Harlan Crow Collects Nazi Memorabilia, Hitler’s Crayon Drawings Because He Hates Nazis So Very Much

Yeah, you heard right: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s billionaire bestie, the Dickensian-named Harlan Crow, collects Nazi memorabilia and Hitler knickknacks. Oh, and he has a literal “Garden of Evil” in his backyard featuring statues of such creepy despots as Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, Yugoslav dictator Josip Broz Tito, and the Soviet Union’s Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin.

Yikes.

According to a 2014 Dallas Morning News article, Crow didn’t commission these statues. They’re in fact monuments from public spaces that citizens toppled at the end of their regimes. They were smuggled out of their countries, where this rich asshole purchased them instead of donating them to a museum. But, hey, as long as “man of the people” Clarence Thomas gets to appreciate them, that’s almost as good.

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Having statues of brutal dictators on your property seems like a Bond villain move, but Crow insists his “Garden of Evil” is intended to highlight “man’s inhumanity to man.” Still should’ve gone with a water feature instead.

It’s not a shock that supposedly “reasonable” conservatives rushed to defend this weirdo. Conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg tweeted Saturday, “[Crow’s ‘Garden of Evil’ is] not a tribute to evil or something to be mocked. It’s an attempt [to] commemorate the horrors of the 20th century in the spirit of ‘never again.’ Harlan Crow is a deeply honorable, decent, and patriotic person. He’s not the strawman Thomas haters are trying to make him.”

“Never Again” is a historical call to action that demands we never forget and (most importantly) never repeat the horrors of the Holocaust. It’s insulting to apply that phrase to Crow’s clear fetishizing of dictators. Conservative David French, gainfully employed at the New York Times, responded to Goldberg’s tweet: “To add to Jonah’s comment. I know Harlan also. I’ve participated in several debates at Old Parkland. The idea that he’s a Nazi sympathizer is utterly ludicrous. He abhors tyranny, from fascism to communism to everywhere in between.”

OK, sure, Crow “abhors” tyranny and fascism, which he demonstrates by decorating his home with two of Hitler’s paintings. According to the Washingtonian, Hitler’s European cityscapes are just hanging on the wall next to paintings by George W. Bush and Norman Rockwell. (He also owns Sitting Bull’s death mask, which should rightly be returned to the Lakota people.)

This is a man with way too much money who commoditizes history to make himself feel important. These are all just trophies to him, much like his very own Supreme Court justice.

Crow also has Hitler’s teapot. I’m not sure a genocidal maniac’s tea-making apparatus has historical value. Vernon Baker was one of seven Black Americans to receive the Medal of Honor for service in World War II. Now, his teapot is worth owning and its proximity won’t slowly corrupt your soul.

Goldberg was especially incensed that The Nation’s Elie Mystal referred to Crow as a “Nazi sympathizer,” even though every movie, novel, or TV show ever made in the past 80 years has used “collects Nazi shit” as an easy shorthand for “this guy’s a Nazi!” But no, Mystal has apparently libeled an innocent Nazi teapot collector. Only a “mob” mentality would suggest owning Nazi linens means you sympathize somehow with Nazis. After wiping his mouth after some delicious Nazi tea, Crow probably somberly reflects on man’s inhumanity toward man. It’s like Schindler’s List every tea time.

Crow’s conservative buddies must forgive us intolerant liberals, because an actual Hitler collection seems less about a history and more about digging Hitler. Crow’s collection also includes a signed copy of Hitler’s unhinged collection of proto-Truth Social posts Mein Kampf. I’m happy to say that my signed theatre posters are pleasantly Nazi free.

Brent Orrell at the American Enterprise Institute argued that Crow is simply a student of history. He said, “OK, I do happen to have some Confederate currency in a frame. Does that make me a neo-Confederate or someone who enjoys and derives value from studying the American Civil War?” Journalist Ben Dreyfuss, whose father has done great things, wrote, “I think it’s a little silly to decide that owning Nazi memorabilia means you like Nazis. I own a number of Civil War antiques and some of them are confederate. It doesn’t mean I love the Confederacy. People are fascinated with WW2. I imagine there are lots of benign collectors.”

What we choose to remember and especially commemorate from history says a lot about us. During the Civil War, Harriet Tubman was the first woman to lead a military operation in the United States. Does Dreyfuss own any Tubman memorabilia? When you visit a former Southern plantation, you’ll notice the main house is often meticulously maintained, while the enslaved people’s quarters were allowed to rot away, even though they were perhaps the more significant historical artifact.

Goldberg insists that “the Nazi stuff” is a fraction of Crow’s total collection: “He also has Lincoln’s desk from the Illinois’s legislature and the Declaration of Independence.” As Indiana Jones would say, this all belongs in a museum. However, the signed Mein Kampf can join Hitler in hell.

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