In the years before the outbreak of World War II, people of German ancestry living abroad were encouraged to form citizens groups to both extol “German virtues,” around the world, and to lobby for causes helpful to Nazi Party goals. In the United States, the Amerikadeutscher Volksbund, or German American Bund, was formed in 1936 as “an organization of patriotic Americans of German stock,” operating about 20 youth and training camps, and eventually growing to a membership in the tens of thousands among 70 regional divisions across the country. On February 20, 1939, the Bund held an “Americanization” rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden, denouncing Jewish conspiracies, President Roosevelt, and others. The rally, attended by 20,000 supporters and members, was protested by huge crowds of anti-Nazis, who were held back by 1,500 NYC police officers. As World War II began in 1939, the German American Bund fell apart, many of its assets were seized, and its leader arrested for embezzlement, and later deported to Germany.
American Nazis in the 1930s—The German American Bund
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Nearly 1,000 uniformed men wearing swastika arm bands and carrying Nazi banners parade past a reviewing stand in New Jersey on July 18, 1937. The New Jersey division of the German-American Bund opened its 100-acre Camp Nordland at Sussex Hills. Dr. Salvatore Caridi of Union City, spokesman for a group of Italian-American Fascists attending as guests, addressed the bund members as "Nazi Friends." #
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Members of the German-American Bund form a guard of honor before the speaker's stand as Fritz Kuhn, leader of the Bund, addresses a crowd at Hindenberg Park, La Crescenta, near Los Angeles, California, on April 30, 1939. This caption originally stated the park was in Sunland. We regret the error. #
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Youths at a German-American Bund camp stand at attention as the American flag and the German-American Youth Movement flag, right, are lowered in a ceremony at sundown in Andover, New Jersey, on July 21, 1937. #
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Hundreds of German Americans give the Nazi salute to young men marching in Nazi uniforms. The event was a German Day celebration sponsored by German American Bund at Camp Sigfried on Long Island. #
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Fritz Kuhn, center facing forward, is congratulated by fellow officers of the German-American Bund in New York on September 4, 1938. Kuhn was unanimously re-elected on September 3 as National leader of the Bund, a pro-Nazi organization holding its sixth annual convention. #
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German American Bund leader Fritz Kuhn, (center, front), and members of his staff pay their respects to Germany's Chancellor Adolf Hitler, during a visit to Berlin. #
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Pro-Nazi members of various singing and gymnastic societies salute a procession of flags at White Plains Hall in New York in the 1930s. They were gathered for a German Day celebration. The German-American Bund disclaimed this large group. #
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An anti-Nazi crowd rushed the bar entrance of the German-American Bund Hall in Union City, New Jersey, on October 2, 1938 where Fritz Kuhn, bunds-fuehrer, was to make a “victory” speech celebrating Hitler’s occupation of Czechoslovakia. Bund members, including one with a belt as weapon drove the protesters out, but the meeting was disrupted. #
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A crowd of approximately 20,000 attends a German American Bund Rally at New York's Madison Square Garden on February 20, 1939. At center is a large portrait of George Washington, claimed as an icon by the Bund, who called him "the first Fascist", claiming Washington "knew democracy could not work." #
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The crowd responds with a Nazi salute as uniformed members of a German-American Bund color guard march at a gathering in New York's Madison Square Garden, on February 20, 1939. #
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February 20, 1939. Original Caption: The local Fuehrer holds forth. Hewing to the verbal line and letting the syllables fall where they may, Fritz Kuhn, local Fuehrer, leader of the German American Bund, addresses the Bund's heavily guarded "Americanization" rally at Madison Square Garden. All during the rally scuffles occurred outside as the Anti-Nazis massed outside rushed the cordon of police in attempts at forcing entry to come to grips with Kuhn's storm troopers. Herr Fritz was himself the target of a punch when a Jewish youth attempted to attack him on the rostrum as he launched into an anti-Jewish harangue. But Kuhn's strong-arm men came to his rescue. #
