Danielle Solzman
Nazi Town, USA is an American Experience documentary that is proving to be timely and relevant with another white nationalist rally at MSG.
Not surprisingly, this documentary starts with a warning about the derogatory images and languages. After all, this is a documentary about Nazis on America soil. If you find yourself feeling disgusted, please know that you’re not alone.
It’s proving sad at just how much history tends to repeat itself. There’s something about Nazism and fascism on display at Madison Square Garden that is wrong on every level. Different year, same thing. To say that this documentary is a companion to the Oscar-nominated seven-minute documentary short A Night at the Garden would not be an understatement. The archival footage is terrifying to say the least. It’s scary to think that we’re talking about Nazism on American soil. Towns in Long Island were named for Nazi leadership–in short a Nazi town in the USA.
American Experience documentaries tend to run just under an hour. The subject of this documentary is certainly worthy of a longer film. In fact, it could probably even be a documentary series. There are certainly no shortage of historians who can talk about the matter and I’m sure you can probably find even more archival footage on display. They don’t teach a good chunk of this in history classes in school, certainly not in U.S. history. What I really want to see is a film about the Jewish mobsters and boxers that took on the Nazis. That’s certainly a compelling subject! Gangsters vs. Nazis: How Mobsters Battled Nazis in Wartime America is already a book and recently released on paperback.
Everything I thought I knew about the House Un-American Activities Committee changed when I first read Steven J. Ross’s book, Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America. His book also served as my introduction to the German American Bund. Even before Donald Trump ran for office, I was already familiar with the America First movement and what it represented. That’s why his use of the phrase is terrifying. His fascist rhetoric, equally so.
The German American Bund was popular in the 1930s–it was American fascism on display even people did know where things were headed. One thing that was for sure: America in the 20s was both racist and antisemitic. A number of congressman and senators were among the 4-5 million members of the KKK.
After reading Hitler in Los Angeles back in 2000, it isn’t surprising to see historian Steven J. Ross on camera. I learned so much about the German American Bund and other Nazi sympathizers in America from reading his book. He gets right to the point about antisemitism during the era.
“Antisemitism is rife in the United States, and at this point, it’s out in the open. The most famous antisemite in America was probably Henry Ford.”
There were the likes of Ford, Charles Coughlin, and Charles Lindbergh but the man equally dangerous, if not worse, was Fritz Kuhn. Kuhn was a German that lived through both World War I and the economic devastation that followed in Germany. He would depart for America in 1924. Where Russians turned to communism, both Italy and Germany turned to fascism in the 1930s. Historian William Hitchcock argues that Americans were intrigued by the Italian form of fascism and that it is just another version of white nationalism.
Foreign correspondent Dorothy Thompson was outspoken about fascism’s dangers and was eventually kicked out of Germany. She pointed out that the Nazis were doing what they said they would do, especially with regards to Jews. Anyone could have realized what was happening if they only heeded her early warnings in the 1920s.
Rabbi Stephen Wise was outspoken and said that they would mobilize against Nazism. Ross notes that Wise called for a boycott against German products until Germany stopped persecuting minorities and not just the Jews. Rudolf Hess helped create the Friends of New Germany, an organization that anyone could join–including Kuhn. But having a Nazi swastika in its logo was a major turnoff. Meanwhile, the mafia included a number of Jews in its ranks and a number of boxers were Jewish. Where is that documentary?!? Ross says that the boxers “would beat the stuffing out of them.” One massive brawl in New Jersey lasted in hours. Not long thereafter, the Friends of New Germany would morph into the German American Bund in 1936, headquartered in the Upper East Side of Manhattan in the Yorkville neighborhood. This is what Ross refers to as star-spangled fascism.
“Kuhn is trying to change the conversation a little bit by saying, ‘You can be a patriotic American and you can be proud of the Nazi government as well,'” William Hitchcock says. “So he is going to try and square the circle, which to make Americans and American citizens a part of an organization that is basically designed to propagate Nazism.”
Their heavy presence in New York would only provoke Jewish residents. Meanwhile, the organization would only grow throughout the 1930s. It wasn’t just the Jews because they also had it out for Blacks and Catholics.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called FBI director J. Edgar Hoover in summer 1936 to look into the Nazi activities in the US. It would result in a one-thousand page report. However, Hoover would not act on it because he was more focused on communism in the US. You can read more about the era in Ross’s book, Chris Yogerst’s Hollywood Hates Hitler! or Thomas Doherty’s Hollywood and Hitler: 1933-1939. All three are companion books and they add a lot of insight into Hollywood’s response to Nazism. Anyway, New Jersey would respond to the Bund by passing race libel laws. A number of Bund leaders would be held liable for their actions. However, the ALCU’s involvement would lead courts to overturning the convictions.
