Germany's Black Holocaust: 1890-1945

by Carr, Firpo

  The parents, Jehovah’s Witnesses, forbade their sons to celebrate Christmas and discouraged David from pursuing a military career. “He could not relate to that,” Worth said of David.

  The parents’ faith and the beliefs of their sons, who shaved their heads, clashed.

  Worth said he would be betraying a confidence if he revealed what David told him about why the killings occurred. “He had no thoughts that night about going home and beating people to death,” Worth said.

  Bryan’s stabbing of the mother apparently triggered the killing spree. David said his brother told him and Birdwell that if they chickened out, they’d be killed, too.

  Steinberg said Bryan did influence David’s life, but David had a mind of his own and knew what he was doing.

  “David Freeman is not unintelligent,” he said. “He may look like a big kid, but his IQ is well over 100.”

  Steinberg speculated that Dennis and Brenda Freeman “tried to bring their children back to the fold and tried to seek help for them.” The sons resisted.

  David told police the parents were strict and imposed too many rules on them.

  Writings by Brenda Freeman indicate she thought that perhaps they did not discipline their sons enough and let their children have too big a role in decision-making. The well-intentioned parents may have lost control of their sons, and it was too late to bring them back, according to Steinberg.

  Nelson Birdwell III was convicted of first-degree murder in the beating death of his uncle but was acquitted in the murders of his aunt and young cousin.

  Birdwell, 19, who is called Ben, will serve life in prison, the same penalty imposed on admitted murderers Bryan and David Freeman, his cousins.

  “He is joined with the Freeman brothers now in murder, in some ways for all eternity, and I think that is appropriate,” said District Attorney Robert Steinberg.

  Defense lawyer Richard Makoul vowed to appeal. “I never believed he was guilty,” he said. “He always said he was innocent. I am very concerned that an innocent man has been convicted.”

  The Lehigh County jury deliberated about seven hours over two days before convicting Birdwell in the murder of Dennis Freeman, 54, father of Bryan and David. He also was found guilty of conspiracy and hindering apprehension of the Freeman brothers.

  The verdict doesn’t answer the question of who killed Erik, whose death legally goes unavenged.

  David, 17, admitted he bludgeoned his sleeping father with an aluminum baseball bat, and Bryan, 18, said he stabbed his mother. Neither admitted killing Erik, who police believe was fatally beaten with a 3-foot pickax handle in the family’s Salisbury Township home on Feb. 26, 1995.

  Birdwell’s face was blank when the verdict was read in the small courtroom packed with about 70 people, an overflow crowd listening outside the open courtroom door. He turned in his chair and looked at his father and grandfather in the front row.

  The verdict eliminated some aggravating circumstances that Steinberg could have used to pursue the death penalty, so the jury was directed to give a sentence of life.

  When the jury returned to the courtroom after writing the sentence on the verdict slip, everyone stood but Nelson Birdwell Jr., the defendant’s father.

  The nine women and three men added to the slip: life “with no chance of parole,” which brought a gasp from Birdwell’s supporters.

  When the handcuffed and shackled Birdwell was taken from the courtroom, he gave a half grin to his family and mouthed that he would call them.

  “He’s just in a state of befuddlement,” Makoul said.

  Because the death penalty was not an issue, Steinberg did not present evidence about Birdwell’s criminal past.

  As a juvenile in 1993, Birdwell was found delinquent for stealing a revolver from a home. He later broke into the same home with other juveniles, stole a pistol and exchanged the guns for drugs, according to prosecutors.

  Makoul said a major appeal issue will be President Judge James N. Diefenderfer’s refusal to move the trial to another county because of pretrial publicity. He said Birdwell could not get a fair trial because jurors had heard of the case of the skinhead brothers and their cousin. Merely hearing about a case doesn’t make someone a biased juror, Steinberg said.

