Founding and Expansion: “Volk Uber Alles!” - “Race Over All!”
Four inmates in an Oregon prison founded Volksfront in 1994 to “revive the dying pro-White movement.” Of the four, neo-Nazi Randal Lee Krager is responsible for bringing Volksfront outside prison walls and setting up its headquarters in Portland, Oregon. Krager was serving a 36-month sentence for attacking and permanently disabling an African-American man with a blunt object in 1992.
Southeast Portland, with a particularly active skinhead scene, has served as Volksfront’s headquarters since its inception. Soon after its founding, Volksfront’s numbers grew to about 50 members in seven cities. During its first few years, Volksfront distributed hate literature in local neighborhoods and cultivated relationships with white supremacist rock bands. In 1998, Volksfront also provided security for Holocaust denier David Irving, who made a stop in Vancouver, Washington, during a speaking tour. Later in 1998, however, Volksfront went temporarily “underground” and shut down its entire operation due to what it described as “internal reasons” and “illegal police and governmental pressure.”
Since Volksfront’s reemergence in 2001, its Portland leadership has established units in Oregon, Washington State, California, Arizona, Missouri, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, and the Carolinas, as well as Spain, Portugal, Germany, Canada and Australia. There had been a unit in Mohnton, Pennsylvania but it collapsed due to infighting.
Volksfront, however, is expanding eastward to the Midwest, where it has begun to recruit new members. The group’s February 24, 2007, Victory Achievement Conference, held in St. Louis, Missouri, attracted over 80 white supremacists. |
