Experts warn that the far-right group’s true intention is to create a ‘militia’ and one day wreak havoc on their enemies.
Active Club (AC) members praise Adolf Hitler (Image: Telegram)
A Hitler-supporting Neo-Nazi hate group has released a promotional video looking to recruit members in England.
The video, released on Telegram, features pounding music and clips of men boxing, weightlifting and doing martial arts.
The group, known as Active Club (AC), presents itself as a sports organisation promoting self-improvement through weight training and fitness for young men.
Its members openly admire Adolf Hitler, yet recruits are deceptively told to follow three basic rules, which include abstaining from drugs, avoiding convictions for sexual offenses, and refraining from committing crimes in the club’s name.
Experts in extremism, however, warn that this outwardly harmless image is a facade. Behind the scenes, some claim AC’s true mission is to form a violent ‘militia’ that could one day cause chaos in the country.
The group celebrated Hitler’s birthday with a cake decorated with a swastika (Image: Telegram)
Initially exposed by the BBC‘s North West Investigations Team, Active Club remains active on the encrypted messaging platform Telegram, where it claims to be a lawful and peaceful effort to “the warrior culture of our nation” through male bonding and fitness.
But disturbing posts show members celebrating Hitler’s birthday with a cake adorned with a swastika.
Other members were seen wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the words Waffen-SS – a direct reference to the Nazi military wing.
In the aftermath of stabbings in Southport that sparked far-right riots, the group encouraged its members not to remain passive and advised them to “wear masks” and cover identifiable tattoos to avoid police scrutiny.
The first Active Club emerged in the US in late 2020, and now there are believed to be over 100 such groups scattered across North America and Europe.
The concept was first championed by Robert Rundo, an American far-right activist who founded the Rise Above Movement (RAM), notorious for its involvement in the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.
Active Clubs have steadily gained traction in the UK, with over 6,000 subscribers on Telegram. These groups have branches in regions such as the North West, Midlands, East Anglia, and London, as well as in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Alexander Ritzmann, Senior Advisor at the Counter Extremism Project, cautions that Active Clubs are carefully presenting themselves as ‘just another right-wing sports club’ to evade detection by authorities.
