That's a great historical reference you provided and very apropos. Pardon me for injecting this lengthy explanation of the Nazi past in NYC and Long Island. It is very apropos for what is going on in NYC, indeed
The German American Bund, or the German American Federation (“Bund” means “alliance” in German), was a German-American Nazi organization which was established in 1936 as a successor to the Friends of New Germany (FoNG, FDND in German). 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.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. Shortly thereafter, with help from the German consul in New York City, Spanknöbel created the Friends of New Germany by merging two older organizations 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 City but had a strong presence in Chicago. Male members wore a uniform, a white shirt, black trousers and a black hat adorned with a red symbol. Female members wore a white blouse and a black skirt.
The organization which was led by Spanknöbel was openly pro-Nazi, and it engaged in activities such as storming the German language New Yorker Staats-Zeitung and demanding that it publish pro-Nazi articles, and infiltrating other non-political German-American organizations.
Following the German model, the German American Bund in New York organized itself territorially into Gau, of which there were three: Ost, West, and Midwest. Gau Ost would have included Camp Siegfried, which was located about 70 miles east of New York City in the town of Yaphank on Long Island. The camp is still there; the name has been changed to "Seigfried Park."
Camp Siegfried and many camps across the nation were sponsored by the German-American Bund, which focused on Americans of German descent. The group’s aim: Blend American democracy and European fascism.
By 1935, Hitler supplied Camp Siegfried with teachers and German philosophy textbooks and smuggled in uniforms. Yaphank youth were taken on trips to Germany, including a 1936 trip to the Olympics, where Hitler urged Siegfrieders to maintain the kampf, the struggle, in the states.
Camp Siegfried’s purpose was to raise future leaders of America; they had to be Aryans, adhering to another key Nazism belief: Aryans — Nordic-looking, non-Jewish Caucasians — were the so-called master race. But life was far from idyllic. Forced to sleep in tented platforms, campers cleared brush and trees, and built infrastructure. They were coerced into having sex with campers to preserve the Aryan race, and to attend anti-Semitic, white supremacist lectures by propagandists promising that they, the “Friends of New Germany in America,” would be as important as storm troopers, the private Nazi army known for violent attacks.
Racial politics came to Long Island as Bund leaders demeaned Jews, communists, and labor unions. In Germany, Hitler intensified persecution of non-Aryans.
In Yaphank, the German-American Settlement League invited Bundists and other German-Americans to visit, promising free dances, celebrations, and camaraderie. The Long Island Rail Road Camp Siegfried Special ran from Penn Station every Sunday to Yaphank, where uniformed marchers greeted guests with Heil Hitler (Hail Victory) salutes and sang the Nazi National Anthem. With Hitler portraits prominently displayed, orators denounced Jews, insisting that German blood was different than others’ blood.
By 1937, pro-Nazi sympathizers occupied German Gardens’ bungalows on Adolf Hitler Strasse and on streets named after Hitler’s head honchos. Embedded in the houses’ brickwork were swastikas, fascist symbols of severe economic regimentation and forcible suppression of opposition. Residents drank beer with local political activists and gun enthusiasts (the Bund was affiliated with the National Rifle Association), and the development flourished. In August 1938, A New York Times article headlined “40,000 at Nazi Camp Fete” reported that nearly “40,000 persons attended the annual German Day of Long Island at Camp Siegfried.” About 2,000 uniformed Ordnungsdienst storm troopers kept order.
(Below) German American Bund parade on East 86th St., New York City, October 30, 1939. For reference, Hitler invaded Poland September 1, 1939.
(Below )Members of the German-American Bund marching near Camp Siegfried in Yaphank, N.Y., circa 1937.
