“I couldn’t believe it was actually real,” she said, adding that the hatred she saw on neo-Nazi websites motivated her to come to the protest and take a stand.

When neo-Nazi groups convened in Boston 11 years ago, they were similarly confronted by area activists, said Alyssa M. Aguilera ‘08.

“I think it’s important to have some sort of opposition to the Nazis,” Aguilera said.

THE CONFRONTATION

As time passed without the neo-Nazi groups arriving, some protestors grew skeptical that their opponents would show up at all.

Misium and Bartkus said that they witnessed two false alarms as protestors waited for the neo-Nazis to appear.

At one point, the crowd mobbed a small group of people dressed as punks who were not affiliated with the Nazi groups. The police isolated those victims and spirited them away in a police car.

Finally, half-an-hour into the memorial service, anti-Nazi protestors spotted the white supremacists rounding the corner toward Faneuil Hall with a heavy police escort.

The group, carrying a banner with the White Revolution logo and anti-Israel signs, were heckled by more than a hundred activists as they marched down Congress St.

While members of both groups largely stayed separate, two people were arrested for scuffling in the crowd, according to the Associated Press (AP).

Shireen Chambers, 36, of Dorchester, and Jerome Higins, 25, of Everett, were both charged with affray and disturbing the peace.

Chambers, who is white, allegedly struck Higins, who is black, in the face. Higins then allegedly spit on Chambers and hit her with a sign, the AP reported.

After about 45 minutes, the police led the neo-Nazi protestors into two waiting police vans.

“It gives you a sense of dedication, a sense of fear...it brings home the reality of hate,” said Herbert Belkin, who attended the Holocaust Remembrance service, of the memorial and protest.

—Staff writer Kristin E. Blagg can be reached at kblagg@fas.harvard.edu.