minority were used to orchestrate a permanent fever of Großdeutsch resentment (Kärntner Heimatdienst (KHD)).

Neo-Nazism in the USA

In the USA, the Constitutional guarantee for freedom of speech allows political organizations great latitude in expressing Nazi, racist or anti-Semitic ideology. Nazi groups in the United States can trace back to the 1920s, with the US branch of the National Socialist German Workers Party. This organization merged with Free Society of Teutonia to form the German-American Bund. The Bund and other groups achieved a limited and controversial popularity in the 1930s (at one point having a rally of over 20,000), but rapidly faded with the onset of WWII. The groups either disbanded or were dismantled by force during the war period.

After WWII, new organizations eventually formed which had varying degrees of adoption of Nazi principles, and again built ties with older organizations. As of the 21st century, there are some actual Neo-Nazi groups as well as a number of White supremacist, white separatist, anti-Semitic, and Fascist groups that share some or large parts of their ideology with Nazism. It should be noted that the Ku Klux Klan is different from, and predates Nazism; it is not a Neo-nazi organization. The KKK has, however, often maintained ties to and sympathized with Nazi groups, including the original Bund during the 1930s.

U.S.-based Neo-Nazi and Nazi sympathizer groups often have web sites, occasionally have public demonstrations, and even maintain international ties to groups in Europe and elsewhere. However, they are a vocal few and a tiny percentage of the population. More often than not, they are outnumbered at public demonstrations by counter-protesters and are quickly prosecuted for any crimes. The U.S. congress passed extra penalties for what are known as Hate crimes, such as vandalizing a synagogue with a Swastika.


See Neo-Nazi groups of the United States for a listing of Neo-Nazi and Nazi sympathizer groups

Neo-Nazism in the UK

The following British organizations have been described as neo-Nazi:

Neo-Nazism in Russia

Image:Bookcover The ABC of a Russian Nationalist.jpg Russia may seem like an unlikely place for a flowering of neo-Nazi movements due to the strong memories of the devastation that was wrought on the nation by the Nazi German invaders during World War II. Nevertheless, the post-Soviet era has seen the rise of a variety of extremist nationalist political movements, some of them paramilitary organizations of openly neo-Fascist or neo-Nazi persuasion. These organizations are characterized by extreme xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and an active interest among a few of these groups in overthrowing the government and taking power by force. However, neo-Nazis still represent a small minority when it comes to rebellious groups, with much of that category actually filled by Communists and Islamic extremists.

Social roots

The collapse of the Soviet economic system which culminated the early 1990s caused an economic and social meltdown of epochal proportions, one often described as far exceeding the devastation the USA has experienced during the Great Depression. There was a great deal of popular discontent with the widespread unemployment and poverty.

This discontent found its main outlet in the major political parties that stood in opposition to the Boris Yeltsin government (1991-1998), especially the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (Kommunisticheskaya Partiya Rossijskoj Federacii, KPRF) which generally advocated a return to the Soviet economic policies, and the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (Liberal'no Demokraticheskaya Partiya Rossii, LDPR) led by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a xenophobic and chauvinist movement without a clear agenda beyond the opposition to the "democrats", i.e. the ruling political factions allied to Yeltsin.

However, soon enough it became clear that neither of these parties were capable of accomplishing any serious changes in the national policy, and indeed soon they came to be widely seen as having had "sold out" to the "anti-people regime" (anti-narodny rezhim, a label widely used by the Communists to refer to Yeltsin's government).

Consequently, a number of extremist paramilitary organizations of the neo-Nazi persuasion were able to tap into the wellspring of discontent and despair among those who saw no future for themselves under the established conditions, particularly among the marginalized, lesser educated, and habitually unemployed youth.

Of the three major age groups, the youth, adults, and the retired elderly, it was the youth who in a sense had been hit the hardest. The elderly suffered greatly due to inadequate, or often unpaid, pensions (social security benefits), but they found effective political representation in the Communists, and generally their concerns were addressed sooner or later through better budget allocation. The adults, though often suffering financially and psychologically, such as due to a breadwinner's loss of work, still were generally able to find some employment and get by. Moreover, an established egalitarian system of indoctrination instigated by the Soviet Union generally predisposed most against the message of right-wing extremists. The youth generally had no such prior inclinations. Also, the youth had only experienced the last days of the Communist regime, which were made up of brutal crack downs, but without any idealistic presence, and was thus similar to Nazism.

