Dan Burros

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Dan Burros (born March 5, 1937 in Queens , † October 31, 1965 in New York City , actually Daniel Burros ) was an American neo-Nazi who belonged to the American Nazi Party . He committed suicide just hours after the New York Times disclosed his Jewish origins .

Life

youth

Daniel Burros' parents were George and Esther Sunshine Burros. He grew up in Queens , New York City , and attended a Jewish school in Richmond Hill , which prepared him for his bar mitzvah . This took place on March 4, 1950. In New York, he enrolled at John Adams High School and was described as an intelligent, alert student with an IQ of 154, well above the average . With puberty his behavior changed; he became aggressive and hysterical when he was about to lose a game. As a result, he constantly got into arguments with his classmates. He also began to be interested in the military.

After graduating from high school, Burros wanted to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point , New York, but was not accepted. Instead, he enlisted in the United States National Guard while still in high school, and wore his uniform openly . In 1955 he volunteered for the United States Army , where he was used as a parachutist . However, he was dishonorably released in 1958 after several suicide attempts. During these, he had consumed large amounts of aspirin or had superficially injured himself. The army found him unfit because he could not fit into the system, showed conspicuous behavior and did not have the character suitability as a soldier. He then worked as a printer in the Queens Borough Public Library and began to be obsessively interested in Adolf Hitler and his hatred of the Jews - he had already praised Hitler in one of his “farewell letters”. So he founded the American National Socialist Party , of which he was the only member, and on whose behalf he sent letters with Nazi propaganda.

Political activities

Burros then joined the American Nazi Party of George Lincoln Rockwell to. He lived for some time at the party's headquarters in Arlington County , Virginia . Burros' Jewish origin was unknown to the party, but there were some rumors about it. In addition, he often showed very bizarre behavior and spread his strange views. In 1999, William H. Schmaltz described in the book Hate: George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party a torture method that Burros had devised for Jews: the keys of a piano were to be connected to several Jews who received an electric shock every time the piano player pressed the key. The combination of music and electric shocks should lead to rhythmic movements. He also owned a soap embossed with the following text: "made from the finest Jewish fat" ("made from the finest Jewish fat"). Despite these oddities, he became the party's secretary.

After a dispute with George Lincoln Rockwell, he left the party on November 5, 1961. Shortly afterwards he became a member of the American National Party , which published the anti-Semitic and Nazi "Kill Magazine" . For this he wrote several articles. But the party only existed for a few years and so Burros subsequently became a member of the National Renaissance Party . There he was involved in a violent assault on Congress of Racial Equality demonstrators, active opponents of racial segregation , and was sentenced to a fine paid by his parents. He then joined the United Klans of America , an organization of the Ku Klux Klan . There he became "Kleagle", a kind of officer who recruited other members. He came into the sights of the Committee on Un-American Activities .

suicide

Burros' Jewish background was exposed in a 1965 article for the New York Times by John McCandlish Phillips . Phillips, an evangelical , tried to stop Burros by confronting him with his own statements. Burros ignored this, however. Phillips 'last attempt was to reveal Burros' origins. Burros shot himself just a few hours after the Times was published. There are several descriptions of this. According to NY Press, he killed himself in the presence of other members of the Klan who were also featured in the Times article. According to other sources, he committed suicide to the music of Richard Wagner .

George Lincoln Rockwell paid tribute to Burros' work at a subsequent press conference. He commented on Jewish self-hatred and accused the Jews of a mass psychosis .

reception

Burros' life story was the basis of the film Inside a Skinhead (Original title: The Believer ) by Henry Bean . The plot was transferred to the present and Burros' character was as White Power - Skinhead introduced, which then becomes the intellectual rights. His life was also the inspiration for an episode of the television series Lou Grant and Cold Case - No Victim Is Ever Forgotten .

literature

  • AM Rosenthal and Arthur Gelb: One More Victim: The Life and Death of an American-Jewish Nazi . New American Library 1967.
  • Henry Bean: The Believer: Confronting Jewish Self-Hatred . New York: Thunder's Mouth Press 2002, ISBN 1-56025-372-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c State Klan Leader Hides Secret of Jewish Origin.
  2. ^ A b c d William Bryk: Old Smoke: The Death of Daniel Burros: A Jewish Klansman who did more than just hate himself. NY Press, February 25, 2003, accessed June 29, 2013 .
  3. ^ A b From Jew to Jew-hater: the curious life (and death) of Daniel Burros.
  4. ^ The Believer DVD, "An Interview with Director Henry Bean," 2001
  5. ^ William H. Schmaltz, Hate: George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party , 1999, p. 263
personal data
SURNAME Burros, Dan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sunshine Burros, Daniel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American neo-Nazi
DATE OF BIRTH March 5, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Queens
DATE OF DEATH October 31, 1965
Place of death New York City