  After their arrest March 1, 1995, photographs and television footage of the trio were shown by the local, state and national media. The young men’s shaved heads and tattoos of swastikas; Berzerker, a term for a fierce Norse warrior, and the Nazi salute “Sieg Heil” on their foreheads and bodies made them imposing figures.

  Makoul said he will continue in the case if the court declares Birdwell indigent and appoints Makoul to represent him on appeal. The county would pay for legal fees and for lengthy transcripts of court proceedings.

  Steinberg said the evidence supported the verdict. “I have no doubts that Nelson Birdwell was guilty of these offenses,” he said. “And, to some degree, that was proven in the courtroom.

  “In my heart, I still believe that Nelson Birdwell III killed Erik,” he said, adding that the jury must have had reasonable doubt.

  The jury apparently believed two people had a hand in killing Dennis, and Birdwell was one of them.

  The defense argued that prosecutors couldn’t prove Birdwell killed any of the victims, knew the brothers would or shared their desire to rid their lives of the parents they despised.

  Prosecutors, Makoul said, only could prove Birdwell was in the house at 1635 Ehrets Lane when the murders occurred and that he fled with the brothers to Michigan.

  Steinberg said the strongest evidence was more than 80 small dots of Dennis’ blood on a T-shirt Birdwell was wearing and his lies to police. Birdwell first said nothing about the murders. He later said he saw Bryan stab Brenda downstairs but didn’t go upstairs where the father and Erik were killed in their rooms.

  Steinberg argued that the blood put Birdwell in his uncle’s room, wielding one of the weapons that killed Dennis. David beat his father with a bat, and Birdwell landed blows with a metal exercise bar, the prosecution said.

  The defense claimed Birdwell could have gotten blood on his shirt by looking in the room and getting sprayed with it.

  Makoul contended that Birdwell left with the brothers out of fear and developed a stress disorder after witnessing the horror. He didn’t have the intellect to consider calling police or escaping from the brothers and didn’t stop the killing because he thought he’d be killed or hurt, the defense said.

  Steinberg said Birdwell is not a dullard, as the defense has portrayed him. He was cunning enough to lie to police, he said.

  He speculated that the three young men had thought about the murders and may have readied the weapons. The pickax handle did not have the pick head. A metal exercise bar was missing a rubber grip at one end, making it a more dangerous weapon.

  Steinberg said the three waited for the right moment to kill. The moment came that winter evening when the brothers and Birdwell went to the Freeman house after dinner and a movie. Brenda believed her sons had been drinking and repeatedly told Birdwell to go home.

  Birdwell left several times and sneaked back in through a bathroom window.

  The last time Brenda came downstairs to tell Birdwell to leave, Bryan stabbed her, according to prosecutors.

  David and Birdwell said Bryan told them, “You guys puss out, I’ll kill you both.”

  The next logical person to be killed was Dennis because he posed the biggest problem, Steinberg said, and two people were needed to kill him.

  Prosecutors theorized that Erik was the last killed because the boy could be easily overwhelmed in his sleep.[176]

  This incident is so shocking that the minds of some may refuse to acknowledge the reality of such heinous crimes, irrespective of the religious affiliation of the innocent victims. Heavy hearts go out to the friends and relatives of the Freeman family.

  Since religion is mixed in with this appalling situation, it can unequivocally be stated that Jehovah’s Witnesses
who are White, whether they were in Europe’s Nazi Germany, or, in “The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave,” were still treated like “Negroes.”

  And, for all intents and purposes, Dennis Freeman, Brenda Freeman, and young Erik Freeman may as just as well been Black. For to young neo-Nazis Brian and David Freeman, they were apparently as bad as “niggers.”

  To further illustrate the point that the group that Brian and David are associated with particularly targets Blacks, please consider what follows.

  The Friday, August 20, 1999 issue of the Los Angeles Times featured on the front page of its Metro section an article entitled, “Nazi Gang Called Key Player in Drug Trade.”

  Under the heading “Violence,” the paper wrote: “Sheriffs of Los Angeles and Orange counties say it is the fastest-growing such hate group in the state and is linked to the distribution of speed.”

