FORMER EXTREMIST: Arno Michaelis
Arno is a former Hammerskin and vocalist for the white power band ‘Centurion.’ The Hammerskins are a white supremacist and neo-Nazi organisation that originated in the United States in the late 1980s
Arno was a recruiter, street-fighter and vocalist for white power music group Centurion, connected with the skinhead Hammerskins movement. He recorded music which he describes as ‘audio violence’ calling for violence against non-white people, Jews, gays and so-called ‘white traitors.’ He describes the anti-Semitic beliefs in the movement and the focus upon ‘racial purity.’ He talks about the distancing effect of language which was used to reinforce us-them divisions. He talks about myth-making within the movement, and how they presented themselves as heroic warriors, mimicking Vikings. He acknowledges the addictive qualities of violence, and how this can draw an individual deeper into the ideology, which includes the insistence of a persecution narrative. He also describes how a difficult home life undermined his self-worth, and how burn-out, the loss of friends, and the experience of fatherhood led him to leave the movement.