S E E D E D CONTENTS
Earlier this month, while the rest of the country was enjoying the achievements of civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., parents and children of the Dissident Homeschool network opened up a lesson plan and were greeted with the words, "As Adolf Hitler wrote..."
The content of the MLK lesson plan would be shocking to almost anyone, but for members of the 2,400-member Dissident Homeschool Telegram channel, this was a normal Monday at school.
"It's up to us to make sure our kids know him for the fraudulent, dishonest, riotous Negro he really was," the administrator of the network's Telegram channel wrote alongside a downloadable lesson plan for elementary school kids. "He is the face of a movement that has ethnically cleansed urban whites and brought about the anti-white regime we are now fighting to break free from."
Since forming in October 2021, the group has openly embraced Nazi ideology and promoted white supremacy while proudly discouraging parents from allowing their white children to play or interact with people of other races. Administrators and members use racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic slurs without shame and quote Hitler and other Nazi leaders daily in a publicly accessible channel.
VICE News joined the group simply by clicking a link, although the membership list was not publicly viewable.
Even more troubling, however, is that the couple who run the station not only teach parents how to indoctrinate their children into this fascist ideology, but also encourage them to meet in real life and join even more radical groups that are possible would further strengthen their beliefs and possibly push them to violent action.
'Mister. and Mrs. Saxon'
The Dissident Homeschool network is run by a couple who go by the aliases "Mr. and Ms. Saxon.” This week, the anti-fascist research group Anonymous Comrades Collective published a detailed report that revealed the Saxons to be Logan and Katja Lawrence, who live in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, with their four young children.
The researchers were able to identify the Lawrences based on biographical details they shared in the Telegram channel group chat and podcast appearances. One of the key clues to their identification came when they revealed they owned a German shepherd named Blondi — the same name as Hitler's dog.
The researchers found photos Katja had posted to Facebook with her German shepherd and were also able to confirm Katja Lawrence's ownership of this dog through the dog search feature of Wyandot County's dog licensing website.
The Lawrences did not respond to multiple emails, text messages, social media messages, and calls from VICE News to discuss the content of the report and their neo-Nazi homeschooling group.
Katja Lawrence, in her 30s, started the channel in October 2021 because she was "having a difficult time finding Nazi-approved school supplies for [her] homeschool kids," as she told the neo-Nazi podcast "Achtung!" Americans” last year.
"We are so committed to making this child a wonderful Nazi."
Later in the same podcast episode, Lawrence shared her take on why she wanted to home raise her kids. "We care about the well-being of our children and no one can do a better job than us because it is our child. We're so committed to making this kid a wonderful Nazi," she said.
When VICE News reached out for comment on the Lawrences and their channel, podcast host Gordon Kahl replied, "I think you should kill yourself instead."
Katja Lawrence, born Katja van den Berg, is originally from the Netherlands and moved to the United States after meeting her husband at Oktoberfest in Berlin, according to an old LiveJournal blog uncovered by the researchers. She became a naturalized US citizen in 2017.
Logan Lawrence works as an agent for a local, family-run insurance agency. When reached by phone, an employee of the company told VICE News that they would not comment on the story.
Logan is also a member of a local Masonic lodge and can be seen in a number of images on their website where he is listed as an officer of the lodge. The lodge secretary did not respond to VICE News' request for comment.
Both Katja and Logan have a limited presence on mainstream social media platforms, and the one Facebook account Katja operated was deleted this week following the release of the Anonymous Comrades Collective report.
Katja Lawrence is the main poster on the Dissident Homeschool channel, posting class schedules, book lists, lesson plans, and other educational resources for like-minded parents.
Racist Lesson Plans
Lawrence uses every lesson plan as an opportunity to spread racist ideology. In a "math problem," children were asked to interpret "crime statistics," the goal of which was to "recognize that demographics are cautious." Another lesson called IQ Unit Study is about IQ scores. "Blacks, on average, have much lower IQs than whites," Lawrence wrote.
