Free Republic

Uncle Hugo's and Uncle Edgar's were legendary among the community of science fiction, fantasy, and mystery readers—and now they're gone. Venerable Minneapolis science fiction and fantasy bookstore Uncle Hugo’s and its sister store in the same building, Uncle Edgar’s, which specialized in mysteries, were both burned to ruins last Friday night by rioters. The store took its name from two major awards in the genre fields, science fiction’s Hugo awards, and mysteries Edgar’s. Independent bookstores are a threatened American institution, and Uncle Hugo’s was considered a flagship operation. Owner Don Blyly was noted for his ability to adapt to modern...

Police deployed water cannons on Saturday in an effort to break up an antifa demonstration that was disrupting an anti-lockdown rally in Hamburg, Germany. The authorities were called to action after 120 antifa counter-protesters, dressed in black hoodies, consistently ignored requests to steer clear of the "Vigil for the Basic Law" rally against the lockdown measures. The initial lockdown protest featured those who insisted that the government reopen the economy. This group was given the go-ahead to move forward with their event after the organizers agreed to keep the limit of attendees below 750 as opposed to the thousands who...

Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson told them, “I appreciate that some independent contractors are upset… AB5 took away their lollipop.” She thinks their jobs are “lollipops”?

When Germany invaded the Isle of Sark—the last foothold of feudalism in the western world—Dame Sibyl Hathaway protected her people with the unlikeliest of weapons: Feudal etiquette, old-world manners, and a dollop of classic snobbery. Dame Sibyl Hathaway had 275 Nazi prisoners on her hands and knew exactly what she wanted to do with them. It was May 1945. Five years earlier, Germany had invaded Hathaway’s home in the British Channel Islands, a tiny isle of 400 called Sark. Despite having no modern defense network or fancy gun emplacements—it didn’t even have electricity—Sark had proven itself to be uniquely prepared...

State Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, said Monday he was “horrified” by State Rep. Chris Dush’s comments comparing the Wolf administration’s efforts to slow the spread of covid-19 with the Nazi Party. During a committee hearing Monday, Dush, R-Jefferson, expressed his displeasure with what he perceived as Gov. Tom Wolf’s lack of transparency in releasing coronavirus data and information about the state’s business waiver process. “The press has been having a very difficult time fulfilling its responsibility to the public getting information out because this governor has repeatedly refused all sorts of information,” said Dush at a House State Government...

In these execution-focused pages we have seen the death penalty meted out to ideological enemies whom the Nazis hastened to dispose of in their last hours; almost infinitely more numerous were everyday people who by Berlin’s Götterdämmerung were made so much meat for the ordnance of the advancing Allies. On this date in 1945, Robert Limpert’s effort to avoid the latter fate for his native Ansbach caused him to suffer the pangs of an entirely gratuitous execution.

Physician complicity in, and indeed responsibility for, certain Nazi crimes against humanity has been well documented in books and treatises by historians and other scholars. The Nuremberg Doctors’ Trial provided the first public examination of these acts, but has subsequently been criticized for its narrow focus on a relatively small number of defendants. For the better part of 50 years, mainstream medical literature all but ignored this subject (a notable exception being the article by Leo Alexander, a physician consultant at the Nuremberg trial, which appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1949. Part of this agnosia was...

"...George Soros came to the United States in 1956. At some point, he became a citizen of this country. It is unknown whether he was ever asked about what he did during the war. Such questions often weren’t asked at the time and this allowed many Nazi war criminals to penetrate the United States. But we do know that Soros had trouble obtaining a visa to originally enter the United States. Soros obtained his visa under the skilled worker quotas of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. While the bill makes no specific mention of Nazi war crimes, it...

A gruesome WWII photo album made from the skin of Nazi death camp victims has been found at a bric-a-brac antiques market in Poland. The battered WWII album was handed over to staff at the Auschwitz Memorial Museum after the buyer noticed the cover had 'a tattoo, human hair and a bad smell'. Museum experts have now analysed the album's cover and binding and say it is likely that the skin came from an inmate murdered at the Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald, in Germany. They added that it was 'without doubt proof of a crime against humanity.'

Adolf Hitler loved American movies. Every night at about 9:00, after the Führer had tired out his listeners with his hours-long monologues, he would lead his dinner guests to his private screening room. The lights would go down, and Hitler would fall silent, probably for the first time that day. He laughed heartily at his favorites Laurel and Hardy and Mickey Mouse, and he adored Greta Garbo: Camille brought tears to the Führer’s eyes. Tarzan, on the other hand, he thought was silly. As it turns out, Hitler’s love for American movies was reciprocated by Hollywood. A forthcoming book by...

