Nazi Flag On Hamtramck House Shocks, Angers Community

HAMTRAMCK, MI — A Nazi flag flying from a Hamtramck house Friday sparked an uproar of condemnation from residents and city leaders.

Pictures of the flag were seen circulating on social media at a home on Doremus Street in Hamtramck, a community known for its diversity, inclusion and acceptance.

"While we recognize Constitutionally protected speech, we can not condone words and symbols intended to divide," city officials said in a statement. "Hamtramck is a tight-knit community full of diverse people from various cultures, backgrounds, and lived experiences. It is our hope that we come together as a city that appreciates diversity and rejects hate that makes that diversity unsustainable. In doing this, we can all make Hamtramck a better place to live."

A resident in the home told the Hamtramck Review he was unaware the flag was flying at his home and believes someone put it up to humiliate him. The flag was taken down after that afternoon.

The red flag with black vertical and horizontal stripes and a black swastika inside a white circle mirrored the flag of Nazi Germany, which was a 1930s fascist movement led by Adolf Hitler that centered on antisemitism, militarism and imperialism.

Former Hamtramck Mayor Karen Majewski told Patch she began sharing a photo of the flag on Facebook and said people in the community were shocked and outraged.

"Any place you would see a Nazi flag is shocking, but particularly so in a city like Hamtramck that prides itself on diversity and its inclusiveness and acceptance," Majewski said. "There was a lot of outrage among community members that one of their neighbors would express such a hateful and genocidal subdominant, and would feel comfortable advertising that kind of mentality and belief system."

Although Hamtramck is mostly home to Middle Eastern and South Asian immigrants, the city was once dominated by Polish immigrants, particularly in the early 20th Century, and remains a haven for immigrants.

Virginia Skrzyniarz, chief executive officer and co-founder of the Piast Institute, a Polish-American research center in Hamtramck, told Patch the flag is still a symbol of fear that people, including Polish people, are not over.

"It's not that anyone Polish would want to take away anyone's freedom, but it's such a strong and impactful sign of fear that people are still not over," Skrzyniarz said. "Hamtramck has older Polish people, not necessarily younger, but older and that is a fearful remembrance."

The Nazi war flag has also been associated with the Holocaust, which was largely carried out in Nazi-occupied Poland in the early 1940s. The ruthless regime forced many Polish citizens and others into concentration and death camps, where millions were killed, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

"People need to stand up and say this kind of behavior is not acceptable," Zekelman Holocaust Center Rabbi Eli Mayerfeld told WXYZ. "Having even a prank of hanging a swastika outside a home sends a message people don’t understand how serious this can be."

Majewski also rejected any comparisons from this incident to a public outcry that was sparked after a Pride rainbow flag was raised in Zussman Park, as some in the community argue between the two.

"No moral equivalency whatsoever of a Nazi flag versus for example a gay pride flag. It’s unimaginable to even contemplate that comparison," one commentator wrote in a Hamtramck Facebook group.

"Both are equally dangerous as they destroy societies," another commentator fired back in the group.

Majewski noted there's no law that can force the flag to come down, but was heartened to see so many in the community react with outrage to the hateful message.

"Whatever we think about the law that allows the display of such a hateful message, [there] is also a statement about the steps that a community makes and the mindset and identity that a community wants to convey," Majewski said. "That's what we saw here in Hamtramck, there was an immediate reaction by community members and all across the wide spectrum of the Hamtramck community. And the flag was down by later that afternoon."