White supremacists marched over the weekend in Charlottesville, Va., where they held a torchlight parade, carried Nazi banners, quoted Adolf Hitler and gave the Nazi salute. The torches were probably Chinese made and purchased at Pier 1, but they were meant to evoke the nighttime Nuremberg rallies in Germany. More than 135,000 American soldiers died in Nazi-occupied Europe in 1944-45 to free the continent from fascist tyranny.
One of the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville ran over a crowd of counter-demonstrators in a vehicle imitating ISIS terrorists in Paris and London. The thug killed Heather Heyer, 32, who was protesting against hate.
More neo-Nazi demonstrations are planned for this weekend. Let us hope they will stay out of Arkansas. We don’t need them here.
Many of our readers have loved ones who fought against Nazi Germany. Many of them are buried in cemeteries in France, Italy, Germany and elsewhere. Private 1st Class Jack Fogel of Chicago left Hungary before the Holocaust and was drafted in the U.S. Army during the Second World War. He fell near Metz in France on Sept. 14, 1944, as our soldiers were about the enter Germany. Fogel, service number 3668837, was shot by a German sniper. Fogel’s loved ones found his gravesite in Plot C, Row 17, Grave 26 at Lorraine American Cemetery in St. Avold in northern France.
Alonzo Mulcahy and Rudy Feldman survived the Battle of the Bulge, where nearly 20,000 Americans died. They would weep at the sight of Nazi flags in our cities if they were still alive.
Germany, which banned Nazi paraphernalia after Hitler’s defeat, knows the dangers of extreme prejudice and warned Americans this week to beware of these fascist radicals. Their rise to power in Germany in the 1930s was unexpected, but today’s neo-Nazis and Klansmen find inspiration on the internet, where they can plan demonstrations and bring chaos to the communities wherever they hold their rallies.
Many of these far-right groups get their funding from Vladimir Putin, who spends millions on fascist groups in Europe in hopes of toppling their fragile democratic institutions. That is another reason to condemn them: Their financial ties to Moscow deserve scrutiny by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose findings will likely show a sophisticated network of hate groups sponsored by the Kremlin.
Don’t be surprised if these neo-Nazis one day start demonstrating with red flags in support of North Korea. In the final analysis, there’s not much difference between the two 20th Century totalitarian movements. What is shocking is that they still have followers in the 21st Century.