# 88 = Heil Hitler? Eh? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 6, 2002, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/88-heil-hitler-eh/127298 "2002-09-06T15:33:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/88-heil-hitler-eh/127298/21 "2002-09-07T05:34:20Z")
Wow! Wal-Mart frequently prices items so that they end in “.88”. I always thought in indicated a temporary price reduction, but now I see the truth: Wal-Mart = Neo Nazi Evil! No wonder Target wants no part of it. ---
**Author:** ![tsarina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@tsarina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tsarina)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/88-heil-hitler-eh/127298/22 "2002-09-07T16:52:47Z")
“88” was a popular graffito after the war in Germany, when the occupying powers forbade any obvious references to Hitler or the Nazis. I recall reading in the diary of Ruth Andreas-Friedrich (a journalist living in Berlin during the war) that she saw it often during a trip to Hamburg circa 1946-47. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/88-heil-hitler-eh/127298/23 "2002-09-07T18:10:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by occ \* > **I think you win the prize, here. I mean, why believe that “88” was used simply because its a very slick looking, symmetrical number when you can dubiously connect it to Hitler and Neo-Nazis?** Actually, I’ve come across its use with this meaning in my work. For further information, check out [www.tolerance.org](http://www.tolerance.org), which is one of the internet fora of the Southern Poverty Law Centre puts out. They collect actual examples of the symbols used by neo-Nazi groups, on the web or in other publications. Try [this link](http://www.tolerance.org/rthas/section4_1_2.jsp), which includes “88” along with some other more obvious, ugly, symbols. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/88-heil-hitler-eh/127298/24 "2002-09-07T18:28:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RiverRunner \* > \*\* > They have a _record label_? (Thanks for the link, but I’m not about to go there.) You have got to be kidding me. I’m beginning to think I was transported to a different planet sometime recently. This is still Earth, right? This place gets stranger every day. > Thanks for the info, > RR \*\* Not surprisingly, the late [unlamented](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=127237) William Pierce, of the National Alliance, was heavily involved in white power records. (Pierce was also the author of _The Turner Diaries_, Tim McVeigh’s favourite reading and likely his inspiration for OKC.) Here’s a quote from [www.tolerance.org](http://www.tolerance.org)’s obit of [Pierce](http://www.tolerance.org/news/article_hate.jsp?id=586): > [@](#): > > Pierce, never accused of being slow-witted, clearly understood the power of emerging technologies and hitched his group to the technology train, launching a high-tech web operation – in five languages. > > His latest, and last, venture was the purchase of Resistance Records – a hatecore music production and distribution house – that reportedly pulled in upwards of $1 million annually. > > Even more than the money, Pierce saw Resistance Records as a doorway into the ripe recruiting grounds of the hate music scene. > > “William Pierce owned the premiere hatecore distributor in the Western hemisphere, and this music, more than any other single factor, is responsible for the recruitment of young people into the white supremacist movement,” Potok said. “He wants to reach young people. His goal is to change the way that white people in the world think.” And this is from the Anti-Defamation League’s article on the [National Alliance](http://www.adl.org/learn/ext%5Fus%5Fbackup/n%5Falliance.asp), Pierce’s Neo-Nazi organization: > [@](#): > > White Power Music Connection > > In 1999, William Pierce and the National Alliance developed a new means of communicating with possible young recruits. In April of that year he purchased Resistance Records, a music company that features white power bands playing a mix of folk, rock, Oi and heavy metal music, with fierce lyrics directed against Jews and other minorities. Resistance was originally founded in 1993 by neo-Nazi skinheads from Canada who operated the company out of Detroit in order to avoid Canada’s strict anti-hate propaganda laws. In addition to selling CDs, the company published Resistance magazine, which featured articles on the white power music scene. American and Canadian authorities investigating tax evasion charges and violations of Canada’s anti-hate propaganda laws raided Resistance in 1997; the company was temporarily put out of business until it was purchased in 1998 by Pierce’s old nemesis, Willis Carto, and Carto’s business partner, Todd Blodgett, a former low-level staffer in the Reagan administration. Pierce and Blodgett later worked out the deal that led to Pierce’s taking control of Resistance. > > In the fall of 1999, Pierce also purchased Nordland Records, a Swedish white power music company, and folded it into Resistance Records, in effect doubling the company’s inventory. In addition to selling CDs, Pierce relaunched Resistance magazine, which had ceased production since the raid on the company. Sometimes I wish I didn’t know about this stuff, but it’s part of my job. ☹ ☹ ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/88-heil-hitler-eh/127298/25 "2002-09-07T20:30:09Z")
Similarly the British neo-nazi group “Combat 18” uses 18 because “A” is 1 and “H” is 8, (A)dolf (H)itler. ---
**Author:** ![Daoloth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/82dd89/32.png) [@Daoloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daoloth)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/88-heil-hitler-eh/127298/26 "2002-09-07T21:10:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Nametag \* > \*\* > The clothing in question features an “88” with skulls, and what appears to be a little human figure. The pictures I found aren’t very good. \*\* I saw some of the 88 shirts myself, but none did I see with skulls. Do you have any pictures of this? ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2002, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/88-heil-hitler-eh/127298/27 "2002-09-08T01:00:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Derleth \* > \*\*This whole scenario is stupid. So far, the Nazis and Neo-Nazis have been able to co-opt: (snip) The number eighty-eight. > /B] Let’s not forget the numbers 5 (5 words, “I have nothing to say”), 14 (14 words, "“We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”), 18 (“Adolph Hitler”), 83 (HC, “Heil Christ”), 23 (W, “White”), 33 (3xK=33, “KKK”), 311 (3xK, “KKK”), 336 (33 + 6th era of Klan, “KKK”), 419 (4/19, Oklahoma City bombing), 420 (4/20, Hitler’s birthday), and 100% (“pure white”). Pretty soon, the Neo-Nazis will grab 1 (“Adolph”), 3 (“Caucasian”), 4 (“Deutschland,”), 8 (“Hitler”), 198 (19=S, 8=H, “seig heil”), and 3.1414926538… (pi, representing a perfect circle, perfect being the Aryan race, which also probably contains a sequence of numbers that corresponds to the first letters of words in some speech by Hitler), 90 (Interstate 90, which runs through Idaho), and 13 (M, “Minnesota,” where a lot of white people live). If this keeps up, it looks like we’ll be going to Roman numerals and Chinese pictograms. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2002, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/88-heil-hitler-eh/127298/28 "2002-09-08T04:22:08Z")
**elmwood** : 420, the number of pothead Neos. “Dude, Heil Heil pass! You’re throwing off the rhythm!” “WHITE ::cough:: ! WHITE ::cough:: ! ::incoherent giggling::” No more pitiful than the rest of the group. :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/88-heil-hitler-eh/127298.md?page=1)