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The Beast Reawakens

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[Review originally published in New Zealand publication 'The Nexus' No. 11 Feb 98]

Written in a journalistic style and blatantly Germanophobic, the author concedes nothing to his ideological adversaries nor even to the German people per se, whom he sees as not having sufficiently borne the 'guilt' of Nazism. Nevertheless, "The Beast..." is worth obtaining since the author, although accepting uncritically the whole baggage of anti-fascist propaganda, has also interviewed many stalwarts including Gen. Remer and H. Keith Thompson, Remer's and Francis Parker Yockey's ("Imperium") principle US contact.

Lee weaves a vast global fascist conspiracy, tracing its pedigree directly to the Third Reich and hatched by Remer, Col. Rudel and Otto Skorzeny, and continued by Yockey, Thompson, and reaching to such unlikely places as pro-Zionist televangelists and militiamen. Despite the extravagances and tenuous connections, there are good histories on the Third Wa! y, Russian 'National Bolsheviks,' et al.

The book _The Beast Reawakens: Fascism's Resurgence from Hitler's Spymasters to Today's Neo-Nazi Groups and Right-Wing Extremists_, first published in 1997 and revised in 2000, by journalist and author Martin A. Lee is an account of the Neo-Nazi underground. Unfortunately, while this account does contain some useful information, it is highly biased and severely marred by left wing moralizing, manic anti-Germanism and anti-Russianism, and McCarthyism in reverse. As such, the author essentially presents a conspiracy theory arguing that Nazis are at root behind various disparate right wing movements (which he all connects together) while at the same time mocking those who adhere to "anti-government conspiracy theories". The author is extremely biased in his account and views Nazism as the single greatest evil ever to exist on earth. As such, he will take any position against it, including cozying up to the former Soviets, arguing that the fall of the Berlin Wall was not a good thing, or taking the side of America against Europe. Further, the author apes the rhetoric of right-wing populism by maintaining that those who oppose globalization are the same as those who promote it (somehow?). The author further believes in a militia conspiracy blaming the militias for the Oklahoma City Bombing quoting extensively from such dubious pro-communist sources as The Southern Poverty Law Center and the British anti-fascist journal _The Searchlight_. As such, this book can only be profitably read if one is capable of sorting through the author's sickening biases and sanctimonious moralizing. However, in many respects this book contains some of the same information as is to be found in _Dreamer of the Day_ (1999) by Kevin Coogan which fortunately spares us the moralizing and bias.

