You are here: 2000 / Workshops, Panels and Seminars / Workshops on Education / Workshop 4 on Education, "Use and Misuse of the Internet" / Presentation by Asst. Director Mark Weitzman
	Participants Countries and organizations Conference documentation Conference programme				Report from Workshop 4 on Education: "Use and misuse of the Internet" Presentation by Mrs. Karen Jungblut Presentation by Asst. Director Mark Weitzman Presentation by Dr. Christopher Wolf Presentation by Asst. Director Mark Weitzman Weitzman, Mark Presentation by Mark Weitzman If the Twentieth century can lay claim to being known as the century of genocide, the Holocaust has become the paradigm of genocide, the prime (although unfortunately not the only) example of hate crimes on its most massive scale. Unfortunately, more than fifty years after the end of the Holocaust, in the beginning of a new millenium, hate crimes, that is crimes based upon the distinctions of others, have continued to be a prominent and dismaying presence in our world. Both in the United States, my home, as well as here, in our host country, Sweden, hate crimes have become a constant part of our everyday vocabulary. But our two countries are certainly not alone in facing this issue. Whether it is in Bosnia, Rwanda or in East Timor people are still attempting to harm others for the crime of their simply existing and being different. Other countries, such as Germany and South Africa are still trying to recover, to make amends for their national participation in hate crimes. They are attempting to restore their own national integrity and to reconcile their historical conscience with their current self-consciousness in an effort to create a self-definition that can include the genocidal past in the democratic present. Hate crimes do not exist in a vacuum. Unlike the goddess Athena, they do not spring forth full-grown. Hate crimes are planted, nourished and fertilized. They are planted in the home, nourished by society and fertilized by propaganda. After a neo-Nazi extremist went on a murderous rampage near Chicago over the weekend of July 4th, 1999, the New York Times ran a front page story entitled ”Hate Groups Seeking Broader Reach” that attempted to explain the recent crimes that follow this growth. While the New York Times recognized that there are obviously many reasons that contribute to this upsurge, it was noted there that one of the most important would have to be the empowering effect of the Internet on propaganda and recruitment for the extremist movements. This growth can be seen in the rapid growth of extremist web sites. In April of 1995, at the time of the Oklahoma City bombing, there was only one such site online. As of the writing of this article, in November of 1999, there are about two thousand. These statistics mirror the growth in the use of the Internet itself. With the number of online users now over two hundred million, extremists of all stripes have recognized that they can now reach their largest potential audience ever. There are many reasons for this. Internet use is inexpensive. It does not expose the user to physical risk or even the social ostracism that can occur if the users identity is known. People can change their name, age or even gender in order to remain anonymous. It reaches anywhere in the world, penetrating even behind the doors of homes, schools or libraries, doors that were in the past impervious to such propaganda. The value of this new electronic distribution can be realized by a quick comparison with the older and more traditional methods of propaganda. An older guide that was posted online last year by a minister of a racist religion described a series of actions (that ranged from ”secretly leaving tracts in restrooms” to sending letters to small newspapers or stuffing rural newspaper boxes. At its best this system would ”easily reach one thousand homes per month.” When we compare the potential audience of over two hundred million people available through the Internet with the limited numbers accessible through the earlier methods, we can readily acknowledge the efficacy of the new medium. A brief look at the types of sites that we are considering shows the variety of targets includes antisemitic, racist, homophobic, anti-Catholic, anti-Islamic and anti-abortion ”providers” among others. They reflect the usual targets of hate that are found in society today, as well as revitalizing strands of hate that had appeared to be almost dormant. One of the earliest extremist sites is Don Black’s Stormfront page. In 1995 this site had three links to other extremist sites compared to the nearly 100 links that it presently contains. These links can connect users to almost every genre of extremism, including White Nationalism/ White Patriotism, Eugenics, Political Campaigns, Revisionism (Holocaust Denial), Christian Identity, Ku Klux Klan, Skinheads, White Power Music and others. Another major site is that of the World Church of the Creator, run by Matthew Hale, referred to as its Pontifex Maximus (a Latin term referring to the ‘chief representative in religious matters of the ancient kings of Rome”.) Hale is a charismatic, young (under thirty) veteran racist from East Peoria, Illinois. He was able to rejuvenate an almost extinct group with a site that has become one of the fastest growing extremist sites on the net. A pseudo-religion, Creativity claims to be ”established for the survival, expansion and advancement of our white race exclusively.” It focuses on recruiting women and children into the racist movement, and has links to online versions of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The National Alliance site is another integral part of the extremist Internet world. The Alliance, one of the most dangerous and virulent of the Neo-Nazi groups, is headed by Dr. William Pierce, a Ph.D. in physics who left academia to become a full-time Nazi. The National Alliance site connects users to Pierce’s notorious Turner Diaries, which he wrote under the pseudonym of Andrew MacDonald. This site also features essays such as, ”Who Rules America?” that states ”Once we have absorbed and understood the fact of Jewish media control, it is our inescapable responsibility to do whatever is necessary (emphasis in the original) to break that control. We must shrink from nothing in combating this evil power which has fastened its deadly grip onto our people and is injecting its lethal poison into their minds and souls. If we fail to destroy it, it will certainly destroy our race.” This veiled call to violence is couched to incite action and yet is vague enough to protect Pierce from legal prosecution. Another online entry in Black’s category of White Nationalism/Patriotism is that of Louis Beam, a longtime extremist and backbone of the Militia movement. Beam holds the title of Ambassador at Large from the Aryan Nations and he also wrote the essay ”Leaderless Resistance” (available online) which describes how best to fight ”the increasing persecution and oppression” of the ” (U.S.) federal tyranny which now represents a threat to everyone” (emphasis in the original). Leaderless Resistance is believed to have helped inspire such ”lone wolf”acts as Timothy McVeigh’s Oklahoma City bombing (a bombing for which Beam blames the U.S. government.) Writings such as this are found on the net and are accessible to everyone, including those extremists who consider themselves to be in a state of war against the U.S. government. These sites not only provide existing extremists, but also newcomers and other Internet browsers, with information and possible inspiration. In the ”lone wolf” version of ”Leaderless Resistance” the ability of one individual to commit a desperate act of violence is praised, and points are awarded based on the identity of the victim. The ”religion” known as Christian Identity is also utilizing the valuable power of the Internet. Identity members believe that ”there are literal children of Satan in the world today…who are the descendents of Cain, who was a result of Eve’s original sin, her physical seduction by Satan.” The Aryan Nation Creed continues: ”We know that because there is a battle and a natural enmity between the children of Satan and the children of the most High God (Yahweh).” So ”there is a battle being fought this day between the Children of Darkness (today known as Jews) and the children of light (Yahweh, the Everliving God, the Aryan Race, the true Israel of the Bible.)” The Christian Identity sites use Biblical racism as a justification for a Racial Holy War (RAHOWA, an acronym that appears frequently in various extremist writings.) In visiting these sites, Internet users can find Identity data to support different forms of racism and Antisemitism. Antisemitism also appears in the guise of scholarship on the Internet. The Institute for Historical Review, the world center of Holocaust, has an elaborate site that includes online entries from the print Journal of Historical Review, the Institute’s pseudo-scholarly journal. These writings along with the previously cited groups, names, and works are all made accessible through the Stormfront homepage and links. While the sites mentioned above are essentially from the United States, it is foolish to consider that problem as just an American one. As a recent article in the New York Times described it, the Internet is ”The First Global Colony.” Thus we can find web sites from Australia to Scandinavia, including Europe and South Africa, that have attempted to teach hate through technology. For example, one Australian site is perhaps the largest archive of original Nazi propaganda online. This site describes itself as an ”uncompromisingly positive National Socialist site” and contains items such as a memorial book for Reinhard Heydrich, a Handbook for the schooling of Hitler Youth, a section on the Aryan Female and a book called ”The Celebration of Special Festivities in the Life of the SS Family.” All of this material is translated into English. Stormfront has German and Spanish language sections, while Aryan Nations has signs for thirteen different languages on their web site. Ahmed Rami’s Radio Islam, based in Sweden, contains fourteen different languages, with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the classic antisemitic forgery, translated into eight languages there. The above only represents a sampling of extremist sites designed to give perspective on the variety of extremism present online. The late Abraham Joshua Heschel once wrote: ”There are moments when we all stand together and see our faces in the mirror” The Internet has increasingly brought us together, linked by networks and webs of communication and commerce. It has also allowed us to see more of our faces, including the expressions of hate that we customarily try to repress and inhibit. Thus, as the Internet increasingly becomes that ”First Global Colony” mentioned earlier we must remember exactly how interconnected we truly have become and heed the warning given a decade ago by Simon Wiesenthal, when he wrote: ”The combination of hatred and technology is the greatest danger threatening mankind.” >> Back to top				Introduction Opening Session: Messages and speeches Plenary Sessions: Messages and speeches Workshops, Panels and Seminars Summary Report on Panels and Workshops Panel 1: Holocaust Education - Where Are We Going? Panel 2: Remembering the Holocaust - The challenges of Memory Panel 3: Holocaust Research - From the Archives to the Classroom Workshops on Education Workshops on Remembrance and Representation Workshops on Research Closing Session and Declaration Other Activities
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