Before the United States joined the Allies in Europe to beat Nazi Germany in World War II, the Nazi flag flew in parts of America, drawing stiff arm salutes and chants of “America first.”
“Nazi Town, USA” is the PBS American Experience documentary that tells the story of the German American Bund, a pro-Nazi group which in the 1930s had scores of chapters across the country, representing what many believe was a real threat of fascist subversion in the United States. They held joint rallies with the KKK and ran summer camps for children centered on Nazi ideology and imagery, melding patriotic values with virulent anti-Semitism.
The German American Bund, a pro-fascist, pro-Nazi organization, at its peak, had some 100,000 members in the United States.
The German American Bund ("bund" is German for “organization”), founded by German immigrant Fritz Kuhn in Buffalo in 1936, was created to promote pro-Nazi ideology within the United States. Kuhn and his cronies relied upon patriotic imagery such as George Washington and the American flag to attract Americans of German descent as members. However, as Kuhn himself said, the organization’s goals were to create a “socially just, white gentile-ruled United States” and a “gentile-controlled labor union free from Jewish Moscow-directed domination.”
Guest:
Peter Yost wrote and directed “Nazi Town, USA.”
"The Source" is a live call-in program airing Mondays through Thursdays from 12-1 p.m. Leave a message before the program at (210) 615-8982. During the live show, call 833-877-8255 or email thesource@tpr.org.
This interview will air on Wednesday, January 24, 2024.
