Like most radical movements, the American Nazi Party started off small with dreams of becoming a huge political force in the United States.
The ANP has always and continues to operate in a political fashion with their end goal being to secure their leader in the position of presidency of the USA.
George Lincoln Rockwell began to gather quite a following after the party was re-branded in 1960 from “World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists” to “American Nazi Party” (ANP) in order to gain maximum media attention.
The Spread of the ANP
He also began to speak publicly at events and in universities in order to spread the word about national socialism in America. Numerous audio files, videos and pictures of him speaking are available on YouTube and the ANP’s official website.
The re-branded party was closely modeled on Hitler’s Nazi Party in Germany during the 30s and 40s. This included policies of deportations of ethnic groups other than white or “Aryan” people, as the party puts it. They also supported and spread the idea of holocaust denial.
Rockwell decided to rename the party to National Socialist White People’s Party on the 1st of January in 1967. He did this because the ANP was slowly getting out of control and was being thrashed in the media. He needed to distance the political initiative from the ‘Nazi’ brand, as he wanted to begin standing in elections and taking the party forward politically.
The American Nazi Party After Rockwell
However, before Rockwell could continue with this plan, he was killed in August 1967 by a former party member named John Patler, whom Rockwell had dismissed for attempting to introduce ‘Marxist ideology’ into the party.
During the 70s and 80s, the party began to disintegrate with numerous splinter groups forming and even more bad press turning away would-be members.
For example, in 1979, party members, along with Klu Klux Clan members, organized and executed a gun attack on a Communist protest march, killing five members and consequently launching the party into a whirlwind of bad press.
Now, only a small direct descended organisation exists named the "New Order", which holds but a few annual meetings with supporters each year and keeps out of the public domain.
Another party which goes by the name ANP (viewed as a namesake as it has no linear connection to the original) exists and operates with a minor degree of support, but does not have the capability to operate on any mass scale.
Dean is our Ireland based journalist and writer with an eye for catching the stories that the mainstream reporters miss. Dean has 56 post(s) at Top Secret Writers
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