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George Lincoln Rockwell

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George Lincoln Rockwell
black and white closeup photo of Rockwell holding a corncob pipe
Rockwell at a hearing of the House Un-American Activities Committee, 1963
1st Commander of the American Nazi Party
In office
March 1959 – August 25, 1967
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byMatthias Koehl
Personal details
Born(1918-03-09)March 9, 1918
Bloomington, Illinois, U.S.
DiedAugust 25, 1967(1967-08-25) (aged 49)
Arlington County, Virginia, U.S.
Cause of deathMurder by gunshot
Political partyAmerican Nazi
Spouses
  • Judith Aultman
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1943; div. 1953)​
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1953; div. 1961)​
Children7
Parent
EducationBrown University
Military service
AllegianceUnited States
Branch/serviceUnited States Navy
Years of service1941–1960
RankCommander
Battles/wars

George Lincoln Rockwell (March 9, 1918 – August 25, 1967) was an American neo-Nazi activist who founded the American Nazi Party (ANP) and became one of the most notorious white supremacists in the United States until his murder in 1967. His beliefs, strategies, and writings have continued to influence many white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Rockwell coined the expression White Power, which was also the title of his posthumously published political manifesto.

Born in Bloomington, Illinois, to two vaudeville performers, Rockwell briefly studied philosophy at Brown University before dropping out to join the Navy. He trained as a pilot and served in World War II and the Korean War in non-combat roles, achieving the rank of Commander. Rockwell's politics grew more radical and vocal in the 1950s, and he was honorably discharged due to his views in 1960. He founded the American Nazi Party in 1959, using high profile media stunts to increase their notoriety as a step to power. This did not work, and despite their notoriety Rockwell remained politically fringe. In the year before his death he renamed the ANP the National Socialist White People's Party (NSWPP) as part of an effort to broaden the party's white supremacist appeal outside of strict Nazism, for what he called the White Power movement.

On August 25, 1967, Rockwell was shot and killed in Arlington, Virginia by John Patler, a former member of the American Nazi Party who had once been close with Rockwell, but who he had expelled in March of that year. Following his death, the party effectively dissolved, with his official successor Matthias Koehl renaming the party the New Order and turning it into a basically religious group. Another associate, William Luther Pierce, left Koehl's movement and founded the National Alliance.

In politics, he regularly praised Adolf Hitler, denied the Holocaust and believed that Martin Luther King Jr. was a tool for Jewish communists desiring to rule the white community. He blamed the civil rights movement on Jews, and viewed most of them as traitors. He viewed black people as a primitive race and supported the resettlement of all African Americans in a new African state to be funded by the U.S. government. While Rockwell remains obscure to the American public and never achieved any real power, he and his views were deeply influential on far-right extremism and neo-Nazism.

Early life and education

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Rockwell was born in Bloomington, Illinois, the first of three children born to vaudeville performers George Lovejoy "Doc" Rockwell and Claire Schade.[1][2] His father was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and was of English and Scottish ancestry.[1] At the time of Rockwell's birth, his father was rising in fame; by 1921, he had become a star and was one of the highest paid vaudeville actors in the nation.[3] His mother was the daughter of Augustus Schade, a German immigrant, and Corrine Boudreau, who was of French ancestry.[4] His mother largely retired from vaudeville performance after his birth, and entirely retired after the birth of Rockwell's brother Robert the next year.[5]

Rockwell's parents divorced when Rockwell was six years old,[5] and for the rest of his youth he divided his time between his mother in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and his father in Boothbay Harbor, Maine.[6] His father was emotionally distant and constantly belittled him.[7][8] Rockwell greatly desired his father's approval, and made an effort to emulate him.[9] After the divorce, Claire moved in with her sister, Arline; Arline was a domineering woman who despised Rockwell's father. Arline regularly beat Rockwell from the ages of 6 to 15, and psychologically abused Rockwell until he left for college.[9][10] He was an extroverted and rebellious teenager, resulting in disciplinary action taken against him at school and middling grades.[11][12] Rockwell attended Atlantic City High School, but after a conflict with a teacher in his senior year he went "on strike" and engaged in dramatic protests over his teaching. The school informed Rockwell that he would not graduate unless he stopped; Rockwell refused, and was not allowed to graduate, though the school did force the teacher in question to change his teaching methods. That summer, Rockwell was sent to live with his paternal grandmother and repeated his senior year of high school at Central High School in Providence, Rhode Island.[13][14]

