German American Bund

C. Attacks against the Bund

Just as the Bund intensified their Americanization program, so too did the enemies of the Bund intensify their effort to destroy the organization.  Much of the hysteria surrounding the Bund was incited by New York Congressman Samuel Dickstein, who as a Jew, found the Bund’s rhetoric especially repugnant.  Dickstein embarked on a personal crusade to destroy the German American Bund.  Many of the charges he leveled against the group were unfounded and often even outlandish.  The Bund was incessantly investigated by government agencies.  However, by the end of 1939, the Bund was exonerated from virtually every charge.  Kuhn took the Bund’s vindication as definitive proof to the American people that the group was not comprised of subversive Nazis but was in fact a fiercely pro-American organization.  In the eyes of the Bundists, the Bund was truly a law-abiding patriotic American organization.  Yet, the persistence of Dickstein and other Bund detractors paid off handsomely.  The more outrageous the charges against the Bund, the more the organization remained in the public eye, and the more America feared it and turned against it.  

Dickstein carried out a personal campaign against Nazism in America and he attacked the Bund with indefatigable determination.  He ceaselessly pressured Congress to pass a resolution to investigate the Bund for supposed subversive activities.  He was convinced, and attempted to convince Congress and the American public, that the German American Bund was a subversive and dangerous “fifth Column.”  In January 1937, Dickstein presented a proposal in the House of Representatives for the creation of an investigating body similar to the McCormack Committee of the early 1930s.  While his proposal was rejected, his tenacity in attacking the Bund as a foreign subversive espionage organization had a profound affect on the public mood and perception. The American press continued to report stories of Dickstein’s wild accusations which he presented in the Congressional record.  The more accusations against the Bund the American public heard, the more they were inclined to believe. 

The negative attention did not, however, slow the Bund down. The Bund raised the cry of harassment and slander.  In response to Dickstein’s accusations, Kuhn sent an open letter to Congress which denied all charges and even questioned Dickstein’s sanity.   The Bund continued to hold mass rallies like the one at the New York Hippodrome on February 1937, which attracted 4,000 sympathizers.  At the Hippodrome, Kuhn remained resolute.  He blasted Dickstein, communism, and the anti-Nazi boycott.  Facing a widening circle of critics, Kuhn reminded the Bund that “as a fighting organization we must welcome every fight.”[1]  He ordered that file cards and news clippings about pro-Bund, anti-Bund German American and Jewish organizations all be catalogued in the Bund’s the national headquarters in New York.  Dickstein’s religion and national origin were used as ammunition by the Bund which charged that Dickstein was a concrete example of the international Jewish communist conspiracy at work in America.  In early February, the Deutscher Weckruf und Beobachter published an exchange of letters between Kuhn and Dickstein.  As usual, Dickstein attacked the Bund as a Nazi organization while the Bund attacked Dickstein both personally and politically. The Bund newspaper referred to Dickstein as a “typical Russian-born, ghetto bred and ghetto-elected Representative from the lower east side of New York.”[2] According to the Bund, as a Russian, the “ghetto Congressman” naturally had communist sympathies and was thus more of a threat to the United States than the Bund.  These letters urged that Dickstein should recognize the real Communist danger in America and join forces with patriotic organizations like the Bund, or he should resign his position as a Congressman and permit a true American to represent the people. 

By March 1937, Dickstein renewed his proposal for a Congressional investigation.  Determined to win his personal crusade against the Bund, his charges became more far-fetched and farcical.  Dickstein claimed that the Bund had a $20,000,000 fund at its disposal to promote Nazism in America with the ultimate goal of overthrowing the government, and the Bund was part of a large espionage ring working for the German government.  The Bund lashed back and sent a telegram to the chairman of the House Rules Committee demanding that Congress investigate the Bund to clear their good name and silence and discredit Dickstein once and for all. 

