The Haunted Screen
The Haunted Screen is an antifascist project using film, history, and experimental storytelling to understand our authoritarian present. The first season—"From Caligari to Hitler"—investigates the chaotic, creative world of Weimar Germany. New episodes are tackling new topics.
The Haunted Screen
Making a Martyr, From Horst Wessel to Charlie Kirk
After the assassination of the right-wing organizer and influencer Charlie Kirk, MAGA has fallen all over itself to turn him into a movement martyr. But this isn't the first time fascists have sought to canonize a flawed man and use his memory for their own dark purposes. Meet Horst Wessel, a slain Nazi brownshirt who Joseph Goebbels elevated to national sainthood and cynically crafted into a Party marketing campaign.
Hey y'all. By this point, you're probably close to maxed out on Charlie Kirk discourse. If you're not there already. Every pundit, commentator, whoever they've shared their take on the assassination of the right-wing organizer slash influencer. And that's not what this is, at least mostly. I am not gonna patronize you by lecturing you on why murder is bad. It is. You probably know that. And I'm not gonna run through a laundry list of every awful thing that Charlie Kirk ever said. Suffice it to say, he said bigoted things.
SPEAKER_15:Islam is not compatible with Western civilization. Let me say it again. Islam is not compatible with Western civilization. It's like immediately I have like a flashback to a country where trannees weren't able to do Bud Light commercials. It was a better country back then. I'm sorry it was. Just so you're clear you're clear, the Haitians that are in Hunt Huntsville that are raping your women and hunting you down at night, it's only going to get worse. And they're just they're having a field day and they're coming for your daughter next. He told lies. Voter fraud is a very real thing. Voter fraud happens all the time. Despite what the media and certain weak, intellectually compromised constitutional scholars are telling you, Mike Pence does not have to accept the results of polluted and poisoned electors. He does not. We are not going to take a fraud that is happening on the American people. They hate those of you that live in rural and small America. They hate those of you that own land and have guns and believe in a better country. And they have a plan to try and get rid of you. The same way that Joseph Stalin went after the Kulaks, they want to go after you. You believe in God, country, family, faith, and freedom. And they won't stop until you and your children and your children's children are eliminated.
SPEAKER_05:Eliminated. Contrary to how a lot of people are trying to frame him, including liberals like Ezra Klein and Gavin Newsome, Kirk was not some avatar of good faith debate. Kirk's willingness to engage with college students has come in for particular praise. But when his apologists describe his campus events, it often sounds like they're concocting some idealized image of a Socratic dialogue or a Habermassian town square, not describing your typical turning point USA Charlie Kirk event, as it actually existed. Sure. Sometimes ideas were exchanged, sometimes minds were changed. Never Charlie's, but sometimes someone's. But at bottom, they were an opportunity for a grown-ass man to channel his rhetorical gifts into stand-up comic style crowd work on nervous college sophomores and then turn it into social media content. Here are some titles of videos that Kirk or his organization posted online. Charlie Kirk destroys pro-trans pierce-face leftist. Charlie Kirk destroys fuming feminists' argument. A lot of destruction here. Charlie Kirk destroys manbund idiot with facts and logic. Okay, that one's a little funny. Charlie Kirk annihilates radical Islam sympathizer. Charlie Kirk's most savage campus moments of spring twenty twenty-five. Charlie Kirk wrecks race-obsessed leftist plane victim card. Charlie Kirk humiliates pro-trans leftist. Now does this sound like that person who Ezra Klein wrote about in his now famous New York Times column? Someone who's, quote, doing politics exactly the right way. Now whatever he said, whatever he did, none of it justifies Kirk's assassination. Sometimes evil things happen to bad people. And that doesn't make the evil things less evil. But it doesn't make the bad people less bad either. And this assassination, it's not gonna lead anywhere good. Just look around, and you'll see the Trump regime's eagerness to use this tragedy as a pretext to get people fired, to get TV shows taken off the air, to turn the country's rage, hate, and fear on trans people as a group. Look, I'm not here to to give my hot take, to litigate these questions that we've been arguing about for weeks. Although that's what I just did, I know, but that's not the purpose of this episode. That's not the reason I made it. It's about history and using that history to help us understand the fucked-up chaotic moment we're living through. Obviously, there's a taboo against speaking ill of the dead. But when people try to distort the memory of a dead person to make them a martyr, when they insist that flags fly at half-mast or