Atomwaffen
Founded: Atomwaffen Division, also known as the Nationalist Socialist Order, announced its launch in 2015 on a then-prominent neoNazi website called Iron March. The group pledged to move beyond “keyboard warriorism” in pursuit of “ultimate uncompromising victory.” The name Atomwaffen is German for “atomic weapons,” and also a play on words; the Waffen were a feared division of Hitler’s SS. Atomwaffen is small but has spread internationally.
Core beliefs: These are literal Nazis, declaring: “National Socialism is the only solution to reclaim dominion over what belongs to us.” Many white-supremacist groups attempt to sugarcoat their noxious beliefs to redpill new recruits, but Atomwaffen is for hardened haters. (They’re also trolls, known for plastering campuses with stickers like “Join Your Local Nazis.”)
Members of Atomwaffen are students of American neoNazi James Mason, who was a follower of Charles Manson, who touted a white-on-Black race war (and whom Mason wanted to make the American Hitler). They believe that democratic society is irre
deemable and a race war should be accelerated to destroy the “Jewish oligarchies and the globalist bankers” responsible for what they call the “racial displacement
. . . of the white race.” Approach to violence:
Terroristic. Atomwaffen idolizes mass murderers like Manson, Dylann Roof, and Timothy McVeigh, and models itself after Al Qaeda. The group seeks to operate in small cells and has been tied to murders, bomb plots, and other conspiracies.
Prominent adherents: Rolling Stone profiled 21-yearold founder Brandon Russell and fellow Atomwaffen member Devon Arthurs after Arthurs allegedly murdered the duo’s other two roommates. Russell was sentenced to five years on federal charges for possessing bomb-making equipment. Arthurs, in and out of mental hospitals, has so far been judged unfit for trial.
Key moments: The Atomwaffen have a knack for getting arrested. In March 2020, shortly after the feds arrested five Atomwaffen on conspiracy charges, Mason declared that the group had disbanded. But it seems to have merely splintered, with many cells going underground.