            On April 8, 1937, Dickstein’s proposal for the creation of a House Un-American Activities Committee to investigate Nazi activities came up for debate in Congress.  Opponents in Congress argued that such a measure would agitate anti-German biases and threaten basic American freedoms.  Moreover, many saw the measure as a scheme by Dickstein to once again grab the national spotlight.  In the end, Dickstein’s proposal was voted down by a considerable margin.  Undeterred, Dickstein continued his crusade to expose the Bund as a subversive Nazi organization.  In late June 1937 he vociferously supported a resolution introduced by Representative Martin Dies of Texas, calling for an investigation of subversive activities in America.  Lists were compiled of so-called “Nazi spies,” this time including Kuhn himself as well as other leading Bundists.  Again, Dies attacked the Bund camps as secret Nazi military training grounds from where the Bund would stage a coup.  Once again, the Deutscher Weckruf und Beobachter presented the Bund’s key defense:  the Bund was a patriotic American organization with no connection to Germany and fought against communism for the benefit of their fellow Americans. 

            Assailed by slanderous allegations, the Bund remained resolute in their Americanization policies.  To put an end to the defamation hurled at the Bund in Congress, in the courts and in the press, Kuhn repeatedly demanded an investigation of the Bund.  He also viciously counterattacked Dickstein and repeatedly demanded from the government the full protection of German American Bund’s American rights.  An investigation of the Bund would finally silence their critics and prove their true patriotic intentions.  

In August 1937, Kuhn sent a letter to Congress condemning Dickstein’s Congressional impunity to continue his assault of “libelous utterances” against German- Americans, “making them the object of hatred and contempt” in America.  Kuhn hurled his own charges against Dickstein, an “immigrant from Russia of Jewish stock,” accusing him of “purposely ignoring the subtle infiltration…of  Communism” and “fomenting un-American activities as the spokesman in Congress for the Untermyer-Rabbi Wise Boycott Racket” which was harming the German-American community.[3] Further, he defended the Bund camps as nothing more than recreation centers for German-American youth.  He denied charges that the camps were for military drills and added that “the national flag of Germany- the Swastika- is never flown without the Stars and Stripes; that the American anthem is [always] played on large public occasions.”  His letter assured the American government that the Bund will “always practice loyalty and allegiance as citizens of this country...This is our confession of faith and none of us has ever deviated from these principles.”[4]

            Dickstein’s assailments against the Bund were strengthened by those of Representative Martin Dies of Texas.  In response to the July 18, 1937 grand opening of Camp Nordland, Dies asked for a Congressional investigation of what he called “un-American activities” in “Nazi camps” where “open allegiance is pledged to Hitler.”[5] At the same time, a Jersey City unit of Veterans of Foreign Wars was demanding a Congressional investigation on the source of funds for the Bund’s camps.   Further, Connecticut Congressman William H. Citron asked the FBI to “investigate at once Nazi training camps being established at Andover, NJ and other places.”[6] In a letter to the FBI, Citron told of his own secret informants who had penetrated the Bund’s seventeen camps, “all of them seemingly under a single, planned organization whose probable financial backing, direction and control is not only by aliens but probably indirectly the present German Government.”[7] In response, New Jersey Senator William H. Smathers, after reading reports on the so-called “Nazi army,” stated, “All these reports about foreign armies in this country don’t seem to me to have much substance. I doubt a Congressional investigation would uncover anything at this time.”[8]  Nevertheless, Dies pushed for an investigation of the Bund and its camps.

Kuhn decried these accusations as harassment and persecution against German-Americans.  The Bund newspaper responded to the charges of un-Americanism at the camps: “The un-American principles consist of recreation in the open air for children and families of German citizens, where they may regale themselves away from the hostile atmosphere created by the Jewish-controlled daily press…away from the ranting Communist groups that fill the public squares…”[9] Accused of un-Americanism, Kuhn reminded Americans of Washington’s warning: “Beware of the imposture of patriotism.”  He took pains to again remind Americans of the contributions that German made to the United States, citing 500,000 naturalized or first native born generation Germans who fought for the Union Army and the “tens of thousands of German descendents who fought in the war to make the world safe for democracy.”[10]