NFL teams have a moment of silence, it's important to tell the truth. Because martyrs, especially fascist martyrs, they're dangerous. Let me tell you about Horst Vessel. If you spend a lot of time talking politics with other lefties on Blue Sky, you may have seen people posting about Horst. And if you are among a very tiny circle of especially discerning users, you may have seen me posting about Horst. But for those unfamiliar, Horst Vessel was a Nazi. Not a politician, not a general, not anyone of significant note during his lifetime. A street-level activist, a brown shirt, a member of the Nazi Party's paramilitary wing, the SA. And he was one in the years before the fascist rise to power. But one of some organizational skill. At least in the eyes of future Reich propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Vessel was born middle class, the son of a Lutheran pastor, in 1907. And he even studied law at the undergrad level at Berlin's Friedrich Wilhelm University. According to his diaries, fascism was his real major. He wrote that a semester abroad in Vienna was motivated by Goebbels. Then the Gowleiter or regional head of Berlin's Nazis. Goebbels saw promise in Horst and suggested that he do the equivalent of an internship amongst the party's Austrian faction. When he returned to Berlin, Vessel rose to the rank of Sturmfuhrer in charge of the Nazi street thugs in the neighborhood of Frederiksheim. Despite his bourgeois and religious background, Vessel discovered that he was better disposed to street combat than to courtroom argumentation. And he officially dropped out of school at age 21 to focus his efforts on destroying the Democratic Weimar Republic and replacing it with a totalitarian state. Educated guys like Horst were in short supply among the SA, whose ranks were mostly filled with working-class brawlers. Vessel biographer Daniel Siemens told the progressive Jewish outlet Forward that Horst showed an affinity for communicating across ideological lines, and that he was, quote, a good bridge builder between traditional conservative leaders and theoretical Nazis. He was charismatic, and party leaders praised his ability to integrate ex-communists into their movement. But his career in fascism was cut short when Vessel was shot in his rented room in January 1930. He succumbed to sepsis the following month. The details of his murder they're still murky. The best we can tell, it seems like Vessel and his girlfriend were in a dispute with their landlady over unpaid rent. The landlady she called in some communist contacts to rough horse up and kick him out of the flat. But these commie street thugs they realized who Vessel was. And they saw the opportunity to take out one of their rivals in what amounts to an ideological version of a gang hit. If you're looking for them, you can find some superficial parallels between the biographies of Charlie Kirk and Horse Vessel. Both grew up in relative comfort. Both dropped out of college to pursue a political life. Both were charismatic recruiters for their respective right-wing movements. Both were known to be comfortable talking with people who disagreed with them. Both were killed young. But there are also glaring differences. So much so that Siemens, the vessel biographer, he warned against comparing the pair, quote, at all costs. Sorry about that, Danny. But hopefully my comparison comes with sufficient historical context. He is right though. Horst and Charlie were very different men. Vessel He wasn't exactly a nobody. He was making a name for himself within the Nazi movement, and was well enough known for his political rivals to want him dead. But Kirk Kirk was a political celebrity. In a UGOV poll conducted in the days following his death, 53% of those surveyed said they'd been very or somewhat familiar with him before he died. Anecdotally, that number seems a little high to me. I knew who Kirk was, but I'm a politics freak. Most of the normies in my life hadn't heard of him until after he was killed. But that said, I am a depraved, godless coastal liberal who mostly lives around depraved, godless coastal liberals, filter bubbles, information silos, etc., etc., etc. But regardless, Kirk had millions of followers on basically every social media platform. The organization he founded and helmed, Turning Point USA, has chapters on a reported 900 college campuses, and as of 2023, it was bringing in$85 million a year in revenue. So during their respective lifetimes, it is no contest that Charlie Kirk was a bigger cultural figure in the United States than Horst Vessel was in Germany. Not even close. In Vessel, he was more than happy to mix it up on the streets of Berlin with his left-wing rivals. He once led a raid on a local Communist Party headquarters that left four of his enemies critically injured. In a song that he wrote, which came to be known as the Horse Vessel Lead or Horse Vessel Song, and became the co-national anthem of Germany, it celebrated the glory of urban combat, urging listeners to clear the streets for the Brown Battalion, DSA, clear the streets for the Storm Division man. Kirk, on the other hand, explicitly voiced a preference for discourse over violence.
