Platner said he got the tattoo on shore leave from U.S. Marine Corps service in 2007 in Split, Croatia, and drunkenly picked what he said he thought was an innocuous skull and crossbones.

By JNS

A candidate for the U.S. Senate from Maine denied on Tuesday that his totenkopf “death’s head” tattoo indicated that he had or has neo-Nazi or antisemitic views.

Graham Platner, a former Marine and oyster farmer who is running as a Democrat to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), told Jewish Insider that he was previously unaware of the symbol’s meaning and plans to get the tattoo removed.

“It was not until I started hearing from reporters and D.C. insiders that I realized this tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol,” Platner said.

“I absolutely would not have gone through life having this on my chest if I knew that, and to insinuate that I did is disgusting.”

A video published on the Pod Save America podcast on Monday shows Platner in 2015 in his underwear with a chest tattoo of the emblem of the unit responsible for administering Nazi Germany’s death camps.

“The video is from my brother’s marriage to his wife, to my sister-in-law, who I was serenading. I told them that my wedding gift to them would be my embarrassment,” Platner said.

“I am not a secret Nazi. Actually, if you read through my Reddit comments, I think you can pretty much figure out where I stand on Nazism and antisemitism, and racism in general. I would say a lifelong opponent.”

The Maine Democrat, who has been embraced by many from the progressive wing of the party, has previously faced controversy over his Reddit comments describing himself as a “Communist,” a label he now rejects.

Platner said he got the tattoo on shore leave from U.S. Marine Corps service in 2007 in Split, Croatia, and drunkenly picked what he said he thought was an innocuous skull and crossbones.

“At no point in this entire experience of my life did anybody ever once say, ‘Hey, you’re a Nazi,’” he said.

“It never came up until we got wind that in the opposition research somebody was shopping the idea that I was a secret Nazi with a hidden Nazi tattoo.”

Jewish Insider reported on Tuesday that Platner had previously told an acquaintance in 2012 that he was aware of the symbol’s origin, saying “Oh, this is my totenkopf,” in “a cutesy little way.”

Platner is running in the Democratic primary against Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, to unseat Collins, the incumbent Republican.

His campaign ads have repeatedly focused on the endorsement of Collins from AIPAC, and his platform describes the Israeli war against Hamas as a “genocide.”

“We are sending American taxpayer dollars to underwrite the starvation of Gaza, in what can only be accurately described as a genocide,” Platner wrote.

“I stand with all people seeking peace, democracy and self-determination,” he added. “

In this moment, that means a clear-eyed condemnation of the Gaza genocide, and the use of every means available to America to bring it to an end.”

The post ‘Not a secret Nazi,’ Maine Senate candidate with death’s head tattoo says appeared first on World Israel News.

The U.N. staffer has a large tattoo of the face of an SS soldier or officer, wearing a Nazi hat, sunglasses, and a collar with apparent Nazi symbols as well as the Waffen-SS motto “my honor is loyalty.” 

By JNS

A staff member at the United Nations Mine Action Service, who is currently hospitalized in Israel, was discovered to have two prominent pro-Nazi tattoos, a source with knowledge of the matter told JNS.

The employee, who was injured in a booby trap attack in Gaza, was first taken to a hospital in Gaza before being transferred to Israel for further care, JNS understands.

The United Nations has blamed Israel for the attack that injured the staffer, although the Jewish state doesn’t operate in that part of Gaza, and the attack was likely a trap set by Hamas, according to the source.

The man has a tattoo on an arm that states, in German in heavy black letters, “my honor is loyalty,” which the Anti-Defamation League describes as the motto of the Waffen SS.

“It is a reference to the organization’s loyalty to Adolf Hitler,” per the ADL website. “Since World War II, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists around the world use this German phrase, or its equivalent in English or other languages, as a hate slogan.”

On the other arm, apparently, the U.N. staffer has a large tattoo of the face of an SS soldier or officer, wearing a Nazi hat, sunglasses and a collar with apparent Nazi symbols.

It was not immediately clear if the staffer was alert and aware of his surroundings. It also was not immediately what the man’s current role is at the United Nations, although JNS understands that he is connected to the Mine Action Service.

“I’m aware of the tweet showing the tattoos,” Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, told JNS. “Don’t know anything further, including which person is involved.”

“Our focus right now us getting medical care for the wounded people,” Haq added.

Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, sent a letter to Guterres on Thursday demanding that the global body conduct a “thorough investigation.”

“Such antisemitic expressions are unacceptable,” the Israeli envoy said. “We request to know exactly what the U.N. will be doing to expunge blatant expressions of Jew-hatred among its employees.”

“As a representative of an international institution that had been established in the wake of World War II by the Allies to uphold international peace in a post-Nazi world, this is unacceptable and deeply concerning,” Danon wrote.

Hillel Neuer, executive director of U.N. Watch, told JNS that “sadly, this is not an isolated phenomenon.”

“Antisemitism pervades the United Nations. On April 1, the U.N.’s top human rights body is planning to renew Francesca Albanese for another three-year term as an investigator targeting Israel, even after she was recently condemned by France, Germany, Canada and the United States for antisemitism and Holocaust distortion,” Neuer said.

“Keep in mind that Albanese was formerly an UNRWA official, and that in a public fundraising appeal for UNRWA, she wrote that ‘America is subjugated by the Jewish lobby,’” he added.

The United Nations has long faced criticism over Jew-hatred. Israel has presented evidence that staff members of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency participated directly in the Oct. 7 attacks, and that a significant number of UNRWA employees have ties to Palestinian terror groups.

Jewish U.N. employees who spoke anonymously with JNS in 2024 said that anti-Israel propaganda is “completely organized and supported at the highest level by the U.N.” and that the global body “is being instrumentalized by Hamas” since Oct. 7.

“Lots of people are hiding the fact that they’re Jewish,” a Jewish U.N. employee told JNS last year. “They’re not saying they’re Jewish out of fear.”

Established in 1997, the U.N. Mine Action Service, which is a “specialized service of the United Nations located within the Department of Peace Operations,” per its site, “works to eliminate the threat posed by mines, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices by coordinating United Nations mine action, leading operational responses at the country level, and in support of peace operations, as well as through the development of standards, policies and norms.”

This is a developing story.

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Hamas callously released a video purportedly showing a live hostage, deliberately highlighting the tattoos on the person’s body to inflict additional emotional pain on the family or anyone who recognizes them.

Hamas publishes another video of a live hostage.
Can you recognize him by his tatoo? pic.twitter.com/l1yXEoa6Im

— MagicFlower ️ (@MagicFLower22) December 14, 2024

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