Meanwhile, Dickstein kept up his campaign to investigate the Bund.  On July 27, 1937, he listed the names of forty six persons in the Bund whom he labeled “expert spies and agitators.”[11] He urged the support of the Dies resolution calling for an investigation of the Bund, what Dickstein called a “well-organized, subversive, un-American American spy system.”[12] Supremely confident of the Bund’s patriotic pro-American character and endeavors, Kuhn agreed that an investigation into the activities of the camps could once and for all vindicate the organization and silence its detractors.  To put an end to what Kuhn saw as Dickstein’s slanderous “non-sense” Kuhn responded; “I demand, as an American citizen, an investigation of our organization and our camps.”[13]  Moreover, when Kuhn was shown the list of forty six  names entered into the Congressional Record by Dickstein as expert spies and agitators, he responded by mocking Dickstein and defending the Bund with his usual patriotic arguments.  Along with his demand a government investigation of his group, Kuhn remarked:

Dickstein is slowing up.  He is even falling down.  These are the same names that he waved in the air when he last investigated us three years ago.  Many of them have since left the country.  Can’t Dickstein get something newer of more convincing?  That’s why we want an investigation as much as he does.  Our camps were organized purely for recreational purposes and the German American Bund will go on fighting Communism and Marxism for the benefit of every law-abiding citizen.”[14]   

 

 Kuhn referred to Dickstein’s list of Nazi spies and agitators as “a roll call of the dead and missing” and he added, “Dickstein’s list of Nazi leaders in the United States is absurd.  In the first place some of the men on his honor roll are dead and, as a matter of fact, less than ten percent of the men he mentions are members of the Bund.”[15] In response to attacks on the Bund’s camps, Kuhn hurled charges back at what he viewed as an unethical Jewish-controlled and biased press bent on destroying the Bund.  He charged unscrupulous journalists with buying alcoholic drinks for minors and attempting to photograph the children with beer mugs in their hands in order to falsely vilify the Bund and its camps.  In the Bund newspaper Kuhn railed against the biased anti-German press which he charged was deliberately stirring up American hatred for the Bund and German-Americans in general.  Biased reporting in America was 

stirring up race hatred  against American citizens of German extraction…The camps were organized for recreational purposes and the German American Bund will go on fighting communism and Marxism…Furthermore, I full-heartedly invite an investigation. In order to clear up, once and forever, the nonsense that has been published by various biased reporters, who have forgotten, that every respectable American citizen demands a truthful and honest reportage.[16]

 

Herman von Busch, head of Camp Nordland, proclaimed that the Bund was not afraid of any investigation, “We know that we have the support of the real American people.  We know the American people realize that we are not trying to undermine the Government.  In fact, 10,000 German-Americans are really a menace to the lawless elements in this country.”[17] In response to protests and attacks against their organization, the Bund organized its own “protest day” at Nordland, scheduled for September 5, 1937.  New Jersey Bund district leader August Klapprott insisted that Nordland was in no way connected with the Nazi regime in Germany and he issued a call for “all fair-minded Americans to protest against the lying campaign of hate bearing upon the camp.”[18] Klapprott told New York Times reporters that that the Bund’s protest day was prompted by an “open demand” made by thousands of German-Americans, many of whom are not affiliated with the Bund.  He said, “Leaders of the various German-American societies in New Jersey have expressed their willingness to have the camp here inspected and are anxious to defend it against all this propaganda which pictures Nordland as un-American and ruled by the Third Reich.”[19]   Moreover, in Aug 11, 1937 Kuhn sent the following letter to Speaker of the House John H. Bankhead.  Kuhn defended the Bund as a “patriotic, law-abiding organization,” and invited Congress to investigate his group. 

It is a feeling of profound indignation that I am compelled to submit to the false and malicious statements which Representative Samuel Dickstein is reading in the Congressional Record, and thence supplying to newspapers throughout the country.  I have repeatedly asked for an investigation in order to convince the American people that the German American Bund is a patriotic, law-abiding American organization, fighting communism and Marxism as un-American ideals.  I consider it a matter of plain justice…that whatever available remedies exist within the jurisdiction of the House control shall be invoked to protect decent American citizens from unjustified assaults upon their character and integrity at the hands of an irresponsible sensation-mongerer. I herewith give unqualified assurance that the German American Bund is an organization of loyal American citizens of German stock, united in the reborn spirit of racial respect, honor, integrity and duty, proud of the cultural achievements of the German race…determinately loyal to the American Constitution and the ideals of true Americanism, emphatically opposed to all enemies, foreign and domestic, and pledged to promote friendly relations between our old fatherland and our new homeland…In light of the foregoing statement we shall be keenly appreciative of any cooperation on your part to make Mr. Dickstein accountable as well as amenable to the standard of American fair play.”[20]