SPEAKER_15:That's what is so important to our country, is to find our disagreements respectfully, because when people stop talking, that's when violence happens. That's when civil war happens. Because you start to think the other side is so evil and they lose their humanity.
SPEAKER_05:So that's how Charlie described his project. It's the way his allies on the right want us to remember him. It's the version you've seen in a lot of the mainstream press, like the New York Times. And the one that's been repeated by a number of Democratic lawmakers, your proverbial responsible adults trying to turn down the temperature. Man, that's part of who he was. That's part of what he did. Charlie wasn't a brown shirt. Hell, he wasn't even a proud boy. He wasn't like leading the charge to knife Antifa in the streets. He didn't call for the assassination of his enemies.
SPEAKER_15:Joe Biden is a bumbling, dementia-filled Alzheimer's corrupt tyrant who should honestly be put in prison and or given the death penalty for his crimes against America. And the guy who had the foresight to worry about times when you start to think the other side is so evil and they lose their humanity.
SPEAKER_05:Also spent a lot of his life telling his massive audience that the other side was so evil. And maybe didn't have a lot of humanity to speak of.
SPEAKER_15:The Democrat Party supports everything that God hates. The Democrat Party is espousing the death of the unborn, the mutilation of our teenage kids, open borders, the destruction of our sovereignty, the elimination of our currency status. I believe there is a spiritual battle happening around all of us.
SPEAKER_05:Not gonna lie, I like the idea of God having firm opinions on American currency status. But the truth is that the parallels and divergences of these two men's lives matter less than how their movements deployed their deaths. Goebbels started the process of making Vessel a martyr before the kid was even dead. While Horst was still alive in his hospital bed, hoping for a recovery, Goebbels was already writing in his diary about Vessel's murderers. Not assailants, murderers. And publicly, he was fanning the flames of ideological warfare, writing that the shooters were, quote, degenerate communist subhumans. And after Vessel died, Goebbels was ready to capitalize. He'd tried, and largely failed, to give the martyr makeover to Albert Leo Schladiger, a World War I vet executed by occupying French forces for sabotage in 1923. Schletiger was, I guess, the Nazis Ashley Babbitt, the woman shot and killed by Capitol Police while trying to force her way through a window on January 6th. And Mega's first draft at martyrdom.
SPEAKER_06:It is my great honor to address each of you gathered today to cherish the memory of Ashley Babbitt, a truly incredible person. To Ashley's family and friends, please know that her memory will live on in our hearts for all time.
SPEAKER_05:Babbitt's memory might live on in the hearts of the hardcore of MAGA, but her story didn't really captivate the public at large. She was a rioter, an insurrectionist, who ignored multiple warnings from the police. She was a schlagger. And with Vessel, Goebbels was determined to make martyrdom stick. While the police restricted the size and scope of the funeral procession, Goebbels claims, so take this with a grain of salt, but Goebbels claims that 30,000 mourners line the streets to watch the casket go by. Goebbels himself delivered the eulogy. And while I couldn't track down the text of that speech, a piece he wrote for Berlin's Nazi newspaper could give us an idea of the tone that he was trying to strike. Goebbel writes a vessel, he was ready to make the ultimate sacrifice. Leaving his mother in parental home, he went into the midst of those who mocked and spat on him. I am one of you, a Christian socialist, a man who calls out through his deeds, Come to me, I shall redeem you. The divine element works in him, making him the man he is, and causing him to act in this way and no other. A few years later, in 1934, a counselor at the Reich propaganda ministry remembered Vessel's funeral like this. Something odd and unreal happened as Dr. Goebbels began to speak and held his funeral oration, uttering the words and you shall be resurrected. A shudder went through the crowd, as if God had made a decision and sent his holy breath upon the open grave and the flags, blessing the dead man and all who belonged to him. Now, this Christian language of martyrdom, it might sound a little familiar if you followed any of the coverage of Kirk's memorial service. Take, for example, the eulogy delivered by the famously pious Donald Trump Jr.
