HYDE PARK — Neo-nazi posters were found on two University of Chicago buildings late Monday.
By early Tuesday the posters had been removed from the main administration building, Levi Hall, and another building, the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture.
The group Atomwaffen Division claimed credit on Twitter for the posters that read “#Hitler Disapproves. No Degeneracy. No Tolerance. Hail Victory” under a picture of Adolf Hitler in front of a field of swastikas.
#universityofchicago @UChicago University of Chicago got stickercausted tonight by Chicago's local Nazis: Atomwaffen Division@IronMarch pic.twitter.com/ePxSGVpTwD
— ATOMWAFFEN DIVISION (@mike_smith267) December 5, 2016
“The university is aware of this material, which was found and immediately removed at multiple locations on campus yesterday morning," said Marielle Sainvilus, a spokeswoman for the university. "We are investigating the incidents.”
She said the University of Chicago Police are investigating the incident and so far the Chicago Police Department is not involved.
It’s unclear still whether the posters were the act of an individual or group and there is currently no evidence to suggest the posters are connected to students, faculty or staff at the university.
The group, with a relatively small following online with some sources pegging the membership as small as 40 people, claims allegiance to neo-Nazi and pro-fascist communities online advocating a race war.
The group has also claimed responsibility for similar posters at Old Dominion University, Suffolk University, the University of Central Florida and Boston University.
Based on the reaction online, the group’s efforts at the University of Chicago appear to have been partially orchestrated to garner media attention on the group’s message and activities.
The posters are the first overtly fascist- and Nazi-oriented propaganda on the campus that has a long history of inclusion of Jews and minority groups.
The university was one of the first in the country to to hire Jewish and African-American faculty and admit Jewish and African-American students.
Levi Hall, where one of the posters was found, is named for Edward Levi, who became the first Jewish president of a leading university in 1968.
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