This article was originally published in Danish on April 23, 2023.

BOOK REVIEW
SINS OF MY FATHER
Growing up with America’s most dangerous white supremacist
Kelvin Pierce
Self-published, 2020.

Reviewed by Povl H. Riis-Knudsen

William Luther Pierce is one of the most important figures in the Nationalist movement in the United States. After drifting around for a while, he joined George Lincoln Rockwell’s American Nazi Party, which had now been renamed the National Socialist White People’s Party—perhaps not the catchiest name, but it was more respectable than American Nazi Party. There he became editor of the magazine National Socialist World, which was intended to be the ideological torchbearer of the National Socialist movement, but which largely merely offered trivial historical nostalgia.

After Rockwell’s assassination on August 25, 1967, Matt Koehl took over the leadership of the party, and after some time, Pierce and Koehl went their separate ways. Koehl followed Rockwell’s political line to some extent, but gradually gave the movement a distinctly dogmatic, Hitlerist profile that had no chance of success, while Pierce distanced himself from the symbols and slogans of the past without, however, significantly altering his ideological stance. In addition, it was likely a specific case of two alpha males who couldn’t coexist in the same group, possibly combined with the fact that Matt Koehl felt a certain sense of unwarranted inferiority toward Pierce. Pierce held a Ph.D. in physics and had worked for Pratt & Whitney, a job he left to become a full-time Nazi and editor for Rockwell. It was a career change with major consequences. Koehl had no formal education and had made a living doing odd jobs until he was hired by Rockwell, but he was intellectually on par with Pierce, and characteristically, they both pursued the same strategic idea: They both wanted to build a more or less National Socialist society that was self-sufficient and could serve as a powerhouse for the movement and a model for others to follow. And the reasons why they both failed were the same: They were dictatorial; based on their experiences, they had no trust in their members; and they could not distinguish between a free National Socialist local community and a Stalinist labor camp. In short, they were not leaders, but ideologues. Furthermore, neither of them considered what would happen when they themselves were gone. Alpha males do not train potential successors—they fear them. Both left a movement in ruins and without leadership. It is an irony of fate that Matt Koehl was making plans to hand over “Nordland” to Pierce, as he—apparently quite correctly—saw the greatest potential for the future in him. He discussed this in depth with me at the end of June 2002. When, after a long trip through eastern Canada, I called home to the “Nordland” base from Halifax a good three weeks later, Koehl’s first question was: “Have you seen the news?” I hadn’t. “Pierce is dead,” said a clearly shaken Matt Koehl.

Kelvin Pierce is one of William Pierce’s twin sons. After his father’s death, he set out to try to penetrate his father’s worldview and practical political work, not only by studying his father’s many papers left behind, but also through extensive archival research, including declassified reports from the secret services, which clearly show how many resources were devoted to monitoring William Pierce and his followers. For the secret services, this is, just as in Denmark, pure job creation and a successful attempt to demonstrate how necessary it is to provide them with additional resources, while the truth is that, realistically speaking, this group of people poses absolutely no threat to national security—though in the U.S., this is not quite the case for individual citizens.¹ Protecting them, however, is simply police work and a rather impossible task for the intelligence services. This project has been quite successful for Kelvin Pierce; perhaps too well, since he has been unable to find a publisher willing to release his quite excellent biography of this man, whom anyone with even a passing interest in politics knows, and whom the media never tires of berating, partly because, under the name Andrew Macdonald, he wrote the 1978 novel The Turner Diaries about a violent racist revolution in the United States. Later, Hunter continued more or less along the same theme. These books are claimed to be the inspiration for all acts of terrorism and all crime on the so-called far right in the United States.

Kelvin Pierce has gone to great lengths to distance himself from his father and his political views, to such an extent that it is sometimes a bit nauseating. Apparently, however, this has not been enough to convince a publisher to release the book. Kelvin Pierce offers many insightful observations and reflections in the book, for example:

I remember being puzzled by the two men in Dad’s office because they didn’t seem to be all that intelligent. Over the years, I would see similar people at Dad’s gatherings. It was as if he were surrounded by weirdos, mostly young men who had nothing better to do than hang out with other small-minded thugs, making themselves feel better by putting down other people.