Last week, the Dissident Homeschool network's group chat channel shut down, but VICE News reviewed an archive of chats from October 2021 and revealed that the channel was initially populated by a small number of core members who contributed most Comments and Content.
However, by the time the chat archive ended on January 4, hundreds more people were contributing to the conversations, and the discussions had expanded from raising children to the dangers of diversity and that Indiana Jones films were nothing more than "Jewish." revenge" are porn."
A parent who posted to the group last year thanked the Lawrences for their work and explained why they agreed public schooling was not for them.
"I don't even want my kids to be exposed to the public school's gay-loving, anti-family, Jew factory, I can't take it."
"That's why I want to switch. I don't even want my kids to be subjected to the public school's gay-loving, anti-family Jew factory, I can't take it."
Other parents offered their own educational resources, with one member writing, "Here's a rundown of 10 reasons Hitler was one of the good guys:"
When a parent named Nancy recommended three preachers the group might find interesting, another member responded, "A ni**er, a racial mixer, and a guy who literally says Israel should rule the world. You are 0 for 3.”
Katja Lawrence then added: "Nancy, did you know you're in a chat of dissidents who are fully supportive of white nationalism? We don't support Israel and we don't listen to black preachers.”
The channel's membership has also expanded beyond the US to include members from other countries, although only those from European countries of acceptable ethnicity, such as Norway, Germany and the UK, are welcome.
At one point in the chat, Katja Lawrence told a UK-based member of the group that she would help put him in contact with the leader of one of the largest white nationalist groups in Britain, and suggested that the Lawrences have ties to anti-Semites and anti-Semites white supremacists have made outside of their own homeschooling community.
Bake a "leader's cake".
When the Telegram channel, just a few months after its launch, welcomed its 1,000 homeschoolers and National Socialists interested in homeschooling. Sieg Heil."
The Lawrences also described how their family celebrated Hitler's birthday by baking a "Fuehrer's Cake."
"We had a nice dinner followed by a cake from the Führer," wrote Katja Lawrence. "Our kids celebrated Adolf's birthday today by learning about Germany and eating German favorites." She later added that she "baked quite a few swastika items, my last one a swastika apple pie."
In a chilling, now-deleted, Telegram post, Katla Lawrence posted an audio message from her children shouting "Sieg Heil."
While Katja and Logan Lawrence claim in Telegram comments that they warn their children not to discuss their Nazi views with anyone outside of the family, they also don't limit their activities to the online world and help others connect with other white nationalists to connect in reality world.
Secret "Pool Parties"
"There is a huge network of people like us," Katja wrote on the Telegram channel. "If you're asking what you can do: get verified and attend a local pool party. I would say that was the best decision Mr. Saxon and I made in the last year. We attended a pool party and our children are now playing with other white children where they are free to talk and play. ”
A "pool party" is the name for a secret meeting organized by a group of white supremacists The Right Stuff and its political wing, the National Justice Party. Katja Lawrence even goes so far as to share the direct email for a contact at The Right Stuff who deals with security clearances, while an account called the National Justice Party posts updates that include calls for members of the Dissident Homeschool to join their support group and updates on his Christmas fundraiser.
"Our children are now playing with other white children where they can talk and play freely."
“It was tremendous for us to get into this real network. Contribute by joining. It makes all the difference,” wrote Katja Lawrence.
It's hard to gauge the impact of the Dissident Homeschool Network, but in leaked emails from people trying to join the network white nationalist group Patriot FrontAs "Dissident Homeschool" the applicants list the "Dissident Homeschool". "Influential figures, media or platforms."
The Right Stuff and the National Justice League were described as "virulently anti-Semitic" by the Anti-Defamation League, while 31 members of the Patriot Front died in a U-Haul truck en route to an LGBTQ pride event in Coeur d'Italia last year ' were arrested. Alene, Idaho, with shields and smoke grenades.
Nevertheless, Katja tries to describe the activities of this group as completely healing.
"To clear up some misconceptions, these groups do not encourage or solicit people to engage in illegal activities," Katja wrote. "It's a nice group of healthy white people who get together for barbecues and stuff."