SPEAKER_12:Charlie joined a long line of courageous men and women who were martyred for what they believe. According to the Book of Acts, the first martyr in the early Christian church was Stephen, who was stoned to death.
SPEAKER_05:Now, of course, the right doesn't have a monopoly on political martyrs or on using Christian imagery to commemorate them. Here's a piece of a eulogy delivered by minister and civil rights activist Dr.
SPEAKER_08:Benjamin Mays for Martin Louquet. A twentieth century fact.
SPEAKER_16:My friends, for Charlie, we must remember that he is a hero to the United States of America, and he is a martyr for the Christian faith.
SPEAKER_05:And Donald Trump.
SPEAKER_06:He was violently killed because he spoke for freedom and justice, for God and country, for reason and for common sense. And so on that terrible day, September 10th, 2025, our greatest evangelist for American liberty became immortal. He's a martyr now for American freedom.
SPEAKER_05:It's not a coincidence that one Berlin minister described Vessel as forever a model of positive Christianity in the Third Reich. Or that in a 1930 graveside speech, Goebbels said that Horst resurrected a new generation of Germans. God and country. It's a potent combination and a dangerous one. This is especially the case when militarism enters the mix. You can hear it in the eulogy delivered by quote-unquote secretary of war Pete Heggseth.
SPEAKER_11:Charlie Kirk was a citizen who had the biblical heart of a soldier of the faith who put on every single day the full armor of God with a smile, as the scriptures tell all Christ followers to do. Charlie Kirk, a warrior for country, a warrior for Christ.
SPEAKER_05:You can hear it in FBI Director Cash Patel's weird evocation of the mythical realm of fallen soldiers. To my friend Charlie Kirk. And I'll see you in Valhalla. And you can see it here.
SPEAKER_07:New exclusive reporting this hour on a planned push by top military leaders to try and recruit new troops after the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Two officials familiar with the planning tell NBC News there are plans for a campaign to encourage young people to join the U.S. military to honor Charlie Kirk's legacy. And that would include potentially mottos like we need to grow a generation of warriors in honor of Charlie.
SPEAKER_05:The Nazis use vessel for recruitment purposes, too. He was on posters for the SA and SS. They even made a propaganda movie about him. Goebbels didn't like it though. Too Christian. Maybe the most disturbing way that Kirk's death is being used is what you could call the they problem. All evidence suggests that the killer, Tyler Robinson, was a troubled young guy who acted alone. He was a gamer, not like the president of his local DSA chapter, or someone with a history of Antifa ties. But Mega, they're casting their blame net wide. Wasn't just Robinson that killed Kirk. Some shadowy they did too. You hear it from regular everyday Trump fans. Like this woman lined up outside of Kirk's memorial, interviewed by the New York Times podcast, The Daily.
SPEAKER_01:I want to hear true leadership say that they will no longer tolerate this. No longer being tolerant to the left. It's now clear that the one person that was willing to reach across the aisle and have conversations with them, they shot him. So at this point, there is no changing their minds. There is no uh kumbaya anymore. You're over there, we're over here, you stand for that, we stand for this.
SPEAKER_05:You hear it from right-wing pundits, like Fox News' Jesse Waters.
SPEAKER_10:It's officially over now. After today, we're not taking it anymore. They're telling us we're at war. This is a war we didn't ask for, and this is a war they can't win.