I must regretfully say that I know these types all too well. I think everyone on the right does, and I am convinced that it is not much different on the left.

Extremist groups attract, in particular, people who are not like most people. If they were, they would be liberals or conservatives. And make no mistake: among these seemingly pitiful existences, there are outstanding activists, computer geniuses, and so on. But of course, there are also the others. It has always been a problem on the nationalist wing to bring together deep thinkers with high intelligence and people with fewer intellectual gifts, belonging to the lowest social group, within the same organization. But that is the challenge. Intelligence is necessary and a prerequisite for a victory to be realized in the form of a better social order, but the musclemen and activists are the prerequisite for a victory to happen at all! The community begins here!

As in all other organizations I have known, the overarching problem was funding. Pierce had a wife who earned money. That was enough for daily life, but Pierce needed money to organize the political work. Voluntary contributions don’t go very far. Most members have no money, and those who do are reluctant to part with it—also because, with their better education and practical experience, they see limited chances that their contributions will yield results in the long run. Revilo Pendleton Oliver, a prominent American professor of classical philology, Spanish, and Italian with strongly national-conservative views, suggested that Pierce write fiction to make money. He did so with The Turner Diaries, which has sold over half a million copies. He also received a large sum of money, which many claim came from Bob Matthews’ criminal activities to support the revolution.² However, this is an allegation that no one has been able to prove. Matt Koehl was also offered a large sum of money from an unknown source, but he declined.

Pierce used the money to purchase “The Land.” “The Land” was an area of approximately 1.4 square kilometers near Hillsboro in eastern West Virginia. It was indescribably beautiful, far off the beaten path, and thus—unlike “Nordland”—it met one of the basic requirements for a home base for a movement like The National Alliance, which Pierce—like Koehl—transformed into part of a religious movement, The Cosmotheist Community Church. Whereas Koehl created a rather laughable Hitler cult with the Führer in the role of Jesus II, cosmotheism is a continuation of the European pantheistic idea that God is in nature. It is a far more sensible approach to the religious question, but it hardly stands much of a chance in the religious marketplace either. Religions are about selfish salvation for one’s own small, insignificant soul—not about the survival of the people or the race. In the U.S., however, there are tax exemptions associated with being a religion. This is a significant motivation for religious prophets.

Later, Resistance Records became Pierce’s third golden goose. Under this label, CDs were released containing nothing but horrific noise—a foreign body that poisoned and destroyed everything Pierce otherwise stood for—but it was—mirabile dictu—a highly significant source of income, and that says a lot about the audience he had gathered around his movement. Resistance Records was also Erich Gliebe’s ticket into the movement, and Pierce made this former boxer his successor. Poor judgment is an understatement here, and in record time, the entire National Alliance—with annual revenue exceeding $1 million—fell apart, and “The Land” was eventually sold. A sad, but unfortunately not unique, story. I don’t really know of any example of an organization or a form of government run according to the so-called Führer principle that has outlived its creator. Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Salazar, Perón, Pinochet, Koehl, Pierce, and everyone else on that side I can think of. It’s quite thought-provoking.

It is quite clear from Kelvin Pierce’s book that the children had a horrific childhood, and that William Pierce can in no way be described as a good father. Kelvin’s brother Erik thus severed all ties with their father and did not even attend his memorial service. Kelvin, however, clearly retained a certain fascination with him. Now, discipline in America is considerably more strict than here, but Pierce beat the boys excessively whenever, in their attempts to at least establish some contact with their father, they did things they knew would trigger his rage. It’s a bit of psychology for the advanced.

I visited Pierce at “The Land” for a couple of days in the summer of 1988. At the time, he was married to Olga, a Hungarian girl who had been a pianist but had lost a few fingers in a meat grinder. That was the end of that career. She and my wife got along well. They were connected by music. My wife thus tried to maintain the connection by writing to her—but she never received those letters. Pierce wasn’t interested in his wife corresponding with others. We only realized this later. It was part of the prison camp’s regulations.

