Minneapolis Anti-ICE Yarn Store Selling Knit Cap Used to Protest Nazi Occupation in WWII
Linking federal immigration control efforts in Minneapolis to fascism, a yarn store popularized a red cap based on a Norwegian hat used to protest the Nazi occupation of Norway in the 1940s.
A group of knitters from yarn store Needle & Skein came up with the pattern, now known as the “Melt the ICE” hat, which is a red beanie hat topped with a braided pom pom.
“What’s happening in Minneapolis has been so egregious and horrible and so destructive to our community,” store owner Gilah Mashaal said of federal agents’ “use of aggressive tactics,” as they were described by NPR in a Saturday article.
According to NPR:
Since the model became available for $5, the store has raised nearly $400,000, Mashaal said Friday. So far, she said, they have donated a total of $250,000 to two local nonprofits focused on providing housing assistance to immigrants in the community: STEP (St. Louis Park Emergency Program) and the Immigrant Rapid Response Fund.
The red hat has become a movement in the crafting community, appearing on social media and reaching other countries. Mashaal and her daughter have received messages from people around the world, from Israel to South Africa to Norway, expressing support for the movement, Mashaal said.
Store employee and history buff Paul Neary chose the design based on a Norwegian hat used to protest the Nazi occupation of Norway during World War II.
Mats Tangestuen, director of the Resistance Museum in Oslo, Norway, commented after receiving an email with a link to the hat model. Minnesota reportedly has the largest Norwegian population in the United States
Tangestuen told NPR that for Norwegians, the hat was meant to be “distinctly non-violent” and “not a threatening symbol.”
“It was used during the war period, where everything seemed very dark,” Tangestuen said. “The main goal was just to keep morale up, keep hope alive and not fall into despair and apathy.”
He added that the practice was eventually banned by the Germans.
NPR also quoted Peter Fritzsche, a history professor at the University of Illinois, who said the Nazis operated “on a very, very different scale” but that with the presence of federal agents in Minnesota, people can still feel “busy.”
The heartwarming report makes no mention of the “worst of the worst” — a host of convicted killers, rapists and pedophiles — that immigration agents deported from the Twin Cities during their “occupation” of Minnesota.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times bestselling true-crime novel House of secrets and nine other mystery novels and non-fiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com to find out more.
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