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New York City’s mounted police form a solid line outside Madison Square Garden on February 20, 1939, to hold in check a crowd which packed the streets around the Garden where the German American Bund was holding a rally. To prevent any clash between bundsmen and counter-demonstrators, police surrounded the area with a force of 1,500. #
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February 20, 1939. Original Caption: Fight For The Flag... Anti Nazis Battle Cops. Mounted Policemen and rabid Anti Nazis battle for an American flag outside Madison Square Garden. The Anti-Nazis were parading outside the Garden in protest of the German American Bund "Americanization" rally being held there. This was only one of the night's many clashes between the demonstrators and heavy force of policemen who were on hand to preserve order. #
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A crowd of demonstrators outside New York’s Madison Square Garden seize a uniformed member of the German American Bund who had emerged from a Bund rally in the Garden and attempted to enter a taxi, on February 20, 1939. #
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Original Caption: Fritz Kuhn, in the full uniform of a Storm Trooper, national leader of the Bund gestures from the rostrum at Madison Square Garden in New York, on February 20, 1939 while he uttered imprecations against Jews over and over. #
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Original caption: Dorothy Thompson, the New York columnist and wife of Sinclair Lewis, the famous American author, interjected the word "Bunk!" at the big rally of the German-American Bund at Madison Square Garden, in New York, on February 20, 1939, and was promptly escorted outside in the hope that such action would prevent any further demonstration. Later, on her plea that is was her constitutional right to heckle, Miss Thompson was readmitted to the meeting. Here, with a pair of storm-troopers beside her, Dorothy Thompson is escorted from the meeting of the German-American Bund at Madison Square Garden. #
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Stormtroopers subdue a heckler on the platform at New York’s Madison Square Garden, February 20, 1939. Police who rescued and later arrested the man, whose clothing was torn from him in the struggle, identified him as Isadore Greenbaum, 26, a hotel worker. Fritz Kuhn, National Bund leader, stands on the rostrum, his back turned as he regards the struggle which interrupted his Denunciation of Jews during the Bund rally. #
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Original Caption: There’s plenty of pushing and shoving as police try to keep streets clear in the immediate vicinity of Madison Square Garden in New York, on February 20, 1939 during a German-American Bund rally which had aroused a storm of protest from anti-Bund forces. There were strict police orders against picketing, and the 1,500 cops on duty in the area were instructed to halt all persons entering the neighborhood with provocative signs. #
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A New York City mounted policeman outside Madison Square Garden at 50th Street and 8th Avenue during a German American Bund meeting, is shown attempting to take an American flag away from one of the demonstrators who marched outside carrying the staff and banner on February 20, 1939. #
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German American Bund speakers and officers in front of an American flag at a “patriotic dinner” in New York, on September 25, 1939 at which President Roosevelt’s neutrality recommendations were denounced. From left, seated Wilbur Keegan, New Jersey attorney who urged members to profess their loyalty to the United States; Fritz Kuhn, Bund fuehrer; and William Meyer, who said the Bund would continue to fight for a “real nationalistic America”. Standing: Gustave Elmer, William Kunze and James Wheeler-Hill, Bund officials. #
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Original caption: Andover, New Jersey: Bund Camp Raided. Sheriffs Deputies who assisted Sheriff Denton J. Quick, of Sussex County in raid on German American Bund Camp Nordland at Andover, New Jersey, shown examining swastika decoration on ceiling of one of the assembly halls at the camp. #
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In 1939, German-American Bund leader Fritz Kuhn was convicted of embezzlement, and sent to prison. While there, his citizenship was revoked, and he was later interned in a federal camp in Texas as an enemy alien. He was later deported to Germany in 1945. Here, handcuffed to two other prisoners, Kuhn (third from left), walks into Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York, on December 6, 1939, to begin serving his sentence. Sheriff Mathew Larkin, right, of New York county, is escorting the prisoners. #
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