Trigger warning: This essay is about America's growing Nazi problem. Some Nazis may be offended. Democrats are on the hunt for Nazis. Their own elected officials tell us so. Senators and congressmen assure us that in Donald Trump's America "hate is on the rise." Nobody can feel safe, they say. Not Jews, not blacks, not immigrants, not women, not even American Indians drumming in the faces of young school boys. Everyone must be on constant guard for hate. It must be confronted and nipped in the bud. If you're not sure who is spreading this hate, look for red ball...

When the Bible says that mankind was created “in the image of God” we gain from that an understanding of our capabilities. We also learn about the inherent worth of human life. What is a person worth? Ninety-nine percent of a human body consists of six elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. The remaining one percent consists of minor elements and trace elements. If you purchased these chemicals on the market, you would have to spend a bit more than $100. Most of us believe people are worth more than $100. Yet not everyone. The Nazis considered Jews,...

This International Holocaust Remembrance Day, take time to remember the victims, remember the survivors, and remember Carl Lutz, the man responsible for the largest civilian rescue mission of the entire Holocaust.As the world observes International Holocaust Remembrance Day Jan. 27, victims and survivors will be honored with incredible stories of bravery and sacrifice. This year marks the 75th anniversary of liberation and the end of the Second World War, plus the 125th anniversary of the birth of Carl Lutz, a man whose story remains mostly lost to history. LutzÂ’s actions toward the end of the war make him responsible for...

In my last column, “Newsweek Hits a New Low,” I wrote about Newsweek’s dishonest description of what I had said on one of my weekly PragerU “Fireside Chats.” A viewer had asked me to respond to a statement Anne Frank made in her epic Holocaust diary. Frank said, “Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.” The Newsweek headline, “Conservative Radio Host Ridicules Anne Frank,” was simply a lie. In order for readers to appreciate the level of mendacity, I had my entire response transcribed and placed it in the column. A few days later I received...

It’s not often an old joke evolves into a catchphrase for mass violence, but that’s just what’s happened this past year when a variety of extremist and fringe movements and subcultures adopted the word “boogaloo” as shorthand for a future civil war. From militia groups to white supremacists, extremists on a range of online platforms talk about—and sometimes even anticipate—the “boogaloo.” The rise of “boogaloo,” and its casual acceptance of future mass violence, is disturbing. Among some extremists, it may even signify an increased willingness to engage in violence. “Boogaloo” has its roots in decades of jokes about an old...

Hannie Schaft and Freddie Oversteegen (right) used good looks and flirtatious ruses to coax Nazis out of Dutch bars and to their deaths -- at times pulling the triggers themselves. Truus Oversteegen (pictured with rifle) worked along side Hannie and Freddie. When she came across a Nazi killing an infant by repeatedly swinging its tiny body against a brick wall, Truus Oversteegen didnÂ’t flinch. The freckle-faced teenager, who was just three months shy of her 17th birthday when Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, was a newly minted member of the Dutch resistance. She had been mostly assigned to...

His head rests face-down on the desk of his wood-panelled office, his phone, papers, diary and filing tray pushed away; his wife sprawls in a plush armchair; spread-eagled on a leather sofa is his smartly dressed daughter. At first glance, they could simply be dozing off after a heavy lunch of sauerkraut, schnitzel and schnapps. The truth is altogether grimmer.

Dame Mary Barraco now and then. She was knighted "Dame" by the King of Belgium in 2004 for her work as a freedom fighter. (Courtesy of the Holocaust Commission of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater) Mary Sigillo Barraco never forgot what happened to her inside a Gestapo torture cell. She couldn’t forget her beatings if she tried, for she bore the mental and physical scars for the rest of her life. She’d landed there at just 19 after fighting the Nazi regime every way she could: flirting with guards to rescue prisoners of war, working on an underground...

Who said Joe Scarborough was consumed with hatred of President Trump? Take it back! Because on today's Morning Joe, Scarborough showed such remarkable restraint, saying Trump should only "maybe" be compared to the perpetrators of genocide and gas chambers.Ed Luce of the Financial Times had mentioned that the UN had observed World Genocide Day earlier this week, and that the Secretary-General had issued a statement saying that "the Holocaust didn't begin in the gas chambers. It began years before with hate speech." Luce gave the standard liberal disclaimer, claiming he wasn't suggesting "for a moment" that America's heading toward genocide....

Let's be clear: Anthony "The Mooch" Scaramucci wants you to know he isn't comparing congressional Republicans to Hitler—just to the people who collaborated with Hitler! Scaramucci was back on CNN this morning for one of his regular Trump-bashing fests with Alisyn Camerota. The Mooch is of course President Trump's quondam communications director, who, having been defenestrated after a tenure record-breaking for its brevity, has turned into one of the president's most bitter antagonists. Scaramucci vilified the congressional Republicans supporting President Trump as "Vichy Republicans," thus analogizing them to the French collaborators with the Nazis. That was too much even for...