PRO AMERICAN RALLY? Madison Square Garden / PREQUEL - Beware the Snake Oil Salesman + Color footage

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Episode 271

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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 Washington portrait with swastikas on each side. Approximately 100,000 anti-Nazi counter-protesters gathered outside, attempting to break through lines of police officers guarding the rally on three occasions.

The largely decentralized Bund was active in several regions; still, it attracted support only from a minority of German Americans. The Bund was the most influential of several pro-Nazi German groups in the United States in the 1930s; others included the Teutonia Society and Friends of New Germany. Alongside allied groups, such as the Christian Front, these organizations were antisemitic.

The pro-Nazi organizations in the U.S. were actively countered by anti-Nazi organizations led by American Jews and others who opposed Hitlerism and supported a boycott of German goods. The Joint Boycott Committee held a rally at Madison Square Garden in 1937.

The rally occurred when the German American Bund's membership was dropping; 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.

The event was highly choreographed in the fascist style, with uniformed Bund members carrying American and Nazi flags, the display of the Nazi salute (but 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), and the playing of martial music and German folk songs.

The rally began at 8 pm 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."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.' 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."

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 lone 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.