SPEAKER_05:You hear it from members of Trump's own administration. Like this absolutely deranged eulogy given by Deputy White House Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller. Really sorry to do this, but we're gonna play a few minutes of his speech. It is beyond unhinged. Maybe the best distillation of American fascism I have ever heard. And it's worth hearing what we're up against.
SPEAKER_13:Our lineage and our legacy hails back to Athens, to Rome, to Philadelphia, to Monticello. Our ancestors built the cities, they produced the art and architecture, they built the industry. We will prevail over the forces of wickedness and evil. They cannot imagine what they may have awakened, they cannot conceive of the army that they have arisen in all of us. Because we stand for what is good, what is virtuous, what is noble. And to those trying to incite violence against us, those trying to foment hatred against us, what do you have? You have nothing, you are nothing, you are wickedness, you are jealousy, you are envy, you are hatred, you are nothing, you can build nothing, you can produce nothing, you can create nothing. We are the ones who build, we are the ones who create, we are the ones who lift up humanity. You have no idea, the dragon you have awakened, you have no idea how determined we will be to save this civilization, to save the West, to save this republic. Because our children are strong, and our grandchildren will be strong, and our children's children's children will be strong. And what will you leave behind? Nothing, nothing to our enemies. You have nothing to give, you have nothing to offer, you have nothing to share but bitterness. We have beauty, we have light, we have goodness, we have determination, we have vision, we have strength. We built the world that we inhabit now, generation by generation, and we will defend this world, we will defend goodness, we will defend light, we will defend virtue. You cannot terrify us, you cannot frighten us, you cannot threaten us, because we are on the side of goodness, we are on the side of God.
SPEAKER_05:Jesus fucking Christ. Like what the actual fuck future historians are gonna study this speech to try and understand what the hell was going on in 2025. Anyone who's not on Stephen Miller's side, so me, probably you, we're all not just responsible for Kirk's death, but apparently for the death of civilization, the death of the West, the death of all that is good and pure in the world. My friend Steve, who has wisely expatriated himself to Dublin the other day, he sent me some excerpts from a speech Goebbels gave in 1932 that has uncanny echoes of the Miller speech. I'm gonna read from some of it. You men, women, and comrades are the bearers, witnesses, builders, and finishers of this unique people's uprising. Our opponents laughed at us in the past, but they laughed no longer. You, men and women standing before me, a hundred or two hundred thousand in number, with heads high, upright, proud, and brave, the carriers of Germany's future. In your eyes, it is written. So our dead comrade, Horst Wessel, wrote, and we are fulfilling his prophecy. The others may lie, slander, and pour their scorn on us. Their political days are numbered. Adolf Hitler is knocking at the gates of power. And in his fist are joined the fists of millions of workers and farmers. The time of shame and disgrace is nearly over. You are the witnesses, the builders, the willbearers of our idea and our worldview. The party hacks of the Socialist Party are suddenly remembering the people. For a decade, the illustrated magazines pictured them only in frock coats and cylinder hats at tables filled with oysters and champagne bottles. Now they wear workers' caps and fill their newspapers with urgings like people, wake up. Our answer The good old days of party bigwigs are over. A new Germany is coming. A Germany raised on the Spartan laws of Prussian duty. It is a Germany grown fat, but one that is starving. It is a Germany with strength, with will, with idealism. It is a Germany that is done with Marxist betrayal and bourgeois white gloves. My buddy Steve. He says he's got a friend who calls Miller Timu Girbles. I think there's something to that. Of course, this fascist us them framing. It starts at the very top. As I'm sure you've heard, Kirk's widow, Erica, she spoke at the memorial about forgiving her husband's killer. President Donald Trump, though, has a different outlook.
SPEAKER_06:He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them. That's where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent. And I don't want the best for them. I'm sorry. I am sorry, Erica.