Our conversations were, in a sense, merely elaborative. We already knew each other’s views. At that time, I had resigned from my work with the World Union of National Socialists, where I had been Pierce’s successor, as I found it futile to maintain an organization without members, without funding, and without a publishing operation. On top of that, I had been able to ascertain that the WUNS was being held responsible for every so-called “Nazi” action across the globe, no matter how idiotic it was. I would not lend my name to that. Everything was apparently being directed from my modest office at Ahornvej 11 in Vejgaard.

Ah, if only it had been so. Added to this, of course, was the introduction of Hitlerism as a religion, the change of name to The New Order (never try to abbreviate it!), and blatant inefficiency and poor leadership. The move of the headquarters from Arlington, Va. (which in practice means Washington, D.C.) to the Milwaukee area had taken 10 years. In those 10 years, the movement had practically disintegrated, and the rationale for the move had vanished. The Midwest had been the party’s best breeding ground, but members want to see action. They had been promised an intensification of the work, but saw only that everything was falling apart: Cedric Syrdahl had left in anger, the headquarters in Chicago had been sold, as had the two properties they had owned in Arlington. There was thus plenty to talk about, and Pierce had, of course, also been following these developments. We were in complete agreement on that point.

In 1988, however, there was still hope for “Nordland,” and there were, of course, also things I didn’t feel I could discuss. No matter how much I might disagree with Koehl, he was a friend, and he remained so through all crises—even beyond his death. Pierce also made no secret of the difficulties involved in building a colony on a barren field. He specifically emphasized that it had to be so remote—and, of course, television was forbidden. It was a community that was to remain untainted by the outside world. It was a full day’s drive to what we somewhat misleadingly call civilization. The few residents who were there—and whom we weren’t introduced to—came from the city. It had been quite a shock for them and a reason why many ran away again. “Nordland” was closer to civilization—far too close to the city.

We also discussed The Turner Diaries. I’ve never liked the ending. Nuclear bombs are a bad thing. Pierce basically agreed—he would have written the ending differently if he’d had to write it in 1988. We were shown the main building with its assembly hall, book storage, and office spaces. It certainly had a certain style to it. The facilities were better suited to their purpose than the building at “Nordland,” but there were big plans there as well.

Pierce had a magnificent German shepherd, and a German shepherd is one of the most loyal creatures on this earth. We slept in the guest trailer, and in the morning the dog scratched at the door. I opened the door, and in came Hans—that was the dog’s name—and with a full leap he landed right in the middle of the double bed, and there he stayed. Pierce wasn’t happy when he saw that the dog had been inside with us—and in the bed—but he didn’t say a word. When we said goodbye the next day and drove off, Hans wanted to come along. He simply ran after the car. After a kilometer, I had to stop and make it clear to him that he had to go back. Shepherds are smart animals. Hans understood what I said, and crestfallen, he trudged slowly back along the dirt road, constantly turning around to look for the car. At that moment, it became clear to me that something was very wrong at “The Land.”

If you wish to explore Pierce’s ideas further—and it is certainly worth doing so—please refer to Robert S. Griffin: The Fame of a Dead Man’s Deeds, 1st Books Library, 2001. Regarding Rockwell, see William H. Schmaltz: Hate: George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party, Brassey’s, Washington 1999. A later edition is titled For Race and Nation. Also recommended is Frederick J. Simonelli: American Fuehrer: George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party, University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago, 1999. Matt Koehl did not care for Simonelli’s book. Simonelli goes into greater depth than Schmaltz and has a very thorough set of footnotes at the back that document what he writes. Both are informative, and Kelvin Pierce’s book certainly is as well. One can skip the last chapters if one finds it too distressing. It is hard to imagine that Pierce’s children are 63—and that it has been over 20 years since I had that sad phone conversation with Koehl from Halifax—and that Koehl himself has been dead for nearly 9 years. The wheel of time is relentless.

Notes

1. See, for example, Stephen Singular: Talked to Death: The Life and Murder of Alan Berg, Beech Tree Books, William Morrow, New York, 1987. ↩︎
2. See Kevin Flynn, Gary Gerhardt: The Silent Brotherhood. Inside America’s Racist Underground, The Free Press, New York 1989. This is by far the best and most readable book on Robert Matthews and his associates—indeed, on the extreme nationalist movement as a whole. It is absolutely required reading for anyone interested in such movements—or who has an inherent penchant for reading about human tragedies. ↩︎