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Vice President JD Vance recently visited the Dachau concentration camp, and it’s clear he got the right message.
After touring the camp with 97-year-old survivor Abba Naor, Vance said: “I’ve read a lot about the Holocaust in books, but being here and seeing it up close in person really drives home what unspeakable evil was committed. … It’s very important that those of us who are lucky enough to be alive can walk around, can know what happened here, and commit ourselves to prevent it from happening again.”
In line with Vance’s goal of preventing hate from spreading and devolving into extraordinary evil, the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) — a nonprofit aimed at combating extremist groups — recently purchased House 88, home of the infamous Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his family, which sits just beyond the walls of the Auschwitz extermination camp in Poland. The number 88 was code for Heil Hitler — the letter “H” is the 8th letter of the alphabet.
CEP plans to turn the house and its grounds into the Auschwitz Research Center on Hate, Extremism and Radicalization — “ARCHER at House 88.”
All post-war elements have been removed, leaving the house as the Höss family knew it between 1941 and 1944, with views of the horrific barracks, the gas chamber and the crematorium, but with one notable exception: In honor of Auschwitz’s Jewish victims and to reclaim the house from its evil past and put it on the path of doing good, a mezuzah has been added to the front door. Renowned architect Daniel Libeskind has designed a new building for the grounds outside of House 88 that will house and inspire the organization’s activities.
But ARCHER at House 88’s mission is not to just remember what hate can accomplish but to find ways to prevent hate from starting and spreading. As ARCHER board member Kenneth B. Mehlman said, “Never Again must be more than a slogan. It requires active engagement, education, and vigilance.” In service of that mission, the center will host a fellowship program for leading scholars focused on extremism research, develop educational programs for policymakers, educators and the public and devise, advocate for and implement strategies to combat hate.
This will be done first by recognizing that hate is taught by charismatic and well-funded leaders through propaganda — extremely negative, one-sided representations of a group in words and pictures, stated over and over by leaders, academics and influencers and spread by a forced, willfully blind or sympathetic and willing media.
To stop hateful ideologies from spreading, social media companies cannot let extremism flow freely under the guise of free speech. Teaching people via social media accounts or YouTube videos how to create bombs or how to ram cars into as many people as possible is not protected free speech.
Posting messages on X, Instagram or TikTok encouraging students to harass, attack or exclude others is not protected free speech. Putting those of like-minded hate together in chatrooms or groups on their platforms so they can rev each other up further to commit more violent actions is not something decent companies that care about civil society do.
ARCHER at House 88 will use AI technology to expose those videos and chat groups, putting public pressure on platforms to remove dangerous content. ARCHER at House 88 will push for enforcement of anti-discrimination laws and new laws making clear that inciting hate or violence is illegal and will not be tolerated. Archer at House 88 will also work to disrupt the funding of all terrorist organizations, organizations that pose as nonprofits but fund terrorist groups, as well as all corporations that violate U.S. sanctions and all those who knowingly send donations to organizations that support extremist agendas.
Ultimately, ARCHER at House 88 isn’t about looking evil in the face — it’s about recognizing hate and evil when you hear or see it and doing something to end it. After all, as chairman of the Institute of Social Safety Jacek Purski once said, “A house is a house, but it is in uninteresting, regular houses like this where extremism is happening today.”
It is our collective responsibility to not turn away if we see another Höss in our own neighborhoods or an extremist philosophy spread into our feeds. Only once we confront hate can we be sure that the powerfully destructive results of hate never happen again.
Elliott Broidy is an entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist and co-chair of the Fund to End Antisemitism, Extremism and Hate, which supports the ARCHER at House 88 initiative.