Campaign Ads and Nazi Iconography
-20 June 2020
White supremacism and Neo-Nazism have been a major issue in both the United States and Europe for decades. These ideologies and associated organizations have operated clandestinely inside the United States. This should not really be too much of a surprise for most people: the Ku Klux Klan predates Nazism and Fascism, has been a very visible terrorist organization since the end of the Civil War, and at times many American political leaders either have had ties to, or been, members themselves.
Rarely however has a presidential campaign put out so many warning signs that it supports the ideology of white supremacy so blatantly. A series of recent political messages released by the Trump Campaign for Reelection have been pulled from Facebook due to the use of Nazi symbolism: an inverted Red Triangle used to identify “the far left as enemies of the state.”[1] While many people might not recognize the messaging, for those who have studied the Nazi Party and its persecution of enemy political organizations and minorities, as well as the Holocaust, will realize the dangerous warning signs. The underlying symbology of the messages is there for anyone to see: 88 messages consisting of 88 words, with a red triangle. While these may seem harmless to some, they are a very carefully considered messages of support for hate groups.
When the Nazis were defeated at the end of World War II the symbols, ideology, and party members were rightfully condemned by the world. In the following decades, many of the people who have supported that ideology did not openly display their political and personal feelings in the public sphere. They had to find ways to covertly display, and share, their ideology with like minded people. Being exposed as a White Supremacist could lead to distract personal consequences (such as the loss of employment, marriage, etc.) so the displays needed to be subtle and not easily identified by those not supporting that ideology.
One of the major ways these groups can display their political feelings is through the use of code. The number 88 is an important example of such code. The number 8 corresponds in the English alphabet to the letter “H.” 88 corresponds to the letters “HH.” “HH” is the code for “Heil Hitler:” this was, and is, the call sign for allegiance to the Nazi Party and its ideology. People cannot just say or scream this proclamation in most public, and civilized, circles without people justifiably condemning them. However, this is a dog whistle for those who share the White Supremacist mindset. To them, Hitler and the Nazi Party are heroes who attempted to wipe out people that they (the Nazis and White Supremacists) believe should be enslaved or destroyed. To see an American presidential reelection campaign specifically release 88 messages consisting of 88 words with an inverted Red Triangle describing his political opponents should raise alarms.
The Nazis sought easy ways to identify political/ideological enemies and many of these revolved around icons and symbols. The symbol most familiar to modern audiences is the yellow Star of David that German Jews were forced to sew on their clothing and display them in public and, later, inside the concentration camps. The Nazis passed laws making it illegal for Jews in Germany, and later all of the other areas they controlled, not to have the Star of David visible on their clothing because it allowed Nazis and their collaborators could identify, harass, and detain Jews. Even people who were not anti-Semitic could immediately identify Jewish members of their community and avoid them. This was a method the Nazis used to dehumanize and isolate their victims.
Another identifying symbol would be used against Jews: the identification number that was tattooed on Jewish prisoners when they were sent to concentration camps. This was implemented for several reasons not least of which was bookkeeping. Bookkeeping sounds benign until one thinks about the implications behind it: the Nazis were counting down the number of people left that need to be exterminated. The letters at the beginning of the tattoo represented the country of origin or reason for imprisonment. The numbers following that were prisoner’s numerical placement in the concentration camps’ accounts. Those prisoners who went directly to the gas chambers were never tattooed. The Nazis kept some prisoners alive to be used as slave labor for the state. Once the prisoner died, the Camp Commandant would make off that prisoner’s number and then a replacement would be “cycled” in to fill the labor lost.
Another major use of the tattooed serial numbers was a way to dehumanize the victim. Rarely would the prisoners be addressed by name, instead they were called by their number. This was a powerful tool in dehumanizing and destroying a person’s self-worth. As well as being starved and beaten, the prisoner is no longer identified by their name. They are identified by a number that can, and will be, easily be replaced once the victim dies.
