Westwood’s Own Homegrown Nazi

One of the most chilling experiences in my Westwood High School career took place in AP European History in 2000*. We were beginning the Holocaust unit, and our outstanding teacher, David Doré** took a pregnant pause. He explained that he had taught our town’s neo-Nazi alumnus, Davis Wolfgang Hawke (known in high school as Andrew Britt Greenbaum) about this historical era years earlier and Mr. Doré reported that he still sometimes wondered if he had gone wrong sometimes in his teaching of that time period to Greenbaum’s class.

A decent amount of us in class first heard of the 1996 Westwood High School graduate the previous February, when he made the front page of The Boston Globe for his neo-Nazi activities. Rolling Stone also featured him six months later. That article stated that he was mostly unsuccessful in his attempts to get his neo-Nazi group, Knights of Freedom (KoF), to become popular at his college, Wofford College. “Commander Decker” tried to start KoF while still a senior at Westwood High School; however, he failed to find sufficient interest among his peers.

The internet was where KoF would find its home. The founding of its own URL in 1998 greatly increased KoF’s popularity. But if one lives by the sword, one dies by the sword, and internet research revealed Greenbaum’s birth name and he was ostracized by his fellow neo-Nazis. Changing the KoF’s name to American Nationalist Party (ANP) was Hawke’s unsuccessful last-ditch attempt at saving his group.

He would eventually become a big name in spam, to the point that in 2006 America Online sought to dig up his parents’ yard in Medfield to try to find hidden gold and silver bars.

My reasons for discussing Hawke are trifold: 1. To remind us that yes, neo-nazis can happen here, 2. To offer some education about how to tell if your child might be becoming a neo-Nazi, and 3. To make it clear they are wrong.

In looking over the news reports from this past weekend in Charlottesville, VA; we must know that the neo-Nazis who marched there are neither new nor an abnormality unique to the South, as illustrated by Wolfe.

Should you be concerned that your child is becoming a neo-Nazi? Here are some articles with some signs to watch out for: Gizmodo, Reveal, MyAJC, and Vox.

In conclusion, I will quote John Mulaney: “”I don’t care for these new Nazis and you can quote me on that.”

* There will be discussions of neo-Nazis in this article, in case that is an issue for you.

** Mr. Doré would go on to win the Westwood High School PTO’s Wolverine Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2014.

*** If you are concerned about the future, politically, don’t forget that tomorrow (August 15) is the last day to register for the September 4 primary).