  With all of this having been said, please note very carefully what group in particular is being singled out by one of the very latest permutations of National Socialists here in America, the Nazi Lowriders:

  A hate group discovered in Costa Mesa six years ago is now believed to be the fastest-growing white supremacists gang in California and a major player in the methamphetamine drug trade, according to a report released Thursday.

  The study, the most extensive to date of the Nazi Lowrider gang, was prepared by the Anti-Defamation League using state and federal crime data. It was presented Thursday in Santa Ana by Sheriffs Lee Baca of Los Angeles County and Mike Carona of Orange County.

  They said the Nazi Lowriders are a rising force in street crime and drug sales and have been involved in several high-profile hate incidents in both counties. Carona and Baca consider the gang so dangerous that they have segregated Nazi Lowriders in county jails from other prisoners after repeated attacks by members on black inmates in Los Angeles. [Emphasis supplied.]

  Members of the hate group allegedly attacked a 12-year-old Latino boy with metal pipe in 1996 at Mission Viejo video arcade, police said. More serious incidents followed in Lancaster, where over the last three years Nazi Lowriders have been accused of beating a black teenager with a baseball bat and stabbing a black man several times in the back. Carona and Baca also expressed concern that the group might be attempting to unite other white supremacist gangs. “It’s a menace we all have to attack,” said Baca, who said the Nazi Lowriders are now more of a problem in his jails than the Mexican Mafia. [Emphasis supplied.]

  The group first caught the attention of authorities in Costa Mesa, where members were running a drug ring. Gang membership grew from 28 in 1996 to an estimated 1,300 nationwide in 1998, according [to] the study. Unlike traditional street gangs, the Nazi Lowriders and other white supremacist groups do not carve out specific territory, hate-crime experts said.

  “They are not typical of skinhead organizations and not well defined like the Ku Klux Klan or Aryan Nations,” said Chris Freeman, a research associate for the Atlanta-based Center for Democratic Renewal, which monitors far right-wing groups. “They are roving gangs,” Freeman added. “‘Street soldiers’ is the term used by white supremacists to refer to them. They hit and they leave and they are hard to track and pin down.”

  The group has created its own culture, the study found, including hand signals, language and dress codes. Member’s bodies are often tattooed with swastikas, pictures of Adolf Hitler and other Nazi imagery, it stated. According to the report, members are typically in their late teens or early 20s. To join the gang, they must profess loyalty to the white race. Though they express hatred for Jews, Asians and other minorities, the gang tends to focus its hatred on blacks, the report said. In prisons, the gang often allies itself with Latino counterparts in attacks on black inmates. [Emphasis supplied.]

  Tom Leyden, a former neo-Nazi skinhead who is now a consultant for the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said the gang is unique in that it operates under dual philosophies. It combines drug-selling expertise with the primarily hate-based credo of skinhead gangs, he said.[177]

  The penultimate paragraph in the above article sums it up very well. It is worth repeating here in larger print, even though I realize the reader can simply reread it:

  “Though they express hatred for Jews, Asians and other minorities, the gang tends to focus its hatred on blacks, the report said. In prisons, the gang often allies itself with Latino counterparts in attacks on black inmates.”

  As it was in Hitler’s day and time, of all the “inferior” races that Hitler and the Nazi juggernaut targeted, Blacks were the most despised. But, as we have learned earlier in this chapter, when race was not at issue, the Witnesses were treated the worse. Blacks and Witnesses together again.

  Such brutality and violence waged against unarmed, non-threatening, innocent individuals like Dennis, Brenda, and Eric Freeman have provoked some Blacks, individually and collectively, to defend themselves.

  Black groups like the New Black Panther Party (NBPP) have armed themselves and even confronted the likes of the Ku Klux Klan. The late Khallid Abdul Muhammad founded and led the NBPP up until his death. He loathed White supremacy and intimated that if he had his way he would kill them all.