His father encouraged him to apply to Harvard University, wanting him to get into an Ivy League school. While his grades at his second high school were much better, they were still inconsistent, and so to help his chances Rockwell spent another semester at Hope High School. He received a second high school diploma from Hope but was still rejected from Harvard after some of his school records were mistakenly not forwarded.[11][15] Having not applied to any other college out of confidence that he would be admitted, his father instead enrolled him in Hebron Academy in Hebron, Maine for the year.[11][15] In 1938 he enrolled and began studying at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island as a philosophy major. While his grades were mediocre and below the standards of Brown, he was accepted due to his high score on the aptitude test.[16][17] At Brown, he was art editor and a cartoonist for Sir Brown!, the campus magazine, which he used to attack those at the school he ideologically opposed.[16][18] He became increasingly pessimistic about society and humanity, and conflicted especially with his sociology professor over his disagreement with egalitarianism. After writing a paper about crime and delinquency for his sociology class, he was nearly expelled due to its contents.[16][18] In his sophomore year, Rockwell dropped out of Brown and accepted a commission in the United States Navy.[19]

Military service

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Rockwell appreciated the order and discipline of the Navy, and attended flight schools in Massachusetts and Florida in 1940. When he completed his training, he served in the Battle of the Atlantic and the Pacific War in World War II. He served aboard the USS Omaha, USS Pastores, USS Wasp and USS Mobile, primarily in support, photo reconnaissance, transport and training functions.[20] His assignment to surveillance missions instead of combat roles irritated him, and he attempted to be transferred to a combat role; he was eventually assigned to a position on Support Air Command to direct pilots from the ground by radio.[21] Rockwell never flew in combat, but was considered a good pilot and an efficient officer.[20]

In April 1943, Rockwell married Judith Aultman, whom he had met while attending Brown University.[22] Aultman was a student at Pembroke College, which was the coordinate women's college of the university.[23] The couple had three daughters: Bonnie (born 1946), Nancy (born 1949), and Phoebe-Jean.[24] Rockwell did not get along with his in-laws; he blamed them for not raising Judith to be "docile and compliant", his image of the perfect wife. His marriage was marred with violent arguments and on at least one occasion, he struck his wife.[23]

After the war ended, Rockwell worked as a sign painter out of a small shop on land owned by his father in Boothbay Harbor, Maine.[23] He was promoted to lieutenant commander by October 1945.[25] In 1946, he entered the commercial art program at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.[23] He and his wife Judith moved to New York City so he could study at Pratt. He did well at Pratt, winning the $1,000 first prize for an advertisement he did for the American Cancer Society.[26] He abruptly left Pratt before finishing his final year, and moved to Maine to found his own advertising agency.[26]

San Diego (1950–1952)

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black and white portrait naval photo of Rockwell with a mustache
Rockwell during his time in the Navy, pictured May 1951

In 1950, Rockwell was recalled to duty at the beginning of the Korean War, where he was assigned to the Naval Air Support School at the San Diego Naval Air Station in San Diego, California. There he trained United States Marine Corps and navy pilots.[27] At this time his marriage was troubled, and his wife and children did not initially move to San Diego with him, Judith moving to Connecticut with their children.[26] Rockwell, missing his children, eventually begged Judith to come back. She agreed and moved to San Diego with their children, only for them to begin fighting again. Rockwell would move out several times, then move back in again after convincing Judith to take him back. During this time they had a third daughter, Phoebe-Jean.[28]

While in San Diego, Rockwell supported General Douglas MacArthur's candidacy for president of the United States.[21] At the time, Rockwell believed in Joseph McCarthy's claims that the United States was being subverted by communism. Other supporters of MacArthur introduced him to antisemitic conspiracies, and Rockwell did more research on his own, eventually concluding that communism was actually a front for a Jewish conspiracy.[21][29] This led him to, in 1951, buy and read Hitler's manifesto Mein Kampf.[21][29] He later described reading it as "finding part of me" and said it "bathed all the gray world suddenly in the clear light of reason and understanding".[21] He also read the forged antisemitic tract the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.[30] Rockwell later wrote that although he did not tell anyone of this, by this time he had become "an all-out Nazi"; he considered his radicalization to be him seeing the world as it was for the first time and as an epiphany.[21]

Iceland (1952–1954)

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In November 1952, Rockwell was transferred to Iceland, where he became a Grumman F8F Bearcat pilot.[29] Rockwell attended a diplomatic party in Reykjavík where he met Thora Hallgrimsson, the niece of Iceland's ambassador to the United States.[29][31] He asked Judith for a divorce shortly after meeting Thora, and she agreed.[32] His involvement with Judith and their children was later limited and he rarely saw or communicated with them, outside of discussion over child support, which he often failed to pay.[33]

Rockwell and Thora were married on October 3, 1953,[32] and spent their honeymoon in Berchtesgaden, Germany, where Hitler once owned the Berghof mountain retreat in the Bavarian Alps.[32][29] He asked the Navy for a one year extension of his duty there, which was given. On January 9, 1954, he was promoted to commander.[32] Rockwell and Thora had three children: Lincoln Hallgrimmur (b. 1954),[34] Jeannie Margaret,[35] and Evelyn;[36] Thora's son from a previous marriage also lived with them.[37]

Early political activities (1954– 1959)

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When I was in the advertising game, we used to use nude women. Now I use the swastika and storm troopers. You use what brings them in.

