On February 20, 1939, a Nazi rally took place at Madison Square Garden, organized by the German American Bund. More than 20,000 people attended, and Fritz Julius Kuhn was a featured speaker. The Bund billed the event, which took place two days before George Washington's Birthday, as a pro-"Americanism" rally; the stage at the event featured a huge portrait of George Washington with swastikas on each side.[1] Approximately 100,000 anti-Nazi counter-protesters gathered outside, attempting to break through lines of police officers guarding the rally on three occasions. The Bund rapidly declined in the aftermath of the rally, not owed to the outbreak of World War II, but with Kuhn being imprisoned for embezzlement by the end of the year and his successors being prosecuted for espionage.[2]
The German American Bund was a pro-Hitler organization in the United States before World War II around 1939/1941. The group promoted Nazi propaganda in the United States, combining Nazi imagery with American patriotic imagery.[3]
The pro-Nazi organizations in the U.S. were actively countered by a number of anti-Nazi organizations led by American Jews with other political activists and humanitarians who opposed Hitlerism and supported an anti-Nazi boycott of German goods since 1933, when Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power in Germany. The Joint Boycott Committee held a rally at Madison Square Garden two years before in 1937.[4]
Preparations
Rally poster
New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia was aware of the dangers posed by the rally in Madison Square Garden and he dispatched the highest number of city police to guard a single event in the city's history.[5] 1,700 uniformed police officers patrolled outside the M.S.G. venue as well as 600 undercover detectives and non-uniformed N.Y.P.D. officers scattered throughout the hall, and even 35 F.D.N.Y. firefighters, armed with a heavy-duty fire hose in preparation of a riot. Bomb squads also combed the arena in response to a threat received a week earlier, boasting of a series of time-activated devices to explode during the event.[6] New York was ready for the influx of Nazi rally attendees and was prepared to protect their ability to hold the rally at all costs. Chief Inspector Louis F. Costuma illustrated this commitment to safety, telling the press, "We had enough police here to stop a revolution" in an interview in preparation for the rally.[2]
While Madison Square Garden had prepared itself for the presence of the German Bund, many around New York City considered them less welcome in their city. About 100,000 anti-Nazi protesters gathered around the arena in protest of the Bund, carrying signs stating "Smash Anti-Semitism" and "Drive the Nazis Out of New York".[2] A total of three attempts were made to break the arm-linking lines of police, the first of these, a group of World War I veterans, wrapped in red, white and blue of the Stars and Stripes, were held off by police on mounted horseback, the next, a "burly man carrying an American flag" and finally, a Trotskyist group known as the Socialist Workers Party, who like those before, had their efforts halted by city police.[5] Chief Inspector Costuma's police force acting security was exposed to an odd form of protest as well, characterized by The New York Times as:
At 8 p.m., a loudspeaker in a second-floor window of a rooming house at Forty-ninth Street and Eighth Avenue began blaring a denunciation of Nazis and urging, "Be American, Stay at home". The voice came from a record which was timed to start playing automatically.[5]
Joseph Goldstein, a former New York magistrate, exited a taxi cab in front of the rally holding a summons for the arrest of Fritz Julius Kuhn concerning a criminal libel suit filed earlier. Goldstein, like all other opposing efforts to gain admittance to the Garden, was stopped by police, this time by Inspector Costuma himself, denying the former magistrate entry based on the failure to present a ticket. Outside Madison Square Garden, thirteen people were arrested during protests of the rally.[7]
Rally
German American Bund Rally Address by Its Leader Fritz Kuhn. Audio from US National Archives
The rally occurred when the German American Bund's membership was dropping; Fritz Julius Kuhn hoped that a provocative high-profile event would reverse the group's declining fortunes.[3] The pro-Nazi Bund was unpopular in New York City, and some called for the event to be banned. Mayor Fiorello La Guardia allowed the event to go forward, correctly predicting that the Bund's highly publicized spectacle would further discredit them in the public eye.[3]
The event was highly choreographed in the fascist style, with uniformed Bund members carrying American and Nazi flags and the display of the Nazi salute. This was problematic because at that time, the very similar Bellamy salute was used to salute the American flag, which was marched down the aisle at this event.[8]Martial music and German folk songs were also played at the rally.[3]
The rally began at 8pm[3] with a rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner", sung by Margarete Rittershaush. Next, James Wheeler-Hill, national secretary of the Bund, opened the night with the statement that "if George Washington were alive today, he would be friends with Adolf Hitler."[9] Calling upon his fellow Americans, Wheller-Hill challenged Bund members to restore America to the 'True Americans' while condemning President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Secretary of the Interior, Harold L. Ickes, for attacking Nazi officials. Midwestern Gau leader George Froboese was next to speak, pushing themes of 'Jewish world domination', blaming the 'oriental cunning of the Jew Karl Marx-Mordecais for the class warfare felt across the country.'[9] West Coast leader Hermann Schwinn chose to denounce the Jewish control of Hollywood and news industries, claiming "Everything inimical to those Nations which have freed themselves of alien domination is 'News' to be played up and twisted to fan the flames of hate in the hearts of Americans, whereas the Menace of Anti-National, God-Hating Jewish-Bolshevism, is deliberately minimized."[9]
Last to speak, the Bundesfuhrer himself, Fritz Kuhn, continued to push the anti-Semitic theme, going as far as calling President Roosevelt 'Rosenfeld' and calling Fiorello La Guardia, the man whom he promised to make no anti-Semitic remarks about, Fiorello "Jew Lumpen" LaGuardia.[9] Everything came to an immediate halt in the middle of Kuhn's final speech because a man who was dressed in blue broke through the lines of Ordnungsdienst (Security Service) men, ran onto the stage, and charged at the speaker. Quickly swarmed by the Ordnungsdienst, the Bund's paramilitary, he was subdued in an effective routine of punches and stomps which exemplified an 'uncanny replication of Nazi thuggery' [as] a pack of uniformed men blast[ed] away with fists and boots on a lone Jewish victim."[10] Later identified as 26-year-old plumbing assistant Isadore Greenbaum, the victim was pulled away by a team of police, saving the young man from serious injury. Attempting to control the riled-up crowd, Kuhn delivered his rousing finish, advocating the establishment of an America which would be ruled by White Gentiles, free from a Jewish Hollywood and news. "The Bund is open to you, provided you are sincere, of good character, of White Gentile Stock, and an American Citizen imbued with patriotic zeal. Therefore: Join!" As Kuhn exited the stage, 20 thousand Bund members chanted "Free America! Free America! Free America!" in the biggest Nazi rally in United States history.