The Nazis also had system of visual classification and identification of prisoners inside the concentration camps beyond tattoos. Each prisoner had a symbol sewn onto their clothing that clearly displayed the “crime” that landed them in the camps. An inverted Red Triangle identified the prisoner was a member as either a Communist or Social Democrat. An inverted Green Triangle identified the prison was a hardened, regular criminal (these prisoners were used to enforce the guards’ orders against other prisoners). An inverted Pink Triangle identified the prisoner as a homosexual. An inverted Black Symbol identified the prisoner as “Asocial” (either a Roma, Sinti, vagrant, a work slacker), although an inverted Brown Symbol was later adopted for Roma and Sinti. An inverted Purple Triangle identified a prisoner as a Jehovah’s Witness. A Yellow Star of David was created by combining two triangles, and so could be modified to indicate multiple “crimes” (for example, to include a Red Triangle indicated that the prisoner was also a Communist or Social Democrat).
The Nazi Party and Nazism itself was, and still is, outlawed in Germany today. After the horrors enacted by the Nazis, their enablers, and collaborators had been exposed, the world (including many Germans) sought to ensure that this ideology was dead. Those who had been imprisoned for opposing political views (communists, social democrats, etc.), some of whom had been imprisoned since 1933, formed a significant portion of the new government[2]. They sought to prevent another resurgence of Nazism. The survivors of the Holocaust also struggled to rebuild their lives in the ashes and seek justice for those who had been murdered.
Nazi iconography and symbols were torn down and outlawed. Seventy-five years later, to see a presidential reelection campaign so blatantly use those symbols is a warning sign from history about the lengths to which a political party can, and will, go to destroy its opposition. The Trump Campaign’s release of the 88 messages consisting of 88 words was not a mistake. Nor was it a mistake to use an inverted Red Triangle to identify political opponents. These were measured, thought out messages, steeped with Nazi and White Supremacist iconography, intended to rile up a very particular group of supporters. Remember after the carnage and violence of Charlottesville, VA that no condemnation of the Neo-Nazi and White Supremacist protesters was spoken; rather we heard this from a sitting president: “There are very fine people on both sides.”[3] No Mr. President, there are no such good people who support Nazism and White Supremacy, even ones sitting in the People’s House.
-Jason
For further Reading
Edwin Black, IBM and the Holocaust. Crown Books (2001)
Richard Evans. Coming of the Third Reich (Book One in The History of the Third Reich Trilogy). Penguin Books; Reprint edition (February 1, 2005).
Richard Evans. The Third Reich in Power (Book Two in The History of the Third Reich Trilogy). Penguin Books; Reprint edition (September 26, 2006).
Richard Evans. The Third Reich at War (Book Three in The History of the Third Reich). Penguin Books (February 23, 2010).
Benjamin Carter Hett. The Death of Democracy: Hitler's Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic. St. Martin's Griffin; Reprint edition (June 18, 2019).
Ian Kershaw. Hitler: 1889-1936, Hubris. W. W. Norton & Company (January 1, 1999).
Ian Kershaw. Hitler: 1936-1945, Nemesis. W. W. Norton & Company; First Paperback. edition (September 17, 2001).
Eugen Koch. The Theory and Practice of Hell: The German Concentration Camps and the System Behind Them. Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Reprint edition (September 19, 2006).
Geoffrey P. Megargee. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945, Volume 1. Indiana University Press; First Edition/First Printing edition (May 22, 2009).
Geoffrey P. Megargee. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945, Volume II: Ghettos in German-Occupied Eastern Europe. Indiana University Press (May 4, 2012).
Geoffrey P. Megargee. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945, vol. III: Camps and Ghettos under European Regimes Aligned with Nazi Germany. Indiana University Press (May 29, 2018).
Nikolaus Wachsmann. KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps. Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Reprint edition (August 2, 2016).
Wiesel, Eli. Night. Hill and Wang (January 16, 2006).
Websites for Further Information
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. https://www.ushmm.org/
Yad Vashem Orgainzation. https://www.yadvashem.org/
[1] See https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/18/trump-campaign-runs-ads-with-marking-once-used-by-nazis-designate-political-prisoners/ for an example of contemporary coverage.
[2] Though many former Nazis served both in the government and military of West Germany.
[3] Transcript available at https://www.politifact.com/article/2019/apr/26/context-trumps-very-fine-people-both-sides-remarks/