Neo-Nazis: Stormtroopers of the Web

While the National Alliance and Aryan Nations Web sites pay tribute to Nazism mostly by espousing neo-Nazi philosophies, other Web sites make direct references to Nazism's most significant historical manifestation, Adolf Hitler's Nazi party. The symbols associated with Hitler's Nazis are attractive to bigots on the Web because they suggest anti-Semitism in an immediate, forceful way to the general public.

Like Identity "churches," neo-Nazis use the Web to market merchandise, selling items emblazoned with the instantly recognizable symbols of Hitler's Nazi party. Naming itself for the Shutzstaffel, the elite section of the Nazi Party that ran Hitler's extermination camps, the online store SS Enterprises specializes in selling Nazi-related paraphernalia, including newly-designed T-shirts, pins, patches, hats, stickers, flags, belt buckles, arm bands, and helmets bearing swastikas, the initials "SS," a German eagle, or an iron cross. Also available are Nazi patches, pins, rings, and hats designed during Hitler's era. Like the T-shirt a music fan might buy at a rock concert, one shirt reads "Adolf Hitler European

The symbols associated with Hitler's Nazis are attractive to bigots on the Web because they suggest anti-Semitism in an immediate, forceful way to the general public.

Tour 1939-1945," listing the nations that Hitler invaded during those years. Other white supremacist T-shirts sold by SS Enterprises feature racist slogans such as "If we knew they were going to be this much trouble, we'd a picked our own damn cotton!!" or depictions of Klansmen behind phrases like "Boyz N' the Hood." Another shirt depicts a "Black Family Tree": a tree with nooses hung from it, seemingly ready for a Klan-style lynching.