How to Spot a Nazi: Hidden Codes and Under-the-Radar Rhetoric

Since the crumbling of the Nazi empire after World War II and their subsequent fleeing to other countries, Neo Nazis have only gotten better at hiding themselves among society. Secret codes, hidden messages, and acronyms make them think they’re safe—​but they’re not.  -- Declan McMahon, 10th Grade

Since the crumbling of the Nazi empire after World War II and their subsequent fleeing to other countries, Neo Nazis have only gotten better at hiding themselves among society. Secret codes, hidden messages, and acronyms make them think they’re safe--but they’re not. With this list of the most prevalent codes, message sign-offs, tattoos, and phrases riddled with hidden rhetoric, you’ll be able to spot a Nazi, white supremacist, or KKK member from a mile away.

Image/Symbol Based Hate Codes
Image identifiers are some of the most obvious forms of hate on this list. Often present in graffiti or tattoos, these symbols should convey a clear message: stay away. Other than the obvious swastika, these are symbols you should look out for; they are often very obvious and a clearer, more direct clue to someone’s affiliation than the number or letter codes

• SS Bolts - The sigil of the Schutzstaffel, the Nazi paramilitary and specialized troops, two angled bolts (representing SS) are often used in modern contexts along with antisemitic statements. This is one of the most common hate symbols that one would see tattooed, other than the swastika.

• Wolfsangel/Wolf’s Hook/Doppelhaken - Waffen SS “Das Reich"  2nd Panzer Division symbol. Das Reich division committed insane war crimes and were present at the Night of the Long Knives

• Sturmabteilung - Hitler’s stormtrooper unit, the Brown Shirts. Sturmabteilung is German for “storm units.” Largely supplanted after Hitler’s official rise to dictatorship, they were an intimidation force against Jews and political opponents.​

Number Based Codes
Number-based codes are a bit more tricky. For instance, I saw my cousin’s username on a new site recently. It ended in an 88. I immediately flared to anger, before realizing that he was born in 1988, and many people add dates of importance into their emails, usernames, or passwords.

That’s what makes number-based hate phrases so tricky to identify, because numbers are inherently benign and ever present, so here’s a step-by-step guide to spotting these in the wild.

1.  Check context - This is the most important step. Make sure the numbers aren’t an important date. For instance, if someone has a tattoo that says 12 - 14 - 21 with “R.I.P.” above it, that’s probably someone’s death date. However if someone has a tattoo of “1488333” with no context, or combined with another phrase or symbol, that’s probably hate.
2. Is it probable? - As in the case with my cousin, where I immediately jumped to conclusions based off of one number, even though I had never known him to have any hateful ideology in the past. If you don’t know the person, be wary, but if you see what could possibly be a number-based code in conjunction with anybody you know (gamertag, tattoo, email, etc.) keep in mind what you know about the person.
3. Be careful - Remember that rules 1 and 2 are fallible and don’t jump to conclusions.

 

• 14 or 14 words - 14 refers to the 14-word white supremacist allegiance phrase “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”

 

• 88 - Referring to the repetition of the 8th letter of the alphabet H (HH). It stands for Heil Hitler.

 

• 33/6 - K being the 11th letter in the alphabet, KKK is ostensibly equal to 3x11 which is 33. KKK stands for Ku Klux Klan, arguably the most prominent American white supremacist group. The 6 in this code refers to the belief among KKK members that the group is in it’s 6th “historical iteration”

 

• 100%, 101%, 123%, 112%, or 113% - Shorthand for “100% white,” a phrase used among white supremacists. 101% is a variation used to denote extreme white purity. 123% uses alphanumeric code like 33/6 or 88, with W being the 23rd letter of the alphabet, and 123 meaning “100% W” or “100% white.” 112 and 113 use the same type of code to represent B and C respectively, with 112 meaning “100% Aryan Brotherhood” and 113 meaning “100% Aryan Circle.”

 

• 109 or 109/110 - 109 refers to the number of countries anti semites and white supremacists claim Jews have been “expelled from.” 109/110 is an American phrase that calls for America to be the 110th country to expel Jews, with slogans like “110 and never again” and “Make America the 110th.” The neo-Confederate gang “League of the South” often uses 1488-110 to identify it’s members.

