James H. Madole

James Hartung Madole was born July 7, 1927, in New York City. His parents divorced when he was two and he was raised by his mother, who was deeply antisemitic.^[1] In his youth he developed an interest in science and built a laboratory at home; he was fascinated by science fiction, which shaped the way he viewed his beliefs. Through science fiction he discovered fascism, particularly fascist science fiction writer Charles B. Hudson. After meeting Hudson he was supported by several America First groups, and came into contact with Kurt Mertig of the Citizens Protective League.^[2] In 1945, Madole founded the Animist Party, which was right-wing and largely made up of fans of sci-fi.^[3]

Madole was known for his eccentric personality.^[4][5] In 1949, Mertig founded the National Renaissance Party in Yorkville.^[3][4] The name was inspired by Adolf Hitler's "Last Political Testament" before his suicide, which hoped for a "radiant renaissance" for Nazism.^[3] Mertig was by then elderly and found in Madole, then 22, a successor.^[3] Although Madole took over the party's leadership, the organization was in fact controlled in its early years by Frederick Charles Weiss, who used it to spread his propaganda internationally.^[6] Weiss then considered Madole to be merely a pawn.^[7]

The NRP went on marches in Nazi uniform with his stormtroopers. The NRP gained much publicity as a result, frequently making the headlines but only garnered a small following.^[4][5] The group wore Nazi storm-trooper uniforms and drew hecklers, leading to fistfights.^[8] In 1964, Madole and seven other neo-Nazis were convicted of trying to incite a riot at a civil rights demonstration. Each of them, including Madole, were sentenced to one to two years in prison.^[9][10]

During the 1970s, after Weiss's death, Madole effectively ran the NRP and steered it toward an esoteric direction.^[11] From 1974 on, Madole wrote a series of articles in the NRP's bulletin, "The New Atlantis: A blueprint for an Aryan Garden of Eden in North America", which scholar Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke described as "his major occult-political treatise".^[12] Madole died on May 6, 1979, and the party followed.^[13]

Madole interpreted Nazism through an occult and Theosophic lens, with influence from Hinduism. Among his contacts were occultists, satanists, esotericists and witches, including Anton LaVey. He and LaVey formed an alliance between the NRP and the Church of Satan.^[14][15][16] Many of his ideas were fantastical and heavily influenced by science fiction.^[5][17] He rejected Christianity, seeing it as Jewish.^[18]

Madole also wrote that the Aryans originated in the Garden of Eden located in North America.^[12] He also believed that America was the "new Atlantis" and "the cradle of a new God like race".^[4] He argued for the reorganization of American race among Hindu lines, but simultaneously made the NRP ally with the Greenshirts, who were pro-Islam.^[13]

Madole was one of the few to accept Francis P. Yockey's argument that Soviet Bolshevism had preserved traditional values more than western liberalism, and that communism was not supported by Judaism. This issue brought him into conflict with his former ally and now rival George Lincoln Rockwell, who used the label "communist" to discredit Madole and his followers.^[19] His writings continue to influence some neo-Nazis,^[13] and John Michael Greer noted him as a pivotal figure in the development of esoteric neo-Nazism.^[20]