George Lincoln Rockwell[38]

In December 1954 his tour ended and Rockwell was detached to inactive duty, after which he moved to the U.S. with Thora and their children. Trying to support the family, he experimented with several vocations, including freelance writing, from which he achieved some sales and numerous rejections. He also experimented with inventing.[37] He launchd U.S. Lady, a magazine for United States servicemen's wives. Though it was at times fairly lucrative and had a large circulation, it was distributed for free and Rockwell had a falling out with his business partners, so he sold the magazine in 1956.[37][39] Afterwards, he worked briefly as an independent contractor for the National Review.[40]

In 1957–1958, Rockwell had a series of dreams that all ended with him meeting Hitler, prompting him to go public with his ideology.[41] In 1958, Rockwell met Harold Noel Arrowsmith Jr., a wealthy heir and antisemite who provided Rockwell with a house and printing equipment. They formed the National Committee to Free America from Jewish Domination.[42] In 1958, he helped in the founding of a racist political party in Georgia, the National States' Rights Party; Rockwell advised them and his National Committee to Free America from Jewish Domination supplied them with materials. Many significant members of this group would later join Rockwell's group, including James K. Warner and Matthias Koehl.[43]

In 1957, Thora's parents flew to the U.S. to take their daughter back to Iceland after they learned of Rockwell's political activities. Rockwell agreed to let her go back to Iceland with their children, knowing his financial difficulties made her life difficult. She promised she would return after a year when he had a steadier financial position.[44] On July 29, 1958, Rockwell demonstrated in front of the White House in an anti-war protest against President Dwight D. Eisenhower's decision to send peacekeeping troops to the Middle East, known as Operation Blue Bat. Rockwell and his supporters specifically protested what they supposed was Jewish control of the government.[41] In October 1958, following the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple bombing, news reports initially linked to Rockwell to the crime; the FBI suspected his involvement, but they were unable to directly link him to it. As a result, Rockwell was outed as a Nazi to the public, and his home was searched by police the day after the bombing.[43]

Following their separation, he attempted to rekindle his relationship with Thora throughout the year of 1959, but her family was strongly against it; he heavily drank throughout the year.[45] In December 1959 he sold all his possessions to visit her in Iceland, either after being invited, or without warning. He tried to convince her to take him back, offering to abandon politics entirely; James K. Warner, the ANP national secretary, said that he had no doubt that "if Rockwell's wife had agreed to let him stay in Iceland he would have deserted the party". The trip was heavily monitored by Thora's family, Rockwell was rejected, and he returned home.[45][46] He never saw her or their children again.[46][33] Devastated, he told his mother he had nothing left to live for and said he may kill himself. Afterwards, his communications changed tone and he renewed his allegiance to his ideology.[47]

American Nazi Party

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Early days and discharge from the Navy (1959–1960)

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In early 1959, Rockwell founded the World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists (WUFENS), which was eventually shortened to World Union of National Socialists (WUNS), making contact with leaders of national socialist movements in other countries, including Colin Jordan.[48] In October 1959, Rockwell founded the American Nazi Party,[49] and its headquarters became 928 North Randolph Street in Arlington, which also became Rockwell's home.[50]

As a result of his political activities and increasing prominence as a well-known racist,[51] the Chief of Naval Personnel sent Rockwell a letter on January 6, 1960 warning him he could be dismissed from the Navy due to his racist views. Rockwell was scheduled a hearing before a board of officers.[52] While waiting for the hearing, he wrote In Hoc Signo Vinces (lit. 'In This Sign You Shall Conquer'), a pamphlet that expressed his admiration for the swastika as a symbol and his idea that the white race had to reconquer the Earth.[53] During his hearing on February 1, 1960, he further expressed his racism at the hearing held over his discharge. He and his witnesses accused Anna Rosenberg, the United States Assistant Secretary of Defense, who was Jewish, of being a traitor.[51][54] The board voted unanimously and Rockwell was given an honorable discharge.[51][55] The discharge disturbed him further, as at this point Rockwell had given up everything else in his life for his views. He was discharged only a short time before he would have been eligible to retire with a pension, and due to his finances Rockwell needed the stipend given by his position.[56][51] Despite the discharge he continued to go by the title of "the Commander" for his activism.[57]

Media stunts and quarantine (1960–1964)

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Rockwell standing close to the camera at a three-quarters view with a swastika armband visible
Rockwell (foreground, with swastika armband) at a rally

Rockwell was adept at using political stunts to promote his movement.[57] He aimed to get the maximum amount of media coverage possible, and would use the negative response by provoking people to gain publicity, particularly through provoking the Jewish community specifically, but also society at large. This was successful, in large part due to the rise of the civil rights movement in the United States.[58][59]

