A disturbing family conversation led Kerrie Taber to uncover a painful truth about her grandfather’s past.
He was a Nazi war criminal.
That revelation is at the heart of ‘Quarantining Hate,’ the debut book for Taber, which she will discuss Thursday evening at the Greenwood Rising Black Wall Street History Center in Tulsa. The event is part of the Books for Thought series and runs from 6 to 7:30 p.m. tonight.
Taber, who teaches at the University of Arkansas–Fort Smith, said a family rumor and a decades-old article led her to the name of a man wanted for war crimes in Lithuania. After reaching out to a historian, she learned the suspect, a member of the Nazi-aligned Lithuanian Auxiliary Police, matched her grandfather exactly, down to the birth date and his wife’s name.
“There is not a word to describe how I felt when I found that out,” Taber said.
‘Quarantining Hate’ weaves Taber’s personal story with a broader commentary on the rise of hate-fueled ideology in the U.S. and abroad. The title was inspired by a quote she read from NFL player Julian Edelman during the COVID-19 pandemic, in which he described hate as a virus that spreads when left unchecked. Edelman was responding to an anti-Semitic slur by NBA player Meyers Leonard.
Taber began writing the book after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, alarmed by the rise in hate crimes and political extremism. In the book, she draws parallels between her grandfather’s actions during the Holocaust and modern-day movements that normalize dehumanizing language and violence.
“I wish my book would become less relevant,” she said. “But we’re still seeing the same silence that allows hate to grow.”
Taber also examines the role of social media in radicalization, pointing to how algorithms amplify divisive content, creating echo chambers that can push vulnerable people toward extremism.
She urges readers to push back, not only in public, but within their own families.
“When someone says something inappropriate, even a so-called joke, we need to speak up,” she said. “Silence can sound like agreement.”