The book begins with the author's ranting Preface in which he argues that fascism and right-wing violence are on the rise. He proposes a conspiracy theory behind this linking disparate and separate far right movements together. However, he completely ignores violence committed in other forms and left-wing violence. The author then turns in this first part of this book to "A Surfeit of Spies" in which he discusses various spies of the Nazis. In the first chapter, the author discusses "Shifting Alliances", mentioning Otto Skorzeny ("Scarface"), the Gehlin Org, and ODESSA and the complicated relationship between the former Nazis, the United States, and the Soviet Union following the end of the Second World War and the beginning of the Cold War. The author maintains that former Nazis were recruited by U.S. intelligence and played an important role in the Cold War. The second chapter is entitled "The Seesaw Strategy" and maintains that the fascists tried to steer a middle course between the United States and the Soviet state playing one against the other. The author discusses such things as Hitler's bodyguard Otto Ernst Remer, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, Leon Degrelle and the Nazis in Madrid and South America, and various attempts of Nazi spooks to join up with Soviets and other "Bolsheviks of the right". The third chapter is entitled "Neo-Nazi Disaspora". Here, the author traces the role of Neo-Nazism as it spread to America and notes the involvement of certain obscure individuals in various Nazi type cult organizations. The author mentions such individuals as Harold Keith Thompson and the National Renaissance Party, Francis Parker Yockey (a super-intelligent mystery man who had obscure links to the Soviets and advocated a pan-European Imperium) and the European Liberation Front, and the rise of Juan Peron in Argentina. The second part of this book is entitled "Political Soldiers". In a chapter entitled "The Swastika and the Crescent", the author notes the relationship between Neo-Nazis and the Arab world mentioning in particular Nasser's Egypt. In the following chapter entitled "Nostalgics and Revisionists", the author again focuses on Yockey explaining the role of Willis Carto founder of the Liberty Lobby and others. The author discusses the brazen Neo-Nazi George Lincoln Rockwell founder of the American Nazi Party as well as various movements in Europe. In particular, the author mentions the role of the Jeune Europe movement of Jean-Francois Thiriart (a reaction against American imperialism) and notes the increasing tendency among the far right of the period to flirt with the left, both in terms of Soviet communism and a Third World resurgence in an effort to overcome the onslaught of American imperialism. Such flirtations with the left led to problematic areas when for example Juan Peron who was brought into power on a populist coalition of left and right turned on his left wing supporters. Following this, is a chapter entitled "A Gathering Storm" discussing some of the "New Right" movements. The author discusses various problems faced by a post-war Germany, the French New Right including mention of Alain de Benoist (however the author despicably tries to blame de Benoist for anti-immigrant violence committed by Le Pen's movement despite the fact that de Benoist specifically avoided such issues), and a Brown and Green alliance in a post-war Germany. The author also discusses the rise of the Liberty Lobby in the United States, its alleged relation to the Republican Party, and the role of the Institute for Historical Review and the journal _The Spotlight_ under Carto. The third part of this book is entitled "Post Cold-War Fascism". The first chapter in this part is entitled "Germany Reunited". Unfortunately, here the author gives vent to some of the worst anti-Germanic sentiment, blaming problems faced by the reunited Germany and economic hardships on the fall of the Berlin Wall and maintaining that poor Germany has not been sufficiently punished for her supposed crimes. The second chapter in this part is entitled "Shadow Over the East". The author considers such things as the rise of Prussia, the reunited Germany and the relationship between East Germany and West Germany, the role of the Balkans mentioning Tudjman of the Croatians and Milosevic of the Serbs, and the advent of Russia in a post-Soviet era. The case of Russia is particularly interesting and the author examines such bizarre trends as the rise of the National Bolsheviks and Zhirinovsky, mentioning also the writer Eduard Limonov and the possibility of a Red-Brown alliance. The next chapter is entitled "From the Margins to the Mainstream". Again the author indulges in the worst sort of conspiracy theory hype, maintaining that the militia movement and white supremacists were behind the Oklahoma City Bombings. The author also discusses such individuals as David Duke, Pat Robertson, Patrick Buchanan, and the authors of _The Bell Curve_ attempting to link such disparate individuals into a single movement. Finally, the author ends with a pro-immigrant rant. The book ends with a Conclusion in which the author re-iterates his biases and maintains that fascism exists even within democracy and must be rooted out at all costs.

It is unfortunate that while this book offers much useful information on various players in the Neo-Nazi underground that the author has decided to let his biases interfere with genuine research. However, if one can stomach to read through the left wing moralizing, there is some interesting information to be obtained here. In particular, developments in Europe offer interesting possibilities including the problematic of linking the far right with either the United States or the Soviet state or various Third World causes. Such developments continue to play an important role in our world today.

Lee's book, which is hailed by many in "progressive" circles, was well researched with detailed footnotes. I was constantly annoyed, however, by Mr. Lee's childish habit of name-calling and his sometimes strange connections which seem to be stretching a bit; i.e. "...[His] bookstore even sold a comic book that claimed the holocaust never happened." Damning proof of a worldwide plot if I ever heard one ! Also, Lee seems to have penned this work hoping to release it in serialized format; Facts and quotes are often repeated chapter after chapter. It becomes a bit patronizing after the first occurence. I did enjoy reading it, and anyone interested in geopolitics will find it to be worth the time-investment despite the book's anti-German bias.

It's clear that a journalist and not a scholar typed this; perusing the endnotes you see that it's cobbled together from hundreds of websites (some now defunct), books, and articles. It's narrower than I expected: Britain barely gains a mention, but Latin America (e.g. Apristas in Peru) gains more attention, and Russia and Germany receive the lion's share of international coverage, balanced with the American fringes. It's unsurprising in its perspective, but having consolidated helpful documentation of Arab-Nazi/far-right ties, the hijinks of such as Yockey, Otto Ernst Remer, Skorzeny, and Gerhard Rex Lauch makes for unintentionally entertaining reading. I liked the vignette of Jewish tourists throwing bagels and lox at American Nazi Rockwell, and the delusions of the anti-ZOG megalomaniacs.

Too often, however, the book bogs down, especially in its post-war diplomatic accounts, in minutiae that had me nodding off. The condensation of the emergence of the French New Right, under Benoiste, and the permutations of the German thinkers, on the other hand, kept me page-turning. Certainly the descriptions of Yockey, for example, drawn I imagine from Kevin Coogan's bio in manuscript, showed Lee's ability to make his subject come alive.