Ideology

Russian neo-Nazi organizations generally defined themselves as standing outside of the political process, disdaining the electoral system and advocating the overthrow of the government by force. Their ideological programs centered on Russian national identity, defending the Russians against what they perceived as a takeover of the country by people from ethnic minorities, notably Jews and migrants from the Caucasus region. Cleansing the nation by killing or expelling the non-Russians was a generally accepted goal, claimed to be a way to solve pretty much all of the woes facing the country. Their ideology became epitomized in the short slogan "Russia for the Russians", a catchphrase adopted more widely by less extremist factions later on. They did not generally have discernible economic programs, quite unlike the German NSDAP.

The neo-Nazis did openly admire and imitate the German Nazis and Hitler. Mein Kampf stood high on their reading list. The most prominent organization, Russian National Union (Русское Национальное Единство) led by Aleksandr Barkashov, adopted a three ray swastika as its emblem (the Nazi swastika can be thought of consisting of two "rays", i.e. the _|¯ (Z) shaped segments). Some others preferred the original version. In order to harmonize Hitler's notion of the Germanic master race with the Russian national feeling, the doctrine was updated to include all Aryans or Indo-Europeans, both Germanic and Slavic. The definition explicitly excluded Jews and the people from the Caucasus (widely seen as alien and "black" because of a slightly darker skin color). On a more practical level, the neo-Nazis considered the Russians as a special and chosen nation, while looking down on others, including the non-Russian Slavic peoples.

These groups then exploited the vulnerability and discontent of young people, as explained above. However, Nazism did also attract many of the old, who while at times had adequate living conditions, still suffered greatly in the Soviet economic collapse.

Activities

The neo-Nazis made it an explicit goal to take over the country by force, and they did put in serious effort into preparing for this. The paramilitary organizations operating under guise of sports clubs organized training for their members in squad tactics and weapons handling.The Neo Nazi Were never able to take over the country but they still had a huge impact on society. Weapons were stockpiled, generally illegally (due to very restrictive Russian gun laws) Reputedly, many were interested in martial arts and unarmed combat, and did a good job organizing realistic hand-to-hand combat classes. Despite these extensive preparations, quite incredible by the standards of a Western nation, the neo-Nazis have not yet carried out any well-known attacks or otherwise come out into the open. Their most notable action so far was the participation in the armed defense of the building of the State Duma (Russian parliament) against government forces during the standoff between Yeltsin and the Communist dominated parliament in 1993, which Yeltsin won. The neo-Nazis did generate considerable anxiety because of their potential for pogroms against people they do not like and indeed of actual power seizure. No such things have so far materialized, although rumors of impending pogroms did circulate widely in the early 1990s. See also Pamyat.

Human right groups expressed concerns over what they see as inability or unwillingness of the Russian police and security establishment such as FSB to act against the activities of the domestic neo-Nazi movement. Allegations have been made that the failure of the government to take decisive measures suggests a possibility to use paramilitary groups as a potential tool in a future struggle for power. Disturbing and unfortunate parallels have been drawn between this situation and the situation in 1930s Germany, just before the NSDAP took power. In Germany, the rich and the powerful in government often supported the Nazis, if for no other reason than because, of the three major political powers at the time (being the Communists, the National Socialists and the democrats), the Nazis were the only group with the strength and will to actually do something about the rising tide of Communism, making them at least practically, the defenders of the traditional German middle and upper-classes. This, of course, backfired when the Nazis took power after crushing the Communists, anyway.

Neo-Nazism in Scandinavia

The following Scandinavian movements, parties and associations have been described as neo-Nazi:

Neo-Nazism in other countries

In many European countries there are laws that prevent the expression of Nazi, racist or anti-Semitic ideology, thus no political party of significant importance will describe itself as being neo-nazi. In South America, there are reportedly Nazi movements comprised of mestizos.

Image:FrenchCemetery103004-01.jpg

Organizations that have been described as 'Neo-Nazi', or Neo-Fascist, with varying degrees of justification, include the following:

Image:NZNFnazisalute.jpg

See also

References

Primary sources

Academic surveys

External links

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