In the News
In an interview with the Toronto Sun, B’nai B’rith CEO Dan Mariaschin discussed the chilling parallels between the German-American Bund and the current wave of anti-Semitism that has taken hold on North American campuses and streets in the wake of the horrific Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks.
Fritz Kuhn’s glorious dream was resplendent in Teutonic technicolour.
The German immigrant desperately wanted to be the fuhrer of the American branch plant of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany.
His conduit would be the German-American Bund, a “fellowship” spawned by the Nazis with a roster of tens of thousands pushing white Christian nationalism in the U.S. before the Second World War.
At its peak, the Bund had tens of thousands of members, and established youth camps for racist indoctrination with street names like “Adolf Hitler Strasse.”
The anti-Semitism espoused by this gang of thugs called for the erasure of Jewish life in America, slammed U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt as “Rosenfeld” and bitterly screamed about Jewish financiers and their control of Hollywood and the press.
“Mainly, the Bund was an apologist for Adolf Hitler and his vile genocidal policies,” B’nai Brith International CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin told The Toronto Sun. “And they were doing it on the streets of America.”
Mariaschin said there are chilling parallels between the Bund and the current wave of anti-Semitism that has taken hold on North American campuses and streets in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks that left 1,300 Israelis dead.
Current protests erupted even before Israel had fired a shot in anger. Now, fighting in Gaza has also killed thousands of Palestinians and the shrill sound of Jew-hatred is echoing loudly.
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Not long after Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, Friends of the New Germany was established in New York. Only Americans of German ancestry were allowed. Feeling growing heat, the group changed to the German-American Bund at a 1936 convention in Buffalo.
The leader — or Bundesfuhrer — would be Fritz Kuhn. Under Kuhn, the Bund proclaimed that George Washington was the “first fascist” and spread its vile tentacles across the country.
Jewish Americans by the mid-1930s knew the sickening undertaking Hitler and his thugs were embarking on in Europe — and now they were seeing it at home.
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“By 1939, people knew where Adolf Hitler stood in his views of the Jewish people, “Mariaschin said, adding that just like then, people are now “denying terror and genocidal acts” — though, currently in support of Hamas.
He added: “They are calling Hamas the ‘resistance.’”
The big night for the Bund came on Feb. 20, 1939, when more than 22,000 people packed New York’s Madison Square Garden for a Woodstock of hatred. Speaker after speaker slammed Roosevelt, the Jews, and anyone else who wasn’t white or Christian.
They called it an “Americanization meeting” with one speaker denouncing ” irresponsible attacks on Hitler and the German nation by dictatorial and narrow-minded bigots.”
Acting New York mayor Newbold Morris said Americans should “shun this assemblage as one would a pestilence.” Two hundred patriotic Jewish First World War veterans rioted.
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“There’s a clear analogy here … the tactics of bullying, the intimidation, street demonstrations, not peaceful, not a two-state solution. The encampments. People need to dig deeper. Who is organizing this and where is the money coming from?” Mariaschin said.
“In 1939, the money, the support and the organization was coming from Nazi Germany.”
Then, they wore swastikas, and militaristic uniforms and shouted “Heil Hitler.” Today it’s the keffiyeh, designer combat jackets, and accented with cries “from the river to the sea.” The point of both was — and is — to instill terror and fear into the non-compliant.
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As the storm clouds grew darker over Europe in early 1939, Americans were waking up to the idea that a war was coming and like it or not, the country would have a role in the fighting.
As the decade drew to a close, the Bund was riding high, and much the same as today, language was twisted.
“What the Bund was doing in terms of anti-Semitism in their 1930s way is similar to today in that they’re turning the tables on words and language,” he said. “It turns the victim into the victimized, now it’s Israel committing genocide, not Hamas … even when it’s there for all to see.
“The object is to eliminate Israel by any means. The same difference between then and now.”
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Following the 1939 rally, the FBI and the IRS closely watched the Bund as Americans grew increasingly nervous about the group. Fritz Kuhn’s dreams of a Nazi America were shattered when it was discovered he had pilfered $14,000 — about $315,000 today — from the group.
According to reports, the dough went to keep Kuhn’s clandestine frau in comfort, resulting in the New York Post headline: HOTSY TOTSY NAZI.
Kuhn was caged and deported to Germany after the war where he died in obscurity in 1951. Some Bund members were later executed as Nazi spies.
America was waking up.
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“The current situation, has been planned for a long time,” Mariaschin said. “They have a big demonstration in Washington, then it’s off to [weapons maker] Lockheed Martin, and the week concludes outside President Biden’s home in Delaware. Connect the dots.”
He added: “I hope Americans are repulsed by what things the protesters and their supporters are saying. And I think most people are tired of it.”
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During the past six months in Canada and the U.S., hate crimes have been unleashed on synagogues, Jewish schools and businesses. Tell-tale graffiti splatters the walls with blood-red paint. To the very old, this