Volksfront

Volksfront

Volksfront emblem
Founder	Randal Lee Krager and Richard Arden
Founding location	Oregon State Prison
Years active	1994-2012
Territory	United States, and lesser European nations
Ethnicity	White
Allies	Blood & Honour, Hammerskins

Volksfront, also known as Volksfront International, was an American racial separatist organization founded on October 20, 1994, in Portland, Oregon. According to Volksfront's now defunct website, the group described itself as an "international fraternal organization for persons of European descent." Volksfront had approximately 50 members in the United States split between four chapters designated as Pac-West, Central States, North East, and Gulf-Atlantic, and an additional 50 members dispersed in other countries including Germany, Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Spain. In August 2012, the United States organization of Volksfront announced their dissolution via their website. Citing harassment and investigations by the authorities, the group said it was disbanding.

The Anti-Defamation League claimed that Volksfront was "one of the most active skinhead groups in the United States." The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) included Volksfront in its list of hate groups. The group has been called "neo-Nazi" and a "racist-skinhead group" in press reports.

Volksfront was founded by Randal Lee Krager and Richard Arden while incarcerated in an Oregon state prison in 1994. Formed from the remnants of several fractured Portland skinhead gangs in 1994, including East Side White Pride, whose members were convicted of the murder of Ethiopian Immigrant Mulegeta Seraw. Krager was serving two years for a 1992 assault on an African-American man who was left paralyzed and a conviction of first-degree intimidation for threatening to murder an anti-fascist activist, Pan Nesbitt. A grand jury declined to indict him for charges involving hate crimes, but the judge doubled the length of his sentence due to Krager having a swastika tattoo. Krager didn't agree with the sentence as he claimed that the judge denied him the right to bring in evidence. Krager contended the victim was attempting a sexual assault, although no charges were brought against the victim. After being paroled in 1996, Krager's recruiting efforts made Volksfront a potent force along the West Coast. According to Krager's parole officer, Krager distributed Nazi leaflets and frequently met with white supremacist associates. Krager told reporter Philip Dawdy of the Willamette Week that America was becoming too brown, diluting its "European-American culture," and that all minorities in the Northwest "will be repatriated."