At 11:15pm, members of the Bund buttoned up their overcoats, hiding their uniforms, and were escorted through police lines along Fifty-Second amid the crowds of protesters who were waiting outside. Ralliers were met with a roar of catcalls, jeers, and a few punches. By midnight, all was quiet.[5]
Isadore Greenbaum never intended to run onto the stage. Greenbaum, a former deck engineer and a former chief petty officer, snuck into the rally, but his anger quickly took hold of him as he listened to Kuhn's speech. Speaking years later, in 1989, Greenbaum characterized his actions by stating "I went down to the Garden without any intention of interrupting, but being that they talked so much against my religion and there was so much persecution I lost my head and I felt it was my duty to talk".[11] When he was asked about the cause of his actions, Greenbaum quickly stated, "Gee, what would you have done if you were in my place listening to that s.o.b. hollering against the government and publicly kissing [Adolf] Hitler's behind – while thousands cheered? Well, I did it."[11] For his actions, Greenbaum was sentenced to serve 10 days in jail. He was later released after he paid a $25 fine.[11]
Aftermath and legacy
Shortly after the rally, the Bund rapidly declined. Two months after the rally, the Hollywood feature film Confessions of a Nazi Spy was released by the Warner Brothers studio, ridiculing the Nazis and their American sympathizers. The Bund also came under investigation. After its financial records were seized in a raid on the group's Yorkville, Manhattan headquarters on the Upper Eastside, authorities discovered that $14,000 (worth about $273,000 in 2021) which was raised by the Bund during the rally was unaccounted for – Kuhn had spent it on his mistress and various personal expenses. Kuhn was later convicted of embezzlement and sent to Sing Sing prison in upstate Ossining, New York in December 1939.[3] Kuhn's successor as the Bund's leader was Gerhard Wilhelm Kunze, a spy for German military intelligence who fled south from the United States in November 1941. However, cooperative Mexican authorities forced Kunze to return to the United States, where he was sentenced to serve 15 years in prison for espionage.[12] The Bund's final national leader was George Froboese, who was in charge of the organization when Germany declared war on the United States, several days after the Attack on Pearl Harbor, December 11, 1941. Froboese committed suicide a year later in 1942 after he received a federal grand jury subpoena.[3]
Fiorello Henry La Guardia was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the U.S. House of Representatives and served as the 99th mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1946. He was known for his irascible, energetic, and charismatic personality and diminutive, rotund stature. An ideologically socialist member of the Republican Party, La Guardia was frequently cross-endorsed by parties other than his own, especially parties on the left under New York's electoral fusion laws. A panel of 69 scholars in 1993 ranked him as the best big-city mayor in American history.
The German American Bund, or the German American Federation, was a German-American Nazi organization which was established in 1936 as a successor to the Friends of New Germany. The organization chose its new name in order to emphasize its American credentials after the press accused it of being unpatriotic. The Bund was allowed to consist only of American citizens of German descent. Its main goal was to promote a favorable view of Nazi Germany.
Fritz Julius Kuhn was a German Nazi activist who served as the elected leader of the German American Bund, a German-American Nazi organization before World War II. He became a naturalized United States citizen in 1934, though his citizenship was revoked in 1943 owing to his status as a foreign agent of Nazi Germany. Kuhn served prison time for larceny and forgery from 1939 to 1943 and, upon release, was immediately interned by the United States government as an enemy agent. He was deported in 1945 and later served further prison time in post-war Germany before dying in 1951.
Heinrich "Heinz" Spanknöbel was a German immigrant to America who formed, and for a short time led, the pro-Nazi Friends of New Germany as its Bundesleiter.
