Posters from the neo-Nazi group National Socialist Legion were removed from near the campus of Duke University, North Carolina.
The posters, which were removed on Monday, included a depiction of a figure pointing a gun at an antisemitic caricature of a Jew. The caricature was superimposed on an image of an octopus wrapped around the globe, itself an antisemitic image used in Nazi propaganda. The antisemitic caricature used is referred to euphemistically as the “happy merchant”, a far right internet meme which has become a mainstay of the alt right’s antisemitism. The poster read “right of revolution. Your ancestors threw off foreign oppression, time for you as well” – a statement that, alongside the violent imagery, is clearly a veiled call to violence against Jews.
The other poster, pictured below, ranted about “greedy Jews” and “Zionist oppression”. As well as listing several Jews, singling them out above non-Jews as “greedy” – an antisemitic canard with a long history. The poster also depicted a presumably non-Jewish man begging to an image of a man in a top hat with the Star of David on it.
National Socialist Legion are clearly an unapologetic neo-Nazi group. They describe themselves as a “Revolutionary National Socialist organization dedicated to protecting the White European Race” who “perform both activism and readiness for the coming Racial Holy War”. The inclusion of the term “readiness” clearly suggests that they are a dangerous paramilitary group, and the violent imagery in their material should be taken extremely seriously.
It is not yet known whether any serious police investigation has been undertaken.