In response, the American Jewish community developed a strategy of quarantine to prevent Rockwell from increasing his audience; this strategy was previously used against Gerald L. K. Smith. S. Andhil Fineberg, the head of the American Jewish Committee public relations division, developed a strategy of isolating Rockwell from all "three publics": the Jewish public, the general public, and the anti-Semitic public, all in different ways. He encouraged the Jewish community to have a restrained reaction to Rockwell.[58] Members of the American Nazi party, especially Matt Koehl, believed there was a more elaborate economic boycott at play, all evidence of which was secretly eradicated. There is no evidence of this, and the quarantine also often failed.[60]

Needing publicity despite the quarantine, Rockwell applied for a permit for a rally Union Square in New York City on the weekend of July 4, knowing this would be immensely controversial. Newbold Morris, then the Parks Commissioner, initially said he would approve it; in response the Public Awareness Society filed suit in the New York Supreme Court to prevent the ANP being issued the permit. Several other groups also complained, including, among others, the League of Ghetto Fighters, Concentration Camp Victims, and Partisans, the Emma Lazarus Federation of Jewish Women's Clubs, and the Farband Labor Zionist Order.[61] The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith were however on the opposite side, with national chairman Henry Schultz saying that the ADL was "very much for upholding the Constitutional rights of everyone—even nuts" and that "if the permit is granted, we hope New Yorkers will show their contempt by staying away in droves so that there will be no untoward episode which the Nazis can exploit." The New York Civil Liberties Union also said that New York should give him a permit, arguing that to do otherwise was to violate their constitutional rights.[62] Rockwell arrived in court on June 22 to defend his application; when he left the building, a riot ensued, and Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. refused to grant him a permit to speak on the grounds that if it was granted the people of New York would attack him and a riot would form. Afterwards, the American Civil Liberties Union began to assist the ANP in their fight for the permit, and they appealed the decision to the New York Supreme Court.[63][64] They eventually won a permit, but it was long after the date of the planned event.[65] He never ended up speaking in Union Square.[66]

On July 3, 1960, Rockwell and his men fought with the Jewish War Veterans group, resulting in a brawl. Rockwell was charged with disorderly conduct; however, at trial, the judge declared him mentally incompetent to stand trial and he was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital for thirty days. He defended his mental health by citing his military experience, but this failed to convince the judge. After this experience he became preoccupied with proving he was sane, and also declared psychiatry a Jewish field used to discredit those they opposed.[67] He published a pamphlet inspired by this experience titled How to Get Out or Stay Out of the Insane Asylum in 1960, an antisemitic tract which largely focuses on neo-Nazis being able to politically organize, and also, as the title suggests, how to get out of an insane asylum by lying to psychiatrists. He noted that, since psychiatrists would be looking for "delusions of grandeur", as they had deemed his belief that he was "chosen to fulfill an historical mission such as preserving the White Race, and the concomitant proposition that the Jews are 'persecuting' you for trying to expose them", one had to lie to leave, as he had done.[68][67] In 1961, he published a memoir, This Time the World.[57] In early 1962, Rockwell planned a rally to celebrate Hitler's birthday on April 20. In the summer, he attended a camp organized by British neo-Nazi Colin Jordan in Gloucestershire where they organized the World Union of National Socialists. In September, he awarded one of his members a medal for punching Martin Luther King Jr. in the face.[69]

Exodus protests and the Hate Bus (1961)

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On January 15, 1961 Speros Lagoulis, a Nazi Party sympathizer, suggested to Rockwell that they picket the local premiere of the film Exodus at the Saxon Theatre in Downtown Boston, because it was a "filthy Zionist movie" and the screenwriter Dalton Trumbo had refused to testify at the House Un-American Activities Committee.[70] Lagoulis financed the protest, and a truck was rented to bring more stormtroopers to Boston from Arlington, staying at the Hotel Touraine.[70] They were met by hundreds, later thousands, of anti-Nazi counter protestors; Rockwell told the other members that they did not have to come with him, that it was a "suicide mission" and he would go alone, but the men went with him.[71] This culminated in a riot, and Rockwell and his men were eventually forced into a police cruiser and taken into protective custody, later returning to Washington by plane. The picketing was a success for Rockwell — he stated that he would have "preferred to picket but I get more publicity from a riot" — and he soon sought to repeat it, thinking that if it was successful enough it may break the quarantine on him.[72][73]

To mock the Freedom Riders, who drove their campaign for the desegregation of bus stations in the Deep South, Rockwell secured a green Volkswagen van, named the "Hate Bus", and planned to do his own demonstration. It was painted with the phrases "Lincoln Rockwell's Hate Bus" and "We Do Hate Race Mixing".[74][75][76] Rockwell said the name was in an effort to discredit the word hate, saying that his men only "hate the things that every red-blooded American should hate—communists and race-mixing."[77] They traveled in the Hate Bus to Montgomery, Alabama but were intercepted and not allowed to demonstrate; directed at both the Freedom Riders and the Hate Bus, the governor of Louisiana Jimmy Davis warned both groups that "outside agitators of either the extreme right or the extreme left" should stay out of the state.[78]