Still, reflecting perhaps the rush to get this in print post-McVeigh, you get clumsy sentences like this (as early as the preface, xxvii): "With that fateful sub rosa embrace, the die was cast for a litany of antidemocratic CIA interventions." Three metaphors mixed in 17 words. Or this non-sequitor. After citing evidence of neo-Nazi German views intersecting with "the perverse logic of ecofascism," Lee then claims that $Qhis type of thinking would enable mainstream politicians to avoid racist terminology while advocating xenophobic views. 'We have to think of the ecological consequences of unlimited immigration.' declared Otto Zeitler, Bavaria's land development minister, after German unification." (218)

Yes, certainly we have to think about such issues, but I see no xenophobia in pondering the obvious in Zeitler's statement. Routledge has published lots of fascist studies the past decade and a half; I recommend their very accessible and intelligently organized "Routledge Companion to Fascism and the Far Right" for an ideal introduction free of stereotypes or sloppy analyses. With Lee's book, the haste seems to emerge in the lapse in rigor.

The bias is evident in this book, but after having dutifully read it all, I find the purported threat from these factions in the West overblown, and those from the Middle East, on the other hand, largely ignored by the Left. It does gather in one volume a sobering reminder of how much the West, especially the U.S., cozied up to the remnants of the Nazi regime to keep them out of Stalin's grasp, and how much disinformation continues to be shelled out, by the Left and the Right, about the involvement between anti-communist factions, the far-right, and America.

Mr. Lee's book is well written, and a fascinating read. The topic is one of great interest, and is timely in our "Post Cold War World". I was fascinated to read of the various activities of post war German exiles, and even more fascinated by the goings-on of the various current post Cold War varieties of fascism and its offshoots. Ultimately though the book is fundamentally flawed. A reader would be forgiven if they came away with no other impression than Mr. Lee despises all things German, including the Germans, and assigns to them responsibility for many of the afflictions of the post World War era.Its a hypothesis that may be a comfort to certain people, but reason and inquiry are unable to sustain. Mr. Lee's anti-German views are ultimately of little consequence to anyone but himself, except to the extent they detract and degrade from what I take to be the serious message of his book, namely the need to be on guard against a resurgence of the terrible effects of fascism. In this respect he has hindered this effort.

We tend to have short memories in America, and an "it can't happen here" attitude, especially about the most horrific atrocity of the century: the rise to power of the Nazis and the wake of murder and destruction that followed.

But Martin Lee's excellent book "The Beast Reawakens" should chill to the bone anyone who thinks that the Nazis died out with the Third Reich's defeat in World War II. Far from dead, most of the most powerful Nazis not only survived the war, but thrived, some under the protection and patronage of the American and Soviet governments, who believed they needed the secrets and contacts that these killers possessed.

Over the years, these Nazi veterans laid low, acting opportunistically to build successful business and espionage operations, but never relinquishing their ideologies. They sowed the seeds of fascism and National Socialism in Europe, the United States, the Middle East, South America and the Soviet Union, and influenced the next two generations of neo-fascists everywhere.

Lee's book uses original interviews and extensive research into official documents to trace the direct lineage between the original Nazis and their counterparts today. It is sobering and absolutely maddening to see how various governments, particularly those of Germany and Russia, have looked the other way while the post-Cold War neo-Nazis have embarked on violent attacks on "undesirables" and on a new wave of recruiting.

I found myself wakened from my complacent beliefs by reading "The Beast Reawakened" and urge anyone interested in freedom to read this book and pass it on to their friends.

Martin Lee is also co-author of two terrific books, "Acid Dreams" and "Unreliable Sources."

I bought this book on travels through Africa. Although I do like the authors journalistic way of writing I was often amazed at the lack of research and how quick the author is to blame or report conspiracies founded on far out evidence. Especially two "proofs" for the modern day Nazi horrors in Germany and Austria baffeled me - both were widely media covered scandals here and I am very surprised that the author accepted them at face value without reading on, so to speak. The first one was that in a VAPO conspiracy Vienna's ex mayor Helmut Zilk was send a letter bomb and had his arm crippled and that the very same VAPO was responsible for the bomb killings of several gypsies in Austria (pg.371)- both of these attacks were later found out to be the work of a menatlly insane right winger (with no political group, party or organization behind him) Franz Fuchs. Secondly the author states as a proof of Nazi horror the incident of a wheelchair bound girl who was attacked by Neonazis who made her shout Nazi slogans and then slashed two swastikas into her cheeks (pg.376) - that unfortunatly never happened either. The girl really did it herself to gain attention. I am aware of a lot of Neo Nazi activity in Germany and Austria but I think when writing such a book one should be careful to check the facts - and both of the above mentioned incidents were Europe wide scandals and since the author apparently missed to check on these big scandals, I wonder if all the statistics and numbers he pulls out of nowhere are right. I myself bought it in the belief that this was serious literature - but instead it is badly researched and quick in judgements based on nothing. I think writing a "historical explanation" on the basis of a tremendous lack of research is counter productive not only for citizens of Germany and Austria but also an insult to others.

Martin Lee describes, in "The Beast Reawakens," the post-WWII survival of Nazism and fascism and explores some of its consequences. At the war's end, major figures in the Nazi government were either executed at Nuremberg (e.g. Ribbentrop and Kaltenbrunner) or received prison sentences (e.g. Speer and Dönitz). Some lesser Nazis, particularly those associated with concentration camp atrocities, like Hoess, commandant of Auschwitz, or Sievers of the Ahnenerbe, were also punished. Many others either escaped to safe havens, were released after minimal detention, or were actively recruited by U.S. intelligence on the theory that their knowledge of the Soviet Union and their contacts behind the Iron Curtain would be valuable in the cold war. This recruitment was predicated upon the assumption that Nazism was a right-wing movement and that unregenerate Nazis would automatically be fervent anti-Communists. As events proved, this was not always a sound assumption, for many old Nazis played an independent game, and the Soviets were also active in recruiting such people.

One of the most interesting chapters in this book is Chapter 4, "The Swastika and the Crescent," revealing the safe haven given by several Arab countries to old Nazis, whom they employed either as anti-Israeli propagandists or as military or police advisors and trainers. Islam has had a long history of hostile relations with Judaism, but these new alliances injected additional venom into the already tense situation prevailing after the creation of the state of Israel. Fervent ideologues like Johannes (alias "Omar Amin") von Leers disseminated virulent anti-Jewish propaganda to a new audience in the Arabic-speaking world - somewhat an irony, since Arabs, like Jews, are Semites, and were equally considered racial inferiors under the Third Reich. This hateful pot-stirring was backed by Arab governments and remains, to this day, a significant influence on opinion in the Islamic world.

Less successful than Lee's account of Nazi influence in the Middle East is his attempt to tie Nazi/fascist extremism to American conservative politicians like Patrick Buchanan or Pat Robertson. America's two-party, winner-take-all system inevitably assures that many people on the political extremes will throw their support to a candidate in one of the two major parties, whether or not he wants or solicits it. That should not be taken as a sign of influence. If the tiny neo-fascist contingent in the American body politic should support a conservative politician, that should not give his opponents any more license to tar him with the brush of Nazism than the support of communists and socialists for a liberal candidate should give that candidate's opponents the right to call him a Bolshevik. It is ironic that for all the whining of the left about McCarthyism and guilt by association, leftist partisans like Martin Lee show little compunction about engaging in essentially similar tactics.

"The Beast Reawakens" is marred by a rigidly ideological outlook in which Nazism and fascism are identified as right-wing phenomena. Lee quotes with approval a definition stating that "to be right-wing means to support the state in its capacity as an enforcer of order and to oppose the state as distributor of wealth and power more equitably in society." No pretense of objectivity here! What, after all, is "more equitable" about the distribution of wealth and power favored by socialists? And where, in this definition, is there a place for the viewpoint of, say, Jefferson or Madison, in which liberty is assured by the strict limitation of governmental power - so that even if the democratic will of the majority is to oppress the minority, it is prevented from so doing by constitutional restraints?

In fact, Nazism - Nationalsozialismus - and fascism are kissing cousins to Bolshevism - "international socialism." Lee, by failing to recognize this, makes the same mistake that U.S. intelligence agencies did in relying on the questionable loyalties of ex-Nazis to the anti-communist cause during the cold war. Prior to U.S. entrance into WWII, the Nazis made common cause with Stalin through the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, after which much of the American left - that part under communist domination - fell shamefully silent about Hitler, resuming active anti-Nazism only after the pact was broken. The same willingness of neo-Nazis to collaborate with communists surfaced after the war in various "Red-Brown" collaborations. Stripped of the peculiar anti-Semitism of its German manifestation, fascism has much more in common with communism - authoritarian political and social control, economic dirigisme, and imperial ambition - than it does not. The guillotine of the Jacobins was the philosophical antecedent both of the gas chambers of the Nazis and the gulag of the Soviets.