 

A few days later Kuhn’s invitation was accepted when U.S. Attorney General Homer S. Cummings ordered a cursory investigation of the Bund camps.  The FBI was ordered to “ascertain if there [were] any facts warranting further investigation.”[21]  The chief investigation was to determine the credibility of the charge that the Bund was violating federal laws by shipping unregistered firearms across state lines.  Kuhn welcomed the investigation as a means to stop the harassment of the Bund and to demonstrate once and for all the patriotic nature of the movement.  The Bund, Kuhn asserted, had nothing to hide. “We are strictly an American organization, with no connections with Germany,” he declared.  Further, he proclaimed,

We know that the malicious propaganda against our organization and our camps has created bad feelings among our American citizens which we do not deserve.  As a matter of fact, we are the only movement which fights communism successfully, and for that reason alone we are being attacked by Dickstein and his henchmen.  We are proud of being attacked by characters like that of Dickstein who…is a disgrace to this country.” [22]

 

Once again Kuhn clarified, “The aim of the German American Bund is to unite all Germans and Americans in our country to a united front against communism.  We do show the Nazi emblem alongside of the American flag, with the biggest respect for Hitler and his movement in Germany, fighting the world’s madness, communism.”[23]

Under such intense scrutiny, Kuhn wanted to make certain that the American character of the Bund was clarified to the press.  In order to clarify the key talking points with fellow Bund members, Kuhn issued Bund Command 13 in Sept 1937:   It stated,

            The investigation of our entire organization, which has often been a threat and which we have repeatedly sought by Congress and have openly invited, is now to be introduced by the Justice Department.  …I want to give instructions to the Administrators. 

 

The German American Bund is an American organization and has no official connection with Germany and receives no monies.  The Bund Fuehrer is not paid by Germany…

President Roosevelt is not to be attacked personally in any speech. ..

 

The size and strength of our organization is an official secret, and questions pertaining to this are to be parried.  Only before a court or under oath must this question be answered truthfully. 

The OD has two great purposes to fulfill:

            It serves as a protective guard at our meetings and functions against attacks by communists…

          

The OD is a patriotic group which in the event of necessity will place itself at the disposal of the lawful government.  This point is to be stressed again and again, and the value of the OD is to be explained to the Americans.  THE OD IS NOT A MILITARY GROUP.  IT IS NOT ARMED.

 

Our camps first and foremost are recreation centers for our members.  A possibility should be further created so that our youth will have a chance to get off the streets.  They are recreational centers for young and old, they serve for sport and play and as an assembly place for people with common views.  THEY ARE NOT MILITARY DRILL GROUNDS. 

 

Our newspaper, the “Deutscher Weckruf und Beobachter” is the organ of the Bund and naturally has a tendency toward friendliness with Germany…

 

In brief:  We are an American organization, and all that we do is done within the law and for the welfare of the United States.  We have no official connection with Germany and we receive no orders from there and are not paid from there.  WE DO NOT THINK OF OVERTHROWING THE GOVERNMENT

 

We desire that the constitution of the country be upheld.  We permit no agitation and lies against Germany, and we fight without compromise every Marxist thought, and above all else we are opposed to communism and its Jewish leaders.  We want to acquire influence in the law formulating processes of this country for the German people , but according to the law.  BEYOND THIS ONLY THE LOCAL GROUP LEADER GIVES OFFICIAL DECLARATIONS.[24] 

 

Also, in an attempt to clarify the American goals of the Bund, it was at this time that the group published its Purposes and Aims of the German American Bund.[25]  Meanwhile, Bund continued to hold huge rallies. The festival closing the 1937 season at Nordland drew a crowd of 18,000 and the Bund’s German Day celebration at Camp Siegfried drew 25,000.  Despite the heat the Bund was feeling, it was not slowing down. 