  Prior to the inception of the NBPP, Muhammad was the national spokesman for the Nation of Islam (NOI), considered by some to be a radical Black group. The most notable of NOI officials in the past was none other than Malcolm X.

  Malcolm was a firebrand who also loathed White supremacy. He was convinced that the Klan was directly responsible for the death of his beloved father, who himself hated White supremacy, and who characterized himself as a Black Nationalist.

  Here is where the intrigue begins. The Nation of Islam and the American Nazi Party, mutual enemies, figuratively shook hands in agreement—and on more than one occasion at that! In fact, representatives from both organizations met and literally shook hands.

  What could these two groups possibly agree on, given the fact that both groups hate each other? The next chapter answers this fascinating question.

  Chapter Seven

  Black Separatists, White Supremacists,

  and Other Strange Bedfellows

  “George Lincoln Rockwell, the chief of

  the American Nazi Party … and

  Malcolm X decided that … they

  were in complete agreement.”[178]

  —James Baldwin

  The Fire Next Time

  Historically, White supremacist groups and the Black groups who defended themselves by meeting force with force have been at each other’s throats. One would hardly expect somewhat of a loose, perhaps even symbiotic, relationship to exist between the two.

  But, it appears as if this is exactly what has happened.

  Judging the entire complex situation prima facie, one would no doubt reach the conclusion that Black separatist organizations coordinated (and perhaps continue to coordinate to some extent) their efforts with White supremacist organizations to reach a mutual goal.

  And just what might that singular goal be?

  Both organizations want Blacks and Whites to be separate. It is that simple. But, as simple as it is, this is only part of the story. The motivations, yes, the reasons behind their desire to be separate are worlds apart.

  White supremacist groups want nothing to do with Black people because of the very thing implied by their designation: they want supremacy over Black people. White supremacists think they are better, yes, superior to Black people. So, why should they coexist?

  Black Nationalist groups, on the other hand, are reacting to the words, thoughts, and actions; to the militancy, of White supremacist groups by stating that they as Black people want nothing to do with White people who want nothing to do with them. Blacks see their position as a reciprocal one.

  Whites initiate. Blacks reciprocate.

  Long before Malcolm X and George Lincoln Rockwell[§§§§§§§§§§§§§§] decided that they were struggling for the same goal (as James Baldwin points out in a quote just unde
r the chapter title), there was a parade of notable Black separatist leaders who had tirelessly fought for the cause over the decades.

  Names like Paul Cuffe, Martin R. Delany, and Marcus Garvey may come to the minds of some who are familiar with separatist movements.

  While it may have been the farthest thing from the minds of most Black abolitionists and separatists to work in concert with White supremacists groups, a few dared to not only think it, but to do it. Marcus Garvey was one of these.

  Marcus Mosiah Garvey and the

  Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

  On August 1, 1914, Jamaican-born Marcus Mosiah Garvey (Sunrise: August 17, 1887, Sunset: June 10, 1940) founded an organization called the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).

  As its name indicates, the organization’s purpose was to improve the quality of life for Black people (or, “Negroes,” as they were then known) first in Jamaica, and then throughout the world.

  Garvey did not believe that Black people would ever get a fair chance at a good life in the United States where he arrived on March 23, 1916, and where he eventually became famous. So, he advocated the idea of Black separatism.

  This separatism was not merely an ostracizing of oneself from White American society. No, this action would not suffice. Garvey wanted all Blacks interested in doing so to go back to where Blacks came from in the first place—Africa.

  He felt that Europe was for Europeans; Asia was for Asians; and Africa was for Africans—yes, even those Africans who were in America.

  Garvey, however, encountered some resistance among the ranks of Black Americans. Some were too rooted in America, with all that came with it, to ever even want to entertain the idea of leaving what was, in reality, their real “home,” or place of birth.

  What would be the solution to this quiet (but sometimes vocal) resistance? “Convince Black people that they are not wanted here,” thought Garvey. But how could he possibly do this?