HENRY FORD ET LE NAZISME COMPILATION DE DOCUMENTS German American Bund The German American Bund, or German American country. This led him to investigate independently the ac- Federation (German: Amerikadeutscher Bund; Amerika- tivities of Nazi and other fascist groups, leading to the for- deutscher Volksbund, AV), was an American Nazi orga- mation of the Special Committee on Un-American Activ- nization established in 1936 to succeed Friends of New ities Authorized to Investigate Nazi Propaganda and Cer- Germany (FONG), the new name being chosen to em- tain Other Propaganda Activities. Throughout the rest of phasise the group’s American credentials after press crit- 1934, the Committee conducted hearings, bringing be- icism that the organisation was unpatriotic.[5] The Bund fore it most of the major figures in the American fascist was to consist only of American citizens of German de- movement.[9] Dickstein’s investigation concluded that the scent.[6] Its main goal was to promote a favorable view of Friends represented a branch of German dictator Adolf Nazi Germany. Hitler's Nazi Party in the United States.[10][11] The organization existed into the mid-1930s, although it always remained small, with a membership of be- 1 Friends of New Germany tween 5,000–10,000, consisting mostly of German citi- zens living in the United States and German emigrants who only recently had become citizens.[7] In December Main article: Friends of New Germany 1935, Rudolf Hess ordered all German citizens to leave the FONG and recalled all of its leaders to Germany .[7] In May 1933, Nazi Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess gave German immigrant and German Nazi Party member Heinz Spanknöbel authority to form an American Nazi organization.[7] Shortly thereafter, with help from the 2 Bund activities German consul in New York City, Spanknöbel created the Friends of New Germany[7] by merging two older or- ganizations in the United States, Gau-USA and the Free Society of Teutonia, which were both small groups with only a few hundred members each. The FONG was based in New York but had a strong presence in Chicago.[7] Members wore a uniform, a white shirt and black trousers for men with a black hat festooned with a red symbol. Women members wore a white blouse and a black skirt.[8] The organization led by Spanknöbel was openly pro-Nazi, and engaged in activities such as storming the German language New Yorker Staats-Zeitung with the demand that Nazi-sympathetic articles be published, and the in- filtration of other non-political German-American orga- nizations. One of the Friends early initiatives was to counter, with propaganda, the Jewish boycott of German goods which started in March 1933 to protest Nazi anti- Semitism. German American Bund parade on East 86th St., New York City, October 30, 1939 In an internal battle for control of the Friends, Spanknö- bel was ousted as leader and subsequently deported in Oc- In March 1936, the German American Bund was es- tober 1933 because he had failed to register as a foreign [7] tablished as a follow-up organization for the Friends of agent. New Germany in Buffalo, New York.[7][12] The Bund At the same time, Congressman Samuel Dickstein, Chair- elected a German-born American citizen Fritz Julius man of the Committee on Naturalization and Immigra- Kuhn as its leader (Bundesführer).[13] Kuhn was a veteran tion, became aware of the substantial number of for- of the Bavarian infantry during World War I and an Alter eigners legally and illegally entering and residing in the Kämpfer (old fighter) of the Nazi Party, who in 1934 was country, and the growing anti-Semitism along with vast granted American citizenship. Kuhn was initially effec- amounts of anti-Semitic literature being distributed in the tive as a leader and was able to unite the organization and 1 2 3 DECLINE expand its membership but came to be seen simply as an incompetent swindler and liar.[7] The administrative structure of the Bund mimicked the regional administrative subdivision of the Nazi Party. The United States was divided into three Gaue: Gau Ost (East), Gau West and Gau Midwest.[14] Together the three Gaue comprised 69 Ortsgruppen (local groups): 40 in Gau Ost (17 in New York), 10 in Gau West and 19 in Gau Midwest.[14] Each Gau had its own Gauleiter and staff to direct the Bund operations in the region in accordance with the führerprinzip.[14] The Bund’s national headquar- ters was located at 178 East 85th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan.[1] The Bund established a number of training camps, in- cluding Camp Nordland in Sussex County, New Jer- sey, Camp Siegfried in Yaphank, New York, Camp Hin- denburg in Grafton, Wisconsin, Deutschhorst Country Club in Sellersville, Pennsylvania,[15] Camp Bergwald in Bloomingdale, NJ[7][16][17][18][15] and Camp Highland in New York state. The Bund held rallies with Nazi insignia and procedures such as the Hitler salute and attacked the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jewish groups, Communism, “Moscow-directed” trade unions and American boycotts of German goods.[7][19] The organization claimed to show its loyalty to America by displaying the flag of the United States at Bund meet- ings, and declared that George Washington was “the first Fascist” who did not believe democracy would work.[20] Kuhn and a few other Bundmen traveled to Berlin to at- tend the 1936 Summer Olympics. During the trip he vis- ited the Reich Chancellery, where his picture was taken German American Bund rally poster at Madison Square Garden, with Hitler.[7] This act did not constitute an official Nazi February 20, 1939 approval for Kuhn’s organization: German Ambassador to the United States Hans-Heinrich Dieckhoff expressed his disapproval and concern over the group to Berlin, 3 Decline causing distrust between the Bund and the Nazi regime.[7] The organization received no financial or verbal support In 1939, a New York tax investigation determined that from Germany. In response to the outrage of Jewish war Kuhn had embezzled $14,000 from the Bund. The Bund veterans, Congress in 1938 passed the Foreign Agents did not seek to have Kuhn prosecuted, operating on the Registration Act requiring foreign agents to register with principle (Führerprinzip), that the leader had absolute the State Department. On March 1, 1938 the Nazi gov- power. However, New York City’s district attorney pros- ernment decreed that no Reichsdeutsche [German nation- ecuted him in an attempt to cripple the Bund. On De- als] could be a member of the Bund, and that no Nazi cember 5, 1939, Kuhn was sentenced to two and a half to emblems were to be used by the organization.[7] This was five years in prison for tax evasion and embezzlement.[22] done both to appease the U.S. and to distance Germany from the Bund, which was increasingly a cause of embar- New Bund leaders replaced Kuhn, most notably Gerhard rassment with its rhetoric and actions.[7] Kunze, but only for brief periods. A year after the out- break of World War II, Congress enacted a peacetime Arguably, the zenith of the Bund’s activities was the rally military draft in September 1940. The Bund counseled at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Febru- members of draft age to evade conscription, a crimi- ary 20, 1939.[21] Some 20,000 people attended and heard nal offense punishable by up to five years in jail and a Kuhn criticize President Roosevelt by repeatedly refer- $10,000 fine. Gerhard Kunze fled to Mexico in Novem- ring to him as “Frank D. Rosenfeld”, calling his New ber 1941.[8] Deal the “Jew Deal” and denouncing what he believed to be Bolshevik-Jewish American leadership. Most shock- U.S. Congressman Martin Dies (D-Texas) and his House ing to American sensibilities was the outbreak of violence Committee on Un-American Activities were active in between protesters and Bund storm troopers. denying any Nazi-sympathetic organization the ability to operate freely during World War II. In the last week of 3 December 1942, led by journalist Dorothy Thompson, [10] Shaffer, Ryan (Spring 2010). “Long Island Nazis: A Lo- fifty leading German-Americans (including baseball icon cal Synthesis of Transnational Politics”. 21 (2). Journal Babe Ruth) signed a "Christmas Declaration by men and of Long Island History. Retrieved 2010-11-19. women of German ancestry" condemning Nazism, which [11] Investigate on un-American Propaganda Activities in the appeared in ten major American daily newspapers. United States While Kuhn was in prison, his citizenship was canceled on June 1, 1943.[23] Upon his release after 43 months in [12] “Fritz Kuhn Death in 1951 Revealed. Lawyer Says For- mer Leader of German-American Bund Succumbed in state prison, Kuhn was re-arrested on June 21, 1943 as Munich.”. Associated Press in New York Times. February an enemy alien and interned by the federal government 2, 1953. Retrieved 2008-07-20. Fritz Kuhn, once the ar- at a camp in Crystal City, Texas. After the war, Kuhn rogant, noisy leader of the pro-Hitler German-American was interned at Ellis Island and deported to Germany on Bund, died here more than a year ago – a poor and obscure September 15, 1945.[23] He died on December 14, 1951, chemist, unheralded and unsung. in Munich, Germany. [13] Cyprian Blamires; Paul Jackson (2006). World fascism: a historical encyclopedia, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. p. 270. 4 See also ISBN 0-8223-0772-3. [14] Cornelia Wilhelms (1998). Bewegung oder Verein?: na- • Fascist League of North America tionalsozialistische Volkspolitik in dem USA.