Nazi Flag Flown Over Montco Home Sparks Uproar

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA — A community in Montgomery County is in uproar as a Nazi flag has been flown from one local resident's home, reigniting latent debates over hate symbols and free speech.

The flag, which is in Lower Frederick Township, drew a response from local officials and nonprofit advocates who urged the flag not be thought of as something regular or acceptable.

"We are alarmed by the display of a Nazi flag in Lower Frederick Township, Schwenksville—an unmistakable symbol of hate and intolerance," the Anti-Defamation League of Philadelphia said in a statement. "This abhorrent display must not be normalized. We have reached out to township officials, urging a strong condemnation of this ideology and swift action. Hate has no place in our communities."

it comes just days after an Upper Moreland elementary school was vandalized with swastikas and other hate speech. A nearly identical incident of a Nazi flag waving also occurred in Whitpain Township last November.

Related: Swastikas Painted On Montco Elementary School

As they did following the Whitpain incident, local authorities in Lower Frederick spoke out against the flag but noted simultaneously said that it was protected by free speech.

"We...condemn all forms of hate and discrimination," the Lower Frederick Township Board of Supervisors said. "While the First Amendment protects this type of expression, we find the flying of the Nazi flag anywhere in our community to be abhorrent, disgraceful, and not consistent with the principles upon which our country was founded."

Little is known about the homeowner or if he has done similar things in the past.

The Board added that the flag is a symbol of hate that "represents an authoritarian regime responsible for the deaths of millions."

State Sen. Maria Collett connected the Upper Moreland incident to the recent rise of "authoritarian tendencies and open expression of hate in our society."