Nazis Show Up To Elie Wiesel Speaking Event In Chicago

On November 11th, Elie Wiesel, a writer, professor, and Holocaust survivor, held a discussion on "the importance of learning and memory" at the Symphony Center in Chicago. Much like Elies speech at Malcolm X college a few years back, neo-nazis protested and handed out literature. This time there were only three white supremacists, and it was not Bill White's American National Socialist Workers Party (ANSWP), nor any offshoot. The nazis in attendance, judging by the symbols on their clothes, appeared to be involved in either the Creativity Alliance (CA) or the Creativity Movement (TCM); the latest of several incarnations of the racist group (and religion) originally known as Church of the Creator (COTC). The Creativity Movement rose from the ashes of the World Church of the Creator (WCOTC), led by Matt Hale and based out of Peoria, IL.

Antifascists in Illinois have had a long history of battle against WCOTC. An intense history involving home demos against their members (such as Justin J Frogge, now a convicted pedophile living at 441 Hartwell St. Elkhorn, WI 53121), individual confrontation, and disruption of their events that often ended in combat.

Since Matt Hale (WCOTC leader or "Pontifex Maximus") was sentenced to 40 years for soliciting an undercover FBI informant to kill federal judge Joan Lefkow, both the CA and TCM have not been looking good. Prominent members of TCM such as Brian Moudry (who is now facing arson charges for burning down an African American neighbors house), and Micahel Eisenhauer, have left the organization and TCM has spent an abundance of time arguing with, and shit talking, the CA. Just earlier this year, south side ARA got Tim Nelson of TCM kicked out of his apartment on the northwest side.

The man desperately trying to hold it all together for TCM, is James Logsdon (1233 Holiday RD Bloomington, IL 61704, 309-830-9485), the one time leader of the the WCOTC security force known as the White Berets, and current Pontifex Maximus. He was convicted of reckless homicide in 1998 in which he was sentenced to six years. He was later convicted and released in 2010 after doing three months for a DUI and driving with a suspended license. Logsdon often holds meet and greet barbecues at his house for any and all white nationalists in the mid west who want to network, but there has been no actual street presence from TCM in Illinois at all. 

Regardless if those protesting this event were actually Creators or not, we are curious to know who they are. Their presence was unannounced prior to the event, and we have yet to see any written report backs. They came and went silently, likely attempting to stay off of our radar. Taken from the Tribune:

Wiesel speaks to sanctity of learning, power of memory

Mark Caro

Elie Wiesel didn't need Holocaust deniers to lend immediacy to his discussion about the importance of learning and memory, but there they were anyway, three men standing outside the Symphony Center Sunday morning holding an anti-Semitic banner and barking such nonsense as, "There never was a Holocaust."

"Hopefully he doesn't reproduce," one woman muttered about the group's leader as she stepped inside.

The bile outside, of course, was no match for the eloquence, poignancy and good humor of the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner. Wiesel's writings, inspired by his experiences in Nazi death camps, earned him the Chicago Tribune Literary Prize, which he received Sunday as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival. Wiesel was interviewed on stage by Tribune critic Howard Reich, himself the son of Holocaust survivors and writer of the book and documentary "Prisoner of Her Past" about his mother's struggle to come to terms with her ordeal.