On May 24, 1961, Rockwell and nine of his men were arrested on charges of disturbing the peace (the same charge often used against racial integrationists) in New Orleans after again trying to picket Exodus. All plead not guilty. Rockwell and one other member were bailed out on May 30, and all others were in short order.[79] On June 13, 1961, all ten men were found guilty, receiving sentences ranging from 30 to 60 days and fines ranging from $50 to $100.[80] In 1962, the convictions were overturned on appeal.[81]

Political aims (1964–1966)

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From 1964 to 1966, Rockwell was at his most significant. The party, while membership was not especially large, reached a new high, and numerous actions and stunts performed by the party to advertise their racism kept them notorious.[82] While notoriety was a goal of Rockwell's, it was a goal he intended to use as a stepping stone to actual power. Instead, he had effectively no power and remained on the political fringes, frustrating his goals. He realized that only engaging with the public through provocation had its limits, and began to develop a longer term strategy towards achieving actual political power.[82][83]

Rockwell blamed the ANP's political insignificance on the subordinates and the quality of their recruits, who Rockwell believed were incompetent and did not properly understand the ideology of National Socialism they espoused.[82] Koehl, one of the only members who actually met Rockwell's standards for an ANP member, had similar complaints.[84] Rockwell tried new methods of attracting higher quality ANP recruits.[85] He gave the ANP a front organization, the United White Christian Majority, trying to give it a wider appeal, and attempted to revive a prior youth group, the White Youth Corps, but both efforts failed to achieve what he wanted. Between 1964 and 1966, only two chapters of the party grew any significant amount (the chapters in Texas and Southern California).[84]

Despite these failures, these recruitment attempts did bring in 1965 one significant member of the party, William Luther Pierce, who became one of Rockwell's closest advisors. Pierce had a PhD in physics and was an assistant university professor, and was the best educated associate of Rockwell, as well as the party's most enthusiastic promoter of violent action.[84] In the spring of 1966, the party began publication of several pamphlets and books, including National Socialist World (NSW) edited by Pierce.[69][84][86] In the summer of 1966, Rockwell led a counter-demonstration against King's attempt to bring an end to de facto segregation in the white Chicago suburb of Cicero, Illinois.[87] In 1966, in reaction to the popularity of the slogan "Black Power" coined by Stokely Carmichael, Rockwell altered the phrase and coined the term "White Power" as a counterslogan.[88]

Virginia gubernatorial election campaign (1965)

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Confederate flag with Governor Rockwell written across the blue stripes instead of stars
Rockwell's logo for his 1965 Virginia gubernatorial campaign[89]

Rockwell ran as a candidate in the 1965 Virginia gubernatorial election. He planned his run at least a year in advance of his actual run, telling an associate that such a campaign would be useful to inflame the reaction of the Jewish population.[90][91] He filed for governor on April 20, 1965, running as an independent.[92]

Come election day in November, Rockwell received 5,730 votes[93] (also reported at about 6,500).[94] This was slightly less than 1% of the total vote.[93] While he was initially disappointed and shocked by his showing, only weeks later at a speech he spun it as a positive result, saying that "with a budget of $15,000, with a total press blackout, and with a 'Kosher conservative' [splitting the vote] ... I got 7,000 people to vote for a Nazi."[93][94]

Alex Haley interviews (1965–1966)

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In 1965, Rockwell was contacted by Playboy magazine, interested in an interview. While Rockwell worried agreeing to an interview with such a publication may make him seem hypocritical due to his antisemitic criticisms of pornography, he agreed to it due to the possible publicity it could garner for him. The interview was conducted by Alex Haley at ANP headquarters.[95][96] Prior to agreeing to the interview, Haley reassured Rockwell that he was not Jewish, but did not tell him that he was Black.[95] Rockwell discussed in the interview his Holocaust denial, his plans to get power, and his views on both Black and Jewish people. Haley did not emotionally respond in the interview.[97][96] Four more interviews between Rockwell and Haley were conducted over the next year. Rockwell and Haley continued to write to each other following these interviews, with Rockwell addressing his letters to Haley "V.I.N." (Very Important Nigger).[98]

This interview was finally published in April 1966 in Playboy.[96] Rockwell complained that the text had been distorted by a rewriter that he alleged to be Jewish.[99] This interview was Rockwell's greatest success in broadcasting Holocaust denial to the public, increasing interest and income for his movement, in addition to making Rockwell a wanted speaker within the college circuit.[96][99] Marlon Brando won an Emmy Award for his portrayal of Rockwell in the adaption of Haley's book Roots: The Saga of an American Family.[100]