Regardless of its intensified Americanization platform, the Bund continued to be anathema to the American public.  In addition to the ceaseless Dickstein campaign, a host of Americans both public and private continued to harass the Bund.   For example, in November, 1937 when the Bund purchased one hundred seventy-eight acres of land near Southbury, Connecticut with the intention of building another Bund camp, local residents moved quickly to halt the erection of the camp.   On November 23, 1937, they produced a resolution denouncing the Bund camps and un-American foreign agencies.  When this gesture proved insufficient to stop the Bund from building its camp, the locals found a more ingenious way of stopping the group.  They cited a historic “Blue Law” which prohibited work on Sunday.  When thirty members of the Bund set out to clear some scrub trees from their grounds, a posse of six constables arrested two Bundists for violating the Sunday Blue Law.  The arrests stopped all work on the camp.  To halt the Bund project indefinitely, the Town Council of Southbury revised a zoning code which would heavily fine Bundists up to $250 a day if they continued their camp project.[26]           

More localized actions against the Bund continued.  In November 1937 in Hackensack, New Jersey, Judge J. Wallace Leyden declared in naturalization court that membership in the German American Bund was sufficient grounds to deny citizenship to a group of Germans.  The Bund took legal action and charged Leyden with discrimination against German-Americans.  Kuhn furnished a letter to the Departments of Justice, State and Labor, explaining that the Prospective Citizens League was a non-political division of the Bund.  Although comprised of German nationals, its members were all American residents who had already applied for and were awaiting their American citizenship.  Members in the Prospective Citizens League received instruction in English language, American history and the responsibilities of American citizenship.  They played no role in the political activities of the Bund.  Kuhn demanded justice for his comrades and an end to discrimination against German-Americans.  The Deutscher Weckruf und Beobachter attacked Leyden for giving communists American citizenship while barring good law-abiding Germans.  The Bund held a mass rally in Hackensack wherein speakers denounced Leyden, calling him a “nincompoop penny racial politician.”[27]

The Bund’s first major victory came on January 5, 1938 when U.S. Attorney General Cummings informed a press conference in Washington D.C. that the FBI investigation against the German American Bund yielded no results.  The Bund was found to be innocent of all charges of violating any federal law.  J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI reported that there was no evidence to warrant legal action against the Bund and the Justice department had no option but to dismiss all charges against the group.  Cleared of any federal wrongdoing, the Bund saw itself without credible enemies and was exalted with vindication. Kuhn and his Bundists were euphoric and they gloated over their victory.  Now, they believed, the United States would finally see them for what they really were; a patriotic communist-fighting organization.  The Bund took the opportunity to go on the offence and attack what it saw as a flagrant bias in the press against the Bund.[28]   The Bund newspaper gloated, “The Jews and their fellow schemers who have had a hand in this quixotic campaign of lying propaganda stand completely discredited…Discredited too are the newspapers who have encouraged the anti-German propaganda by scheming headlines and somber editorials.”[29]   

With their legal victory, the Bund dramatically increased its efforts to appeal to a wider American audience and win over more “like-minded” Americans to its cause. Bundists launched a major recruitment drive and expanded the circulation of their newspaper.  Articles exclaimed,

“You German Americans who as Americans realize that it is your duty to help outlaw Jewish international atheistic Communism in all its disguises…Join the German American Bund! An essential part of the movement of 100 million Aryan, white, gentile Americans fighting to reconstitute our country into a free, sovereign, God-Fearing, moral, socially just and national United States…”[30]  

 

Such efforts, however, produced modest results.  The vast majority of America continued to denounce the Bund’s hateful message and markedly un-American appearance. 

The Bund’s legal victory did not deter the efforts of its enemies.  In fact, with each legal victory, the attacks against the group intensified as Bund detractors found increasingly clever and circuitous ways of bringing down the organization.  For instance, in an effort to dismantle the OD, Congressman Hamilton Fish of New York introduced a bill in the House providing for measures to curb private armies.  On May 5, 1938, an official of the German Settlement League (a Bund corporation which owned Camp Siegfried) was arrested for violating a New York state law requiring oath-bound organizations to submit membership rosters to the New York Secretary of State.  Two days later, five other officials of the German Settlement League were subsequently arrested on the same charges.  The charges were brought by Roy P. Monohan, the New York Commander of Disabled War Veterans, who brought the complaint to the court after a six month investigation of the Bund.  The Bund argued that the charges were unwarranted because its members did not take an oath.  Bundists saw the untruthful accusations brought against them as yet another Jewish conspiracy to discredit the Bund.  In the end, all of the defendants were found not guilty.  Once again, Bundists charged the press with maintaining a biased campaign to demonize the Bund in the eyes of the American public.  They pointed out that while the press reported the arrests and the trial, they deliberately avoided reporting the outcome of the proceedings. 

