This week’s highlight is a bit topical. With all of the coverage of the current gun control legislation I thought I would share an item from the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO) which is an organization based in Hartford, Wisconsin founded by former firearms dealer Aaron S. Zelman in 1986. [1] According to the JPFO website the “JPFO initially aimed at educating the Jewish community about the historical evils that Jews have suffered when they have been disarmed” and then later expanded to prove that “’gun control’ had played a fundamental role in all the major genocides of the 20th Century … not just the Holocaust.”[2]  The JPFO is noted for its extreme view of gun control legislation and has been criticized by Abraham Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League who wrote “anti-Semitism has a long and painful history, and the linkage to gun control is a tactic by Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership to manipulate the fear of anti-Semitism toward their own end.”[3]

The group has released a variety of publications including pamphlets, documentaries and comic books. It is difficult to determine how many members and/or subscribers the group has. There are only 6 items from the JPFO in the Hall Hoag collection.

Jews For the Preservation of Firearm Ownership Poster (1991)

The Realist was a magazine of “social-political-religious criticism and satire” published and edited by Paul Krassner from 1958-2001 with 146 editions.  The Realist was a byproduct and helped influence the counter culture press of the 20^th century.[1] It included writing from Norman Mailer, Ken Kesey and Joseph Heller as well controversial figures like George Lincoln Rockwell (who has an editorial in the edition shown below).  By the time publication ended The Realist was circulated to between 5000-7000 people and in its heyday could be bought at newsstands.[2] The Realist was known for being one of the first magazines to publish conspiracy theories and wrote about the Watergate scandal prior to the mainstream press. Krasner was a cofounder of the Yippies—counterculture political party known for their theatrical demonstrations outside of the 1968 Democratic Convention.[3] The Hall Hoag collection only contains about 12 issues of the Realist.

The entire Realist archive, including the issue below is available online: http://www.ep.tc/realist/39/

The Realist No. 39 (1962)

This week’s item was published by the American Nazi Party. The American Nazi Party was founded by George Lincoln Rockwell (who attended Brown) in 1959 under the name “The World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists.” Later the organization was also named National Socialist White People’s Party. Although “socialism” and “Nazi” were used in different version’s of the group’s name, it is primarily a racist group and not an economic platform. Rockwell ran the organization until his assassination in 1967 by John Patler a former member of the American Nazi Party. [1] Matt Koehl became the leader of the organization after Rockwell’s death which caused splintering in the organization and spawned new organizations like the National Socialist Party of America, the White Party of America and the National White Peoples Party.[2]

The ANP was never a large organization and at its peak in the late 1960s, it is estimated to have had 100 active members and maybe another few hundred subscribing to it’s publications The Stormtrooper and the Rockwell Report. [3]

In the item below is a leaflet in which the American Nazi Party protest being added to the  Attorney General’s List of Subversive Organizations, by then Attorney General, Robert Kennedy.  Kennedy chose not to add them to the list.

For more info there is a video interview with Rockwell (keep in mind it is very offensive): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNLTbPy0idg

American Nazi Party Pamphlet 1969 Page 1

American Nazi Party Pamphlet 1969 Page 2

 

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Nazi_Party

[2] George, John and Laird Wilcox “Nazis, Communists, Klansmen, and Others on the Fringe” Prometheus Books (1992) pp.354-363

[3] George, John and Laird Wilcox “Nazis, Communists, Klansmen, and Others on the Fringe” Prometheus Books (1992) pp.354-363