 

• 12 - 1 being A and 2 being B, AB stands for Aryan Brotherhood, a group of Aryan prison gangs.

 

• 13 - Same as above but standing for Aryan Circle, another group of prison gangs.

 

• 13/52, 13/90, and 13/50 - This phrase refers to an inaccurate statistic that Black people make up 13% percent of the population and commit 50 (or by some accounts 52) percent of crime and 90% of interracial crime. Often used on social media, this is one of the most surface-level dog whistles and once you know it, you’ll see it everywhere. The actual statistics show that although they make up 13.6 percent of the population, they only commit 26.6 percent of crime in the U.S., as according to the 2020 census and crime and arrest statistics provided by the FBI, which are only as recent as 2019.

 

• 18 - Alphanumeric code for Adolf Hitler

 

• 28 - Alphanumeric code for Blood & Honor (B = 2, H = 8)

 

• 23/16 - Alphanumeric code for W/P, meaning White Power

 

• 311 - 3*11 equals 333, alphanumeric code for KKK, the Ku Klux Klan. This may be tattooed in the form of a clock indicating the time 3:11

 

• 318 - Alphanumeric code for C18, the street name of British racist group Combat 18. In America, it’s associated with the Aryan Terror Brigade, who claim to be related to Combat 18

 

• 43 - The total of 19, 23, and 1, the alphanumeric initials for the skinhead group Supreme White Alliance (SWA)

 

• 737 - Corresponding numbers on a phone keypad to PDS, an acronym for Peni Death Squad, another name for the California prison skinhead group Public Enemy Number One (PENI).

 

• 83 - Alphanumeric code for Heil Christ or Hail Christ, often used in conjunction with other symbols like 88/83, 83/14, or 88/83/14.

 

• 9% - 9 percent refers to the amount of white people in the global population, although that statistic is inaccurate. 

Acronyms and Slogans
Often used to sign off racist messages, clapback on Twitter, post on malicious boards like 4chan, or add context to otherwise benign-seeming racist symbols, letter based codes like acronyms are some of the most easily passed off codes on the Internet. Be on the lookout for these: 

• 5 Words - “I have nothing to say,” the five words that white supremacists are instructed to tell the police upon their arrest. Some white supremacists believe they're the only 5 words that should ever be spoken to police. 

 

• ACAB (Certain contexts) - ACAB is an acronym for All Cops Are Bastards. Often used by skinhead groups, ACAB is also used by Antifa and other anti-fascist and leftist anti-police groups. This phrase should be taken with caution.

 

• AYAK/AKIA/KIGY - Acronyms for “Are You A Klansman,” “A Klansman I Am,” and “Klansman I Greet You” respectively, these acronyms or phrases are used by Klan members to identify their constituents in non-Klan spaces like chat rooms or events. Often these are used in conjunction with number based codes to sign off IMs, emails, letters, or even Tweets.

 

• Day of the Rope - The Day of the Rope is a phrase and concept taken from the novel The Turner Diaries, a fictionalized account of a race war and white race revolution by neo Nazi William Pierce. In the book, white supremacists take over California and commit a series of mass lynchings of “race traitors,” such as white women in interracial relationships, white journalists reporting sympathetically about POC and Jews, and other people of that nature. The mass lynchings were all committed on the same day and the day was dubbed “the Day of the Rope.”

This phrase is often put on posters or memes along with 4chan imagery like “Pepe.”

• The Goyim Know - Goyim is a Yiddish word for non-Jews, often used disparagingly. The phrase “the Goyim know,” often combined with stereotypical Yiddish like “oy vey,” is used in reference to the anti-semitic conspiracy theory that Jews control the world from behind the scenes. The phrase in its full form is “Oy vey, the goyim know! Shut it down!”

 

• We Wuz Kangs - Mocking of AAVE for “we were kings,” intended to contrast sub-Saharan Africans with Egyptians during the slave trade. Essentially meant to dismiss the negative effects of the slave trade by saying that Africans were underdeveloped and the West was a better place for them.