SALON

Wednesday, Jun 10, 2009 8:40 PM UTC

Report: White Supremacist opens fire at Holocaust Memorial

The shooter has been identified as an 88-year-old man with a long history of racist and anti-Semitic writings.

By

Topics: James Von Brunn, War Room,

Report: White Supremacist opens fire at Holocaust Memorial

At just before 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday, a man walked into the U.S. Holocaust Museum, pulled out a shotgun and fired at a private security guard, who returned fire. By the time it was over, five shots had been fired and two men — the guard and the shooter — had been wounded and were taken to the hospital.

The suspect has been identified as James W. von Brunn, an 88-year-old man with a lengthy record of anti-Semitic and conspiracist writings on the Internet, as well as a history of taking armed action against those he saw as enemies.

On his Web site, Holy Western Empire, von Brunn writes of himself:

James W. von Brunn holds a BachSci Journalism degree from a mid-Western university where he was president of SAE and played varsity football.

During WWII he served as PT-Boat captain, Lt. USNR, receiving a Commendation and four battle stars. For twenty years he was an advertising executive and film-producer in New York City. He is a member of Mensa, the high-IQ society.

In 1981 Von Brunn attempted to place the treasonous Federal Reserve Board of Governors under legal, non-violent, citizens arrest. He was tried in a Washington, D.C. Superior Court; convicted by a Negro jury, Jew/Negro attorneys, and sentenced to prison for eleven years by a Jew judge. A Jew/Negro/White Court of Appeals denied his appeal. He served 6.5 years in federal prison. He is now an artist and author and lives on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Von Brunn is also a Holocaust denier. He penned an essay titled “Hitler’s worst mistake: He didn’t gas the Jews,” and wrote a book, “Kill the Best Gentiles! The racialist guide for the preservation and nurture of the white gene pool” in which he says, “There is NO evidence supporting the ‘HOLOCAUST’ as defined: THERE WAS NO POLICY TO MASS MURDER JEWS. NO ORDER WAS GIVEN TO MASS MURDER JEWS. THERE WAS NO BUDGET TO CARRY OUT SUCH A POLICY. THERE WERE NO MEANS (GAS CHAMBERS, etc.) TO CARRY OUT MASS MURDERS.”

Another piece of writing from von Brunn’s Web site seems to hint at the beginning of his anti-Semitic obsession, after he returned to New York City after having fought in Europe during World War II. He writes:

When I returned after the war, New York had become the largest Jew city in the World. EVERYTHING had changed. The streets were unclean. Taxi drivers were officious. Cigar smoke dominated the fine restaurants, vulgar talk. Ugliness. Rudeness, push and shove, Prestigious chairmanships of the Metropolitan Opera, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall, for example, were held by Jews. Almost all art galleries were Jew-owned. Newspapers, publishing, tin-pan alley . . . you know the story.

The Herald Tribune, an Aryan newspaper, was put out of business because JEWS wouldn’t advertise in it. The city was bursting with “gassed” JEWS. It took 3 weeks to find an apartment. One day I was walking across 57th ST. at Madison Avenue and the light changed to yellow as I was midway. A car jumped the light, shot up to me, slamming on his brakes. He yelled, Get the fuuuck outta my way, asshole. I dented his car hood with my fist. Motherfucker, he screamed, pointing to the far corner of the street — I’ll see you over there, there, there — he pointed to the far corner. He was a young JEW. He found a parking spot and I went over to him. OK, foul mouth said I — get out. He said fuck you, rolled up his window and took off.

Update: And, of course, it turns out Von Brunn was a “Birther” — one of those who believe President Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. or is for some other reason not eligible for the presidency. His post on an Internet forum about that can be seen here. (Hat-tip to Matt Corley.)

Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon. More Alex Koppelman.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 61 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations