NATIONAL

L

eaders of white supremacist 
organizations unapologetically 
confirmed their racist and antise-
mitic views during the second week of 
the Charlottesville trial. In polite, calm 
responses to the plaintiffs’ lawyers, sev-
eral defendants expressed their beliefs 
that Jews and people of color threaten 
white civilization.
Professor Deborah Lipstadt, an 
American historian and Dorot 
Professor of Modern Jewish History and 
Holocaust Studies at Emory University 
in Atlanta, provided a detailed analysis 
of how the words and symbols used by 
the defendants expressed beliefs consis-
tent with those of Nazi Germany. She 
explained that the phrase “Jews will not 
replace us”— used in Unite the Right 
marches — reflects white genocide/
white Christian replacement theory 
that says Jews control others to destroy 
white society. 
Defendant Matthew Heimbach con-
firmed that he has stated online: “The 
total destruction of Jewry is the only 
way that we can ensure that we will no 
longer be plagued by the enemy of all 

time.” A video of defendant Robert Ray, 
a neo-Nazi, shows him exhorting “Gas 
the kikes” to a cheering crowd during 
the Unite the Right rallies during Aug. 
11-12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Protests and counter-protests were 
organized that weekend in response 
to the planned removal of a statue of 
Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in 
Charlottesville by local officials. The 
civil lawsuit charges that the defendants 
conspired to prevent individuals from 
exercising their Constitutional rights to 
protest peacefully and for injuring them 
during the United the Right weekend. 
White nationalists from multiple orga-
nizations marched in organized groups, 
some with tiki torches, black clothing 
and shields — terrorizing unarmed pro-
testers with racist and antisemitic slurs 
and assaulting them with shields and 
flag poles.
Fights broke out. But the most shock-
ing incident came at the hands of James 
Alex Fields Jr., who drove his car into 
a group of protesters, killing Heather 
Heyer and injuring others.
Fields is serving a life sentence for 

these crimes. Several men were convict-
ed of beating an African American man 
that weekend. But there were no legal 
repercussions for others who injured 
and terrorized protesters. 

HOLDING THEM ACCOUNTABLE
A nonprofit organization, Integrity First 
for America, was formed to file a civil 
lawsuit to hold the alleged perpetrators 
accountable for their actions, which it 
claims were organized and planned.
The civil suit is based primarily on 
the Ku Klux Klan Act, a federal law 
from 1871, which was passed in part 
to protect African Americans in the 
South from being denied their vote. The 
law has been used more recently for 
offenses that denied individuals their 
Constitutional rights based on their 
race.
As a civil suit, if the plaintiffs prevail, 
the defendants — leaders of an array 
of white supremacist and right-wing 
nationalist groups — will be fined and 
sanctioned by the court. 
Some have already been sanctioned 
— one receiving a jail sentence — for 

The second week of Charlottesville 
trial includes testimony by white 
nationalists and Holocaust expert 
Prof. Deborah Lipstadt.

White 
Nationalists 
Unapologetic

SHARI S. COHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

24 | NOVEMBER 18 • 2021