The Nazis Organization Hitler 

Refused to Acknowledge

By Tom Morrow

          During the 1930s, when the American economy was in shambles, many people were looking for a political savior – a different system of government that would take them out of the financial deep abyss. Some looked to socialism, others to communism. More than 30 percent of the nation was out of work, while the people of Germany were emerging from the Great Depression.

          In 1936, a number of Americans having little faith in President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the U.S. government, joined, the German-American Bund, also known as the German-American Federation. It was a Nazi-leaning organization established in 1936. The Bund replaced a group known earlier as the Friends of New Germany. The new name emphasized the Bund’s American foundation after public criticism that the Friends party was “unpatriotic.” The Bund consisted primarily of German-American citizens.

          The Bund’s main goal was to promote a favorable view of Nazi Germany. The earlier “Friends” had been authorized in 1933, when Nazi Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess gave German immigrant and Nazi party member Heinz Spanknobel the authority to form an American Nazi organization. Based in New York City, there was a strong “Friends” membership in Chicago and Milwaukee, both cities with large German-American populations. But, Spanknobel was deposed as leader when he was deported for failure to register as a foreign agent.

          Like the earlier “Friends” organization, members of the new German-American Bund wore black uniforms, marched in parades, held weekend outings for families and gave the impression of a patriotic, family-oriented all-American organization, all the while advocating a U.S. government in the image of Nazi Germany. A series of 69 Bund chapters were formed in the East and Midwest. Bund camps were set up as Nazi indoctrination and training facilities.

          Using the swastika and Hitler salute, most of the Bund propaganda railed against President Roosevelt, the Jewish population, and Communists, but the Bund always professed loyalty to the United States by always displaying the American flag.

          The Bund elected Fritz Kuhn, who had been a German soldier during World War I. He was granted U.S. citizenship in 1934. After assuming Bund control in March 1936, Kuhn was an effective leader. He was able to unite and expand the organization, but he was soon revealed to be an incompetent swindler, who had a tendency to exaggerate the truth.

          Kuhn and a few of his “Bundsmen” traveled to Berlin for the 1936 Summer Olympics. They were ushered into the Reich Chancellery, where Kuhn had his photo taken with Adolf Hitler, who was not impressed. Hitler  distrusted Kuhn and the Bund leadership, so the organization never received support from the Nazi regime.

          The beginning of the end came when the Nazi government declared that no Nazi emblems were to be used by the Bund because Hitler needed to appease the U.S. government in distancing Germany from the organization, which had become a national embarrassment.

          The Bund’s activities peaked on Feb. 20, 1939, at a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York. More than 20,000 attended, where Kuhn criticize President Roosevelt, referring to his “Rosenfeld’s New Jew Deal.”

          Later that year, Kuhn was charged with tax evasion and embezzling $14,000 from the Bund and was sentenced to prison.

          When Hitler declared war on the United States in late 1941, it brought an end to the German-American Bund, which has become a mere footnote in history.

Weird Facts:

There is a Web page devoted to quotes that Thomas Jefferson didn't say.

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." Yup. Thomas Jefferson never said that. So many quotes mistakenly get attributed to the Founding Father that Ann Berkes, a research librarian at the Jefferson library, decided to collect them and shame misinformed quote-happy folk.

         "People will see a quote and it appeals to an opinion that they have and if it has Jefferson's name attached to it that gives it more weight," she told the Wall Street Journal in 2010. "He's constantly being invoked by people when they are making arguments about politics and actually all sorts of topics."

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar raised $17,000 for her senate campaign from ex-boyfriends.

A fact she announced at the 2009 Washington Press Club Foundation dinner. "True story!" she said. "I know that is the record in the Senate, but in the House it's held by Barney Frank."

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