reporting nearly 2,000 incidents last year. but the past decade has seen an unprecedented decade in attacks. one of the first in this recent wave took place on june 10th, 2009 when an 88-year-old man named james von brunn made his way into washington, d.c. he was a decorated world war ii veteran, but also a lifelong antisemite and white supremist. he walked into the united states holocaust war museum and opened fire. a gunman opened fire inside the holocaust museum in washington. von brunn killed a security officer, before being shot in the face and apprehended.
the final words jaime von brunn sent to his only son you re not strong enough. you ve always been weak. you don t deserve my name. change it. that was it. but it s my name, not his, mine. that s my name. i want my name back, and i want it to mean something positive, and i want to do something positive. i want to help people as much as i possibly can. because i feel like that s my only redemption, honestly. this is why i brought eric here. to tell them the truth about the struggle for his father s love. the indoctrination and abuse and the murder of special officer steven johns. he took me down a long, dark road that i m only now just getting out of. so basically the big takeaway here is, only you can define who
for most of his life, eric von brunn agonized over what his violent, white supremacist father might do. when he became an adult, eric asked his father to move in with him. he wanted to keep a close eye on the old man. but when james asked his only son to carry out a suicide attack in washington, d.c., eric reached his breaking point. when the man asked me to kill myself for something he knew i didn t believe in, that pretty much ended our father-son relationship. you wanted out right at that point? yeah. eric had graduated from the university of maryland and was eager to put as much distance between him and his father as possible. he decided to move to florida for a fresh start. but the night before he left, as they said their good-byes, eric
one day i took him to lunch at applebys. out of nowhere, he says, it s time for you to prove yourself. i need you to go to washington, d.c., with a bomb and martyr yourself for our cause. you father wanted his son to be a suicide bomber? yeah. i was like, you ve got to be [ bleep ] kidding me. after 20 plus years you want me to kill myself because you think i ll be a good martyr for your cause? no. we re done. even though you hated this man, you felt contempt for him and he abused you, this was somebody that you still went out of your way to protect. well, i was protecting others from him. but, you know, he would frequently say, son, listen, i m going out with my boots on and there is nothing you can do to stop that. he was going to kill somebody or he was going to die trying. banjo? (man) go home.
the earth. that was the goal. this is what the allies came across. you re in shock, you re disgusted, as you should be. and your faces are reflecting it. there are more than 100 holocaust museums across the united states. every one of them is a monument to truth. so future generations won t forget the past. and will never repeat it. it s been ten years since eric von brunn s father james walked into a museum like this one and opened fire, convinced that the holocaust was a lie. he believed 6 million jews were not murdered, all to justify his hatred. those are not just pictures. those are real people who lost their lives. my name is christian picciolini.