Party changes (1966–1967)

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John Patler, a young member of the party, helped produce Rockwell's propaganda as an editor for The Stormtrooper Magazine.[101][102] Patler's was ethnically Greek, which led to criticism of his presence in the party.[101] Rockwell liked Patler, whose presence he defended by arguing for a more expanded idea of master race. Koehl and the members who agreed with him viewed this change as heretical; while Koehl was a member of the group and a follower of Rockwell, he was an avid Germanophile and hated any deviation from Hitler's beliefs.[103] Other important members of the group agreed with Koehl, including Frank Drager, Pierce, and Alan Welch. This had the result of forming two factional movements within the ANP: Koehl's Aryan Unity faction, which strictly followed the original racial ideas of Hitler, and Rockwell's White Power faction, which grew towards a broader idea of "White Unity".[103]

Rockwell's group was already small, and wishing to avoid a schism told Patler to keep himself unobtrusive, but refused to go back on this change despite Koehl's objections.[103] On January 1, 1967, the group underwent several changes. Rockwell changed the name of the American Nazi Party to the National Socialist White People's Party (NSWPP), changed the logo to a stylized eagle, and replaced their slogan of Sieg Heil with White Power, all in an effort to Americanize the organization and increase its appeal.[104] These changes, mostly instigated by Patler, were objected to by Koehl.[105][106] He also wrote of a new "Ten Points" for the NSWPP, which unlike the tenets of the ANP focused on several racial issues and not just Jews.[106]

Patler viewed Rockwell as a father figure, but blamed him for the problems in his life, including his abandonment of his Greek identity to fit the party's ideal and the failure of his marriage.[107] From 1966 to 1967, Patler drifted in and out of the party, all the while writing several letters to Rockwell that oscillated between hatred and begging for his forgiveness.[107] A psychiatrist had previously noted him as having probable "repressed homosexuality";[108] in several of his final letters to Rockwell, he described him as one would a romantic partner.[109] Patler was eventually and finally expelled by Rockwell from the ANP in March 1967, which he dedicated to Koehl instead of doing it himself. In addition, he made his stormtroopers examine his property to ensure he did not leave with theirs. Patler spent the rest of the spring enraged over his treatment, writing letters disavowing Rockwell and the ANP, before again returning to begging for his forgiveness.[110]

On June 28, 1967, Rockwell was subject to a failed assassination attempt at his home, with someone firing a shot that narrowly missed. Rockwell attempted to chase the shooter but he escaped, and Rockwell was unable to identify him.[111] He claimed that there had been two men, but later told Pierce there was actually only one.[112] After this incident he contacted the police, and applied for a handgun carry permit, which was denied. Afterwards he greatly increased security.[113]

On March 1, 1967 Rockwell's secretary[114] Barbara von Goetz, who he was in a relationship with, gave birth to his seventh child, Gretchen. Von Goetz had given birth to another daughter five years before, but that baby had died in infancy of Werdnig-Hoffman disease, leaving Rockwell distraught. This time she decided to only tell him about the baby if it was born healthy. She informed Rockwell later that year. Gretchen died on August 18, 1967, also of Werdnig-Hoffman disease, deeply affecting Rockwell.[115]

Murder

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Nearly two months later on August 25, 1967, Rockwell was shot and killed by Patler using a Mauser pistol while leaving a laundromat in Arlington, Virginia, near the party's headquarters. After entering the laundromat, he told the attendant he forgot something and went back to his car.[116] After starting the car, two shots were fired; one shot missed, but the other hit Rockwell's chest. Rockwell managed to crawl out of the car and fell onto the pavement. He died there at 12:02 p.m.[117][116] Arlington police arrested Patler less than two miles from the place of the shooting, shortly after the shooting, alone.[110]

The police and prosecution argued Patler's motive was to get revenge on Rockwell for expelling him.[118][110] Another possible motive was anger at Rockwell for not defending him from members of the party who insulted his ethnicity, especially Koehl and Pierce. Author Frederick J. Simonelli, author of a biography of Rockwell, doubted the latter motive, as Rockwell had actually favored Patler in this dispute.[110] Another theory was vengeance for Rockwell having an affair with Patler's wife, though this was never mentioned at the trial, and after Patler learned of the affair he sent Rockwell a letter telling him he was fine with it.[110] The prosecution also argued he had been the perpetrator of the June attempt on his life.[112]