Lee's doctrinaire leftism leads him into contorted interpretations on this point, and also, I suspect, into selective reportage on other topics. For example, the white supremacist/neo-Nazi element in this country is a minuscule collection of losers, crackpots, and cranks, yet receives many pages of coverage. Louis Farrakhan, perhaps the most influential anti-Semite in the United States, is mentioned on only two pages of this 525-page book, and only in passing. The substantial Muslim community in the United States, made up mostly of African-Americans and of Middle Eastern immigrants, is given little notice as a source of anti-Semitic and fascist sentiment. No doubt to acknowledge such points would upset Lee's ideological preconceptions.

Editorial sloppiness is also evident in places. For example, Frederick the Great, king of Prussia and elector of Brandenburg, is twice identified as "Emperor" when in fact the Hohenzollern claim to that title dates only from 1871, long after Frederick's death. Error on such an elementary point of history, in an historical work, calls into question the reliability of Lee's claims about other more recondite historical points.

Nonetheless, there is much fascinating material in this book, and when its ideological bias is discounted there is much in it that can be read with interest and benefit.

This book begins fairly well, describing how various Nazi intelligence officers survived World War II and went on to promote Nazi causes throughout the world. Especially interesting are the links between the Nazis and the Third World, especially Arab countries, that they developed in order to challenge American global hegemony. Also very useful are the connections between post-WWII Nazis and the Soviet Union, which again, like the Third World connections, were forged to help challenge American hegemony.

The book also gives a fairly decent description of some (not many) of the underlying currents of thought on the far-right, like National Bolshevism. However, at this point, the book leaves much to be desired...

First of all, the print is rather large and is written in an amateur-ish manner. The result is that this is a fairly large book that could have been condensed into a text 60-70% of the size it is now. Also, one finishes the book with many questions remaining.

Secondly, the book is not in the least bit comprehensive. Major figures of the post-WWII far-right, such as Francis Parker Yockey, are barely mentioned except on just a few pages.

Third, the author devotes far too much space to how the far-right is supposedly becoming "mainstream." He mentions the Liberty Lobby, which, unlike what he says, was never influential in the Republican Party, and fails to point out that it has been defunct since before the book's publication. He dedicates too much space to Eduard Limonov's National Bolshevik Party in Russia, which is a very minor grouping that plays little or no role in Russian politics.

I could continue on and on... check this book out and read it if you're interested in this sort of thing, but don't expect it to be a comprehensive and objective account.

I highly recommend two other books: Black Sun by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, and Dreamer of the Day by Kevin Coogan (I think The Beast Reawakens plagiarized some of their material from Coogan's book). Those two books are perhaps the most comprehensive books published right now about the far-right.

Reading author Martin A Lee's short resume on the dust jacket of The Beast Reawakens should serve as a warning to any potential reader about the direction he intends to steer him---sharp left. Look at who he has worked for and what sort of people endorse his writing. 'Nuff said right there. And while Lee's febrile and breathless expose' might serve to excite "intellectuals" in radical enclaves throughout America, it does little to gauge the real strength and potential of the so-called "racist right". Methinks that the real threat to the US comes from the other direction, but I'll leave that for another time and place.
I agree with the reviewer who writes that the book starts well. At times, the story of the Nazi diaspora can be extremely interesting. Also compelling is the story of fringe figures in the post-war European and American neo-fascist milieu. But to think for a minute that they have any reasonable chance of coming to power is laughable.
The author's real intentions become apparent when he tries to tie the Republican Party to an assortment of domestic and foreign Nazis and extremists on evidence thinner than a layer of mica. Lee's constant barrage of name-calling and ridicule of the physical characteristics of those he writes about, while often humorous, detracts from him being seen as a serious author. One "Nazi" is described as having a "schlong of a nose".
I give The Beast Reawakens only two stars based on scholarship, but if I were to rate it on entertainment value, I'd have to give it four. Conspiracy theorists of the left may find a lot of red meat here, but the fair-minded reader will have to conclude that it is a hatchet job, and a sloppy one at that.