Youth Transcripts

From 1924 to 2026 The Story of the Celtic Cross

1924: Paul Doncœur, a French Jesuit priest and former military chaplain, creates the Cadets, a Catholic youth organization aimed at forming a spiritual and national elite. He adopts the Celtic cross as its emblem. He was born in Nantes, Brittany. The Celtic cross had been used for centuries in Brittany, an old Celtic country formally united with France in 1532.

1942: Doncœur calls on young Catholics in his movement to rally behind Marshal Pétain and support the Vichy regime, which was collaborating with Germany.

1943: The Celtic cross becomes an emblem of Vichy’s Équipes nationales and appears on armbands, insignia, and equipment, used by French youth nationalists and French nationalists who joined the Waffen-SS.

1948: René Binet, a former French Waffen-SS member of the Charlemagne Division, adopts the Celtic cross as the emblem of his Mouvement socialiste d’unité française.

1949: Pierre Sidos creates Jeune Nation after leaving prison. He is 22 years old. As a teenager under Vichy, he had seen the Celtic cross used by the Équipes nationales while he himself was involved in the Francist youth movement. He decides to reuse the symbol for his own organization.

1950s: Jeune Nation attracts former collaborators with Germany, students, soldiers, and supporters of French Algeria and the Indochina War. The Celtic cross spreads widely through postwar French nationalist circles.

1960s: The Belgian movement Jeune Europe, linked to the French movement Jeune Nation, adopts the Celtic cross and uses it extensively on magazines, leaflets, membership cards, official documents, badges, flags, and armbands. Through its networks in Italy, Spain, and elsewhere in Europe, the symbol moves beyond France.

1970s: The Celtic cross is adopted by numerous Italian nationalist youth movements. It becomes so widespread that leaders of the MSI try to restrict its use. By then, it is already embedded in the visual culture of a whole generation of European militants.

1980s: The symbol spreads further through Britain, other English-speaking countries, and the United States, especially through the skinhead scene and Rock Against Communism. Album covers, T-shirts, posters, and flags accelerate its international circulation.

1990s: The Celtic cross becomes the logo of Stormfront, founded in the United States in 1995 by Don Black, surrounded by the slogan “White Pride World Wide.” The internet gives the symbol a truly global reach.

2000s–2010s: It is used by hundreds of nationalist groups across Europe, North America, and Eastern Europe.

2020s: Almost 100 years after its first use, the Celtic cross has become one of the most recognizable symbols of white nationalist movements. Today, it can be found even in the logos of Active Clubs, with hundreds of chapters across 30+ countries.

To be continued... XIV!

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