Patler continued to profess his innocence, and his defense attempted to shift blame on Koehl (who would have had the most to gain in Rockwell's death), as well as advancing other possible motives.[119] High-ranking member Karl Allen did not believe Patler had done it, and organized the John Patler Defense Fund, developing the idea that either the killing of Rockwell or at least the blame on Patler was the result of a Jewish conspiracy by the Anti-Defamation League.[120] Most members agreed that Patler had killed Rockwell,[121] though some believed it was part of a coup.[119] The day before the murder, Rockwell got into an argument with Pierce, Koehl, and Lloyd. One eyewitness claimed that he locked the three out of their offices and said he would expel them. Barbara von Goetz became convinced that Koehl had ordered Rockwell's killing and framed Patler to seize control of the party; Francis Joseph Smith, Rockwell's personal bodyguard, investigated on his own and concluded that Pierce, Koehl and Lloyd had orchestrated Rockwell's murder which according to him was committed by ANP member Christopher Vidnjevich.[122] This claim later resulted in Smith and Vidnjevich getting in a shootout, which they both survived.[122]

Patler was convicted of the murder, and sentenced to 20 years in prison.[118] Patler appealed his conviction, and was out on $40,000 bond. His murder conviction was upheld by the Virginia Supreme Court in 1970. With this his bond was revoked and he was ordered to return to prison to carry out his sentence. He appealed again to the U.S Supreme Court, which unanimously rejected his appeal in May 1972; he was paroled in August 1975, but violated his parole terms a year later and spent six more years in prison. He was later released upon the completion of his sentence.[118]

Funeral

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When the body was released for burial following the autopsy, there was initially a conflict between Rockwell's family and Koehl, the second in command at NSWPP.[123] Rockwell's family wanted a private family burial in Southport Island, Maine, while Koehl wanted an elaborate funeral to act as a publicity piece for the party. Koehl initially requested that Rockwell be buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Nazi uniform, infuriating Rockwell's brother Bobby, who characterized their actions as "disgusting exhibition" done by "nitwits". Bobby took legal action to claim the body, while Koehl moved to establish control over Rockwell's body as specified in his will. Koehl threatened to surround the home of Rockwell's mother (who lived in a Jewish area) with Nazis to "mourn". As a result, Rockwell's family gave up their claims by the 27th, with Bobby noting to the press that "it was unlikely any member of the family would attend the services".[123][124]

Federal officials approved a military burial at Culpeper National Cemetery, Rockwell being an honorably discharged veteran. They demanded that no mourners display Nazi insignias and rejected the party's request that there be a military honor guard that was "all-Caucasian", however they allowed Rockwell to be buried in Nazi uniform.[125][126] The funeral commenced on August 29, and with it a uniformed Nazi funeral procession. When they arrived, the entrance to the cemetery was blocked by local, state, and military police flown in by helicopter. The superintendent who ran the cemetery explained to Koehl the ruling, and asked that his men take off their swastikas so they could enter. They refused, and both groups waited for the other to stand down for several hours. During the standoff, a car in the procession was nearly run over by a freight train.[125] When a member of the army on standby broke ranks and defected to the Nazi side, he was immediately arrested, causing a member of the ANP to jump onto the hearse, before he lunged at the military police and was arrested. More Nazis also jumped at the military police, and were also arrested.[127] The next day, Rockwell's body was secretly cremated by Koehl.[126]

Views

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He regularly praised Adolf Hitler, referring to him as the "White Savior of the twentieth century".[29] He denied the Holocaust and he believed that Martin Luther King Jr. was a tool of Jewish communists who desired to rule the white community.[59] In his Playboy with Alex Haley, Rockwell stated, "I emphatically deny that there is any valid proof that innocent Jews were systematically murdered by the Nazis."[96] He blamed the civil rights movement on Jews, and viewed most of them as traitors. He believed that black people were members of a primitive race and he supported the resettlement of all African Americans in a new African state which would be funded by the U.S. government.[59]

Rockwell's views estranged him from his former family and friends. His brother's businesses and family life were heavily damaged by their association with Rockwell, and his relatives and friends drew away from him, shocked by his behavior. Many of them suspected that the change in his behavior was caused by a mental illness. His own father repeatedly tried to convince him to abandon his political views, but he failed, his efforts only resulted in bitter fights. He had little or no contact with either of his ex-wives and his children; he only kept in regular contact with his sister and his mother.[33]

Rockwell's final book, White Power, was published shortly after his death. A political manifesto, White Power, reflected Rockwell's later shift from Nazism to a broader and therefore more appealing form of white supremacy, and it also reflected his abandonment of his prejudice against white groups that the Nazis had considered inferior, e.g. Slavs.[128] White Power contains much harsher terminology than his previous works, it calls Jews "human parasites", it calls for the killing of all non-Whites peoples and it calls for the enemies of whites to be "annihilated".[68] It blames Jews for inciting black people against the white race, and it also accuses Jews of leading a violent black revolution in the United States, an early form of the great replacement theory.[128] It encourages white men to "STAND UP AND FIGHT!"; one scholar called it "more than anything else, a call to battle".[129]