SPEAKER_05:Now, this kind of collective blame, collective hatred, it was used by you guessed it, the Nazis in the wake of Horse Vessel's death. In Goebbels' telling, the murder wasn't a choice made by a handful of communist street tufts. It was the responsibility of the entire German left. The historian Richard J. Evans writes, the communists, Goebbels trumpeted, had shown their true colours by enrolling a common criminal like the gunmen in their ranks. And after rising to power in 1933, the Nazis went to work, dismantling their opposition. By the end of that summer, all other political parties, be they left, liberal, or centrist, were banned. Now, here in 2025, the Trump regime has been explicit about using Kirk's murder to justify a broad crackdown on the American left. Which for them covers a whole spectrum from like Antifa to Abigail Spanberger. While Vance did say this.
SPEAKER_02:Now I have heard many calls in the last few days for unity and for healing in the wake of Charlie's assassination. You have no idea how desperately I want that, how gratified I was when Democratic friends and even former Senate colleagues reached out to offer their condolences to me. I'm so thankful. And I know there are so many like them all across our great country. I am desperate to wrap my arms around them as we all unite to condemn political violence and the ideas that cause it.
SPEAKER_05:He also said this.
SPEAKER_02:This hack of a writer shows that she lied about a dead man, and yet she wrote it. An esteemed magazine published it, it made it through the editors, and of course, liberal billionaires rewarded that attack.
SPEAKER_05:And this.
SPEAKER_04:Shortly thereafter, Disney and the ABC network are taking Jimmy Kimmel live off the air indefinitely.
SPEAKER_05:It's scary. But for all of the parallels, for all of the similarities in how their murders were used and abused, Charlie Kirk is not Horst Vessel. America 2025 is not Germany 1933. Here and now with Kimmel, people responded. They showed Omega Corporation that Donald Trump wasn't the only threat to their bottom line. We regular folks, we can be a threat. People canceled the Disney Plus subscriptions. People canceled their theme park trips and cruises. One woman reportedly canceled her$150,000 Disney dream wedding. And Disney adults, Disney influencers, they took to social media to let their favorite company know exactly how they felt. Here's Magical Terry on TikTok.
SPEAKER_00:I saw a video today that said you're not ready for a revolution if you can't even give up Disney. And I'm here to say, if I can cancel my Disney subscription, I think you can manage to cancel your Disney subscription. Let me explain why I think it is so important. Involving on tyranny, the very first rule in his book, do not obey in advance.
SPEAKER_05:That's the scholar of totalitarianism, Timothy Snyder, that she's quoting. In all that pressure from regular people, it did the trick.
SPEAKER_09:This show is not important. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.
SPEAKER_05:He backtracked like a bitch.
SPEAKER_03:I saw there was a letter from some Senate Democrats that said the FCC threatened to revoke the license of Disney and ABC if they didn't fire Jimmy Kimmel, and that did not happen in any way, shape, or form.
SPEAKER_05:Getting a late night host back on the air, it's a small victory. People are still losing their jobs just for pointing out the vile things that Kirk himself has said. ICE is still wearing their masks, still kidnapping people off the street. Trump is still bullying media organizations, corporations, and universities. Many of whom are showing a complete lack of backbone. But what Jimmy Kimmel's resurrection shows is that we can push back. But if we're gonna pull out of this authoritarian death spiral, we can't be cowed. We can't obey in advance. We can't allow MAGA to determine the shape of reality. A false reality where, say, a bigoted, lying provocateur is recast as a blameless saint. Where flags fly at half-mast in his honor. And NFL teams have a moment of silence for him. Our institutions have largely disgraced themselves. But that doesn't mean this is over. It just means it's on us now. In accordance with the principles of fair use, we use clips from The Charlie Kirk Show, NCG Studios, The New Republic, The Young Turks, ABC News, Alive Mind, NBC News, USA Today, The Daily, Fox News, Time, The Benny Johnson Show, CNN, Magical Terry's TikTok, MSNBC, and Jimmy Kimmel Live. Theme music from the Great Pacific Garbage Vortex. Take care, y'all. Be safe, be brave. And I am working on part two of that Paxton mixtape. Till next time.