“This is the double-edged sword of the First Amendment,” says Leah Wright Rigueur. “It is a fundamental American right to be allowed to say horrible things, but the protection of the right to be hateful is what allows these ideas to proliferate.”
A Chicago newspaper would send a pair of reporters undercover to spy on the Bund. They work their way into the organization and become friendly with Kuhn. Before you know it, John Metcalfe–going by Hellmut Oberwinder–becomes Kuhn’s right-hand man. The Chicago Daily Times would publish a series of damning articles about the Bund. Americans could read for themselves how the Bund was out to replace democracy with fascism. Does this sound familiar?
If you’ve read any of the books I’ve mentioned, you would know that Martin Dies Jr. became chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee. What you might not know is that Congressman Samuel Dickstein–who was also spying for the Soviets during this time–played a key role in forming the House committee. His idea was for the committee to go after fascists but after Dies took over, HUAC would eventually set its eyes on communists.
Across the pond, Kristallnacht takes place in November 1938 with Jewish businesses, homes, and synagogues destroyed. The Nazis would send some 30,000 Jewish men to concentration camps. In the aftermath, the Bund chose to put on a display of mass provocation. They did so on February 20, 1939, with 20,000 in attendance at Madison Square Garden. NYC mayor Fiorella LaGuardia didn’t get in their way or put up a fight despite NYC having the largest Jewish population in the US. Protesters rallied outside the Garden as Nazism was on full display inside.
Despite starting with the Pledge of Allegiance, full antisemitic hatred was on display. Thankfully, Dorothy Thompson was there to let the Nazis hear it. Unfortunately, she was thrown out of the building. Meanwhile, Kuhn would be the final speaker of the evening. He does not beat around the bush in the organization’s fascist goals. A Jewish plumber, Isadore Greenbaum, was also on hand–running on stage to protest. It would have been worse if not for police intervention. Things outside are not much different. Only later did LaGuardia become furious about this happening in his city. He brought in District Attorney Thomas Dewey to launch an investigation into Kuhn and the Bund. If they cannot get him for their hate speech, look for something else, right? It would result in Kuhn going to jail for 2-5 years for embezzlement and tax evasion.
By this time, war breaks out in Europe. You’d think this would lead to the German American Bund’s collapse, right? Not exactly. The Nazi sympathizers would join others in preventing the US from joining World War II. As well all know, Pearl Harbor would put an end to isolationism.
“There was a coalition of unlikely bedfellows of people who wanted to keep the United States out of the war for different reasons,” notes historian Sarah Churchwell. “There were big business interests, there were pacifists, and then there were Nazi sympathizers. So, all of these people formed this coalition called America First, and Charles Lindbergh became their spokesperson.”
America First’s membership totaled around 800,000 members in 1941, the largest of any nonpartisan political organization. Among its members were two future presidents, John F. Kennedy and Gerald Ford. Ross’s book touches on America First but there’s a newer book from H.W. Brands that I’m looking forward to reading, America First: Roosevelt vs. Lindbergh in the Shadow of War. While the war is going on, Kuhn earned a second conviction and jail time for never registering as a foreign agent for Germany. America would later strip him of American citizenship in 1945 and departed.
“The history of the German American Bund reminds us that fascism is ultra-nationalist,” Churchwell says. “In other words, there is no such thing as foreign fascism. Fascism is always home-grown.”
What we know is that the Bund as an organization may have collapsed but the Nazi sympathizers would integrate themselves in American life. Their ideology is still alive and well. World War II was supposed to be about the defeat of Nazism but sadly, it is very much alive in the far-right-wing today. American voters right now must rise up to the duty of defeating fascism on our own soil.
Despite the sub-hour runtime, Nazi Town, USA offers a sobering history lesson on fascism in America.
DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER: Peter Yost
FEATURING: Beverly Gage, William Hitchcock, Bradley W. Hart, Steven J. Ross, Leah Wright-Rigueur, Arnie Bernstein, Sarah Churchwell
PBS aired American Experience: Nazi Town, USA on January 23, 2024. Grade: 4/5
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