Black separatism

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He agreed with many Black Muslims and Black separatists who shared his goal of racial segregation, such as Elijah Muhammad and especially Malcolm X.[130][131] Rockwell was present as a guest speaker at a major Black Muslim convention on February 25, 1962, where he praised Elijah Muhammad as "the Adolf Hitler of the black man".[59] In January 1962, Rockwell wrote to his followers in his newspaper The Rockwell Report praising Elijah Muhammad and saying that after talking to them he was "certain that a workable plan for separation of the races could be effected to the satisfaction of all concerned—except the Communist-Jew agitators."[132] Rockwell said that had he been born black he would have been like Malcolm X, and correctly predicted that Malcolm would eventually split from the NOI to form his own movement. Even when Malcolm X ceased being a racial separatist after a pilgrimage to Mecca, Rockwell continued to express admiration for him.[131] Following his assassination in 1967 Rockwell wrote a eulogy for him in his Rockwell Report; he blamed Malcolm X's death on communists.[133]

Inspired by Black Muslims' use of religion to mobilize people, Rockwell sought to collaborate with Christian Identity groups. On June 10, 1964, he met and formed an alliance with Identity minister Wesley A. Swift. Rockwell used religious imagery, depicting himself as a Christ-like martyr who was fighting against the Jews. Nazis found a welcome home in Swift's church and church members found a political outlet in the American Nazi Party.[134]

Legacy

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Rockwell has been described as "the father of American neo-Nazism".[135] He is still a very influential figure among far-right extremists, but most of the American public does not know about him and he failed to "achieve anything close to political power or even a significant following" as a result.[136] He was a driving force in promoting Holocaust denial in America.[135] The White Power movement that he spawned was one of his most enduring legacies. Author William H. Schmaltz said of it that: "Gone was the criterion of being Nordic or Aryan; gone was the Nativist, anti-Catholic prejudice of the Ku Klux Klan. Now anyone white and non-Jewish could belong to a worldwide racist movement that had no internal racial or ethnic hierarchy."[137]

After Rockwell's death, the American Nazi Party effectively dissolved itself,[138] and the American Nazi movement fractured, with the party and its members schisming into several different groups.[102] The party had no formalized succession plan, but in the immediate aftermath, Matthias Koehl was declared to be the next leader of the NSWPP by agreement of all of its sixteen leading members. Koehl changed the ideology of the NSWPP in an attempt to make it align with a more religious outlook on Nazism, and in accordance with this change, he renamed the group the New Order in 1983.[102][139] Another major successor to Rockwell's movement was created by William Luther Pierce, who left the NSWPP and founded the neo-Nazi group the National Alliance.[140][141] Pierce later wrote the racist dystopian novel The Turner Diaries, which inspired numerous acts of far-right terrorism.[142] The American Nazi Party moniker was later adopted by a schismatic group which was led by former ANP member James Warner.[102] In 1994, Harold Covington founded a new NSWPP which is based on Rockwell's vision.[143]

Rockwell was a source of inspiration for white supremacist David Duke. As a student in high school, when he learned that Rockwell had been murdered, Duke reportedly broke down sobbing and said "The greatest American who ever lived has been shot down and killed."[144] Richard B. Spencer also admired Rockwell's tactics, but he criticized Rockwell's usage of Nazi regalia by stating that it was "unproductive".[145] White supremacist Matthew Heimbach called Rockwell "one of the most gifted orators of the 20th century", and he also stated that Rockwell's writings and speeches were "the things that worked to bring me to National Socialism".[146]

Publications

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  • The Fable of the Ducks and the Hens (1959)
  • How to Get Out or Stay Out of the Insane Asylum (1960)
  • In Hoc Signo Vinces (1960)
  • This Time the World (1961)
  • White Self-Hate: Master-Stroke of the Enemy (1962)
  • White Power (1967)

See also

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References

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  3. ^ Simonelli 1999, pp. 5, 7.
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  30. ^ Weir 2024, p. 40.
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  81. ^ "Louisiana Court of Appeals reverses conviction of Rockwell and aids". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. New York City. March 20, 2015. Retrieved December 22, 2023.
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  85. ^ Simonelli 1999, p. 124.
  86. ^ Simonelli 1999, p. 283.
  87. ^ Schmaltz 1999, pp. 291–293.
  88. ^ Simonelli 1999, pp. 99–100.
  89. ^ Schmaltz 1999, p. 249.
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  142. ^ Schmaltz 1999, p. 339.
  143. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2001, p. 28.
  144. ^ Bridges, Tyler (2004). The Rise of David Duke. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-87805-684-2.
  145. ^ Miller, Michael E. (August 21, 2017). "The shadow of an assassinated American Nazi commander hangs over Charlottesville". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
  146. ^ Beckett, Lois (August 27, 2017). "George Lincoln Rockwell, father of American Nazis, still in vogue for some". The Guardian. London. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved July 25, 2022.

Works cited

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