American Nazi organization rally at Madison Square Garden, 1939

22,000 Nazi supporters are believed to have attended a German American Bund rally under police guard at Madison Square Garden in New York in February 1939. The protesters protested outside.

In addition to its praise for the achievements of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, the German American Bund program included anti-Semitism, strong anti-communist sentiments, and the demand that the United States remain neutral in the ensuing European conflict.

In May 1933, Nazi deputy Führer Rudolf Hess authorized German immigrant and German Nazi Party member Heinz Spanknobel to form an American Nazi organization.

Soon after, with the help of the German consul in New York City, Spanknobel merged two older organizations in the United States, the Gau-USA and the Free Society of Teutonia, to form the Friends of New Germany, both of which were smaller groups, with only a few . One hundred members each. FONG was based in New York but had a strong presence in Chicago.

The members wore a uniform for men, a white shirt and black trousers, with a black cap with a red emblem. The female members wore white blouses and black skirts.

The organization engaged itself in verbal attacks against Jews, communists and the Treaty of Versailles. By 1935 the organization was openly supported by the Third Reich, although Nazi officials soon realized that the organization was doing more harm than good in America, and in December 1935 Hess ordered that all German citizens be called Friends of New Germany. Leave these; Also, all the leaders of the group were recalled to Germany.

Shortly after the Friends of New Germany fell out of favor and destroyed the Nazis, a new organization with similar goals emerged in its place. The German American Bund or German American Federation was founded in 1936 to succeed Friends of New Germany (FONG), the new name being chosen to emphasize the group's American credentials after criticism from the press that the organization was non-governmental. He was a patriot. Only American citizens of German descent were involved in the dam. Its main goal was to promote a favorable view of Nazi Germany.

The Bund chose German-born American citizen Fritz Julius Kuhn as its leader (Bundesführer). Kuhn was a veteran of the Bavarian infantry during World War I and an Alter Kampfer (old fighter) of the Nazi Party who was granted US citizenship in 1934. Kuhn was initially effective as a leader and was able to unify the organization and expand its membership.

In February 1939, Kuhn and the Bund held their largest ever rally at Madison Square Garden - ironically, this marked the beginning of the end of the organization. In front of a crowd of 22,000, accompanied by a giant portrait of George Washington, a swastika and American flags, Kuhn attacked President Roosevelt for being part of a Bolshevik-Jewish conspiracy, calling him "Frank D. Rosenfeld" and calling his New Deal. . "Jewish Deal".

Three thousand members of the Bund's militant wing, the Ordnungsdienst, were on hand, and encounters broke out between those in the crowd who had come to besieged Kuhn.