In June 1938, leaders of Camp Siegfried were indicted on the basis of the action centered on a man named Willy Brandt who applied but was refused membership in the Bund.  The Bund believed he was an informant for Dickstein.  Brandt testified that he had indeed become a Bundist and that upon accepting membership, Bundists were required to take an oath of loyalty to Adolph Hitler.  The charge this time was that oath-bound organizations were illegal in New York.  At the trial, the defendants displayed ostentatiously defiant mannerisms and proudly flouted their anti-Semitism.  When one defendant was questioned about giving the Nazi salute he retorted that the salute would soon become the American greeting. All defendants were initially found guilty, fined $500 and sentenced to one year in jail.  However, an appellate court later reversed the decision.  Despite the string of legal vindications, the costs of legal fees needed to defend the Bund began to sap its financial resources.  The Deutscher Weckruf und Beobachter began printing advertisements seeking donations for a “fighting fund” to help defray the mounting legal fees which were financially crippling the organization.[31]

Another tenacious foe of the Bund was a private citizen, Julius Hochfelder, an attorney for the anti-Nazi German American League for Culture.  Hoping the bankrupt the organization and silence them once and for all, Hochfelder brought several charges against the Bund.  Hochfelder first charged that the Bund violated New York State law which required all membership organizations which were engaged in business of any kind to file a statement of purpose with the New York Secretary of State.[32] Since the Bund published a newspaper, Kuhn, as head of the organization, faced the charge.  Police were stationed outside the courtroom to prevent clashes between Bundists and anti-Nazi protesters.  Kuhn entered the courtroom where one hundred Bundists rose and gave the Nazi salute, shouting “Sieg Heil!”  During the proceedings, Kuhn repeated the usual proclamations about the Bund; its purpose was to fight communism, it had no affiliation with the German government and it was a law-abiding organization.  After six postponements, the case was dismissed.  But this did not deter Hochfelder who next asked Attorney General Cummings to bar the Deutscher Weckruf  und Beobachter from using the U.S. postal service pending an investigation to determine if it received instructions or funds from Germany.  He moved to bring legal action against the Bund and revoke Kuhn’s citizenship on the grounds that Kuhn and the members of the Bund allegedly wore the uniforms of a foreign government in public. Again, the court decided in favor of the Bund.  Bundists gloated over another victory.  They believed that this string of legal victories against Hochfelder lent even more weight to their pro-American loyalties and their vehement denials of subversive activity. 

In spite of the Bund’s legal victories, Dickstein and a host of government officials relentlessly pursued their campaign to destroy the Bund.[33]  On May 26, Representative Martin Dies of Texas argued for a Congressional resolution to start a new investigation on un-American activities by the German American Bund.  The resolution was vociferously supported by Dickstein.   Dies likened “American” organizations like the Bund to transparent “Trojan horses” aimed at subversion against America.  He would later write, “enemies within a country constitute a peril as great as any foe.  Treason from within, aided by invasion from without, has been responsible for the speed with which modern governments have collapsed in the face of totalitarian assaults.  Stalin and Hitler have pushed their Trojan horse tactics to the point of perfection…”[34] Dies was determined to stop all communist and fascist infiltration into America.  In the debate, Dies proclaimed that he had evidence of subversive activities taking place at Bund camps and that a speaker at the camps had called for the assassination of the American president.  The resolution passed and an investigative committee was appointed, but Dickstein was not selected as a member.  Moreover, on June 22, 1938, a New York state investigative committee chaired by state Senator John J. McNaboe opened hearings on the activities of the Bund in New York.  After three days of questioning, nothing new was ascertained.  The Bund once again simply continued to assert their patriotism and anti-communist crusade.   But the most significant investigation of the Bund came from the House of un-American Activities which opened in Washington DC on Aug 12, 1938.  At the HUAC sessions, Kuhn and other Bund leaders were grilled incessantly.  Again Kuhn cried harassment as the HUAC committee’s questions were often openly fraught with hostility and bias.[35]