Confessions of a Nazi Spy is a 1939 American spy political thriller film directed by Anatole Litvak for Warner Bros. It was the first explicitly anti-Nazi film to be produced by a major Hollywood studio, being released in May 1939, four months before the beginning of World War II in Europe, and two and a half years before the United States' official entry into the war.
The Free Society of Teutonia was one of the earliest Nazi organizations in the United States. It was officially a German American organization, but also publicly expressed a strong support for the Nazi movement in Germany and Nazi ideology in general.
Margin for Error is a 1943 American drama film directed by Otto Preminger. The screenplay by Lillie Hayward and Samuel Fuller is based on the 1939 play of the same title by Clare Boothe Luce.
Friends of New Germany, sometimes called Friends of the New Germany, was an organization founded in the United States by German immigrants to support Nazism and the Third Reich.
The anti-Nazi boycott was an international boycott of German products in response to violence and harassment by members of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party against Jews following his appointment as Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. Examples of Nazi violence and harassment included placing and throwing stink bombs, picketing, shopper intimidation, humiliation and assaults. The boycott was spearheaded by some Jewish organizations but opposed by others.
The political ideology of fascism has a long history in North America, with the earliest movements appearing shortly after the rise of fascism in Europe.
Madison Square Garden was an indoor arena in New York City, the third bearing that name. Built in 1925 and closed in 1968, it was located on the west side of Eighth Avenue between 49th and 50th streets in Manhattan, on the site of the city's trolley-car barns. It was the first Garden that was not located near Madison Square. MSG III was the home of the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League and the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association, and also hosted numerous boxing matches, the Millrose Games, the National Invitation Tournament, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, concerts, and other events. In 1968 it was demolished and its role and name passed to the fourth Madison Square Garden, which stands at the site of the original Penn Station. One Worldwide Plaza was built on the arena's former 50th Street location.
The Christian Front was a far-right anti-Semitic political association active in the United States from 1938 to 1940, started in response to radio priest Charles Coughlin. The Christian Front was mainly based in New York City and many of its members were Irish and German American Catholics. Their activities included distributing like-minded publications and participating in rallies. After the American government began investigations in the late 1930s, a few members were arrested and prosecuted. The trials of these members discredited the entire movement and by the end of 1940, the Christian Front was no longer active.
Arnie Bernstein is an American writer of historical nonfiction. His works include Bath Massacre: America’s First School Bombing and Swastika Nation: Fritz Kuhn and the Rise and Fall of the German-American Bund.
The following events occurred in February 1939:
The Nazi Party and its ideological allies used cartoons and caricatures as a main pillar in their propaganda campaigns. Such techniques were an effective way to spread their ideology throughout Nazi Germany and beyond. The use of caricatures was a popular method within the party when pursuing their campaign against the United States, in particular its then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
A Night at the Garden is a 2017 short documentary film about the 1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The film was directed by Marshall Curry from footage found by archival producer Rich Remsberg, and was produced by Laura Poitras and Charlotte Cook with Field of Vision. The seven-minute film is composed entirely of archival footage and features a speech from Fritz Julius Kuhn, the leader of the German American Bund, in which anti-Semitic and pro white-Christian sentiments are espoused.
Gemma La Guardia Gluck was an American writer, of Italian Jewish origin, who lived in Hungary and was a survivor of the Holocaust. Her autobiography, published in 1961, tells of her experience as a survivor of the Ravensbrück concentration camp, but also offers vivid memories of her childhood spent in America with her parents and brother Fiorello La Guardia, the future first Italian-American mayor of New York.
Nazism in the Americas has existed since the 1930s and continues to exist today. The membership of the earliest groups reflected the sympathies some German-Americans and German Latin-Americans had for Nazi Germany. They embraced the spirit of Nazism in Europe and they sought to establish it within the Americas. Throughout the inter-war period and the outbreak of World War II, American Nazi parties engaged in activities such as sporting Nazi propaganda, storming newspapers, spreading Nazi-sympathetic materials, and infiltrating other non-political organizations.
The Madison Square Garden protest of 1933 was convened by the American Jewish Congress in New York City to protest the deteriorating circumstances of Jews in Nazi Germany after Hitler's rise to power. The protest was held on March 27, five days after the opening of the first Nazi concentration camp, Dachau.
↑ "Bund Rally Bomb Rumor Fails to Worry Mayor", The New York Times, February 21, 1939.
↑ "TimesMachine: Tuesday February 21, 1939". The New York Times. 1939. Retrieved 2020-11-02. 13 Held on Minor Charges – Only thirteen arrests were made, all on minor charges.
↑ "Editor's Note" at end of "When Nazis Took Manhattan," NPR Radio Diaries, February 20, 2019
1 2 3 4 "Free America!" The German American Bund at Madison Square Garden, February 20, 1939. Speeches by J. Wheeler-Hill, Rudolf Marman, George Froboese, Hermann Schwinn, G. William Kunze, and the Bund's Führer: Fritz Kuhn
↑ Maloney Russel, "Heil Washington!" The New Yorker, April 4, 1939
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