Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza: Propaganda & Antisemitism

Data Point: Propaganda

Study the image above, “White Supremacist Propaganda Incidents in the US” (tap the chart to expand it and see a larger image).

What does the data show about incidents on college and university campuses? What does the data show about off campus incidents?

Nazi symbols such as the swastika and the skull and crossbones—the “totenkompf”—continue to feature prominently in propaganda. The “totenkompf,” which means “death’s head” in German, was used by the SS (Schutzstaffel; Protection Squadrons), elite Nazis in charge of the murder of European Jews. Today, white supremacists display the totenkompf to symbolize Nazism and antisemitic ideology.

Other common Nazi symbols that are used by white supremacists include the Iron Cross, the Nazi eagle, the Nazi party flag and SS bolts. The above photo, from 1944, shows these symbols.

White supremacists continue to spread antisemitic propaganda in the form of pamphlets, leaflets, and banners—the same modes of communication the Nazis used—but the internet is also filled with antisemitic websites, social media sites, chatrooms and videos.

Propaganda on the internet and on college campuses often takes aim at Jewish people and immigrants. Immigrants are portrayed as being the “other,” the same tactic used by the Nazis to pit one people against another in their plan to create an “Aryan” nation.

Source: “White Supremacists Double Down on Propaganda in 2019.” Anti-Defamation League.

Source: “New White Supremacist Tactic: Banners of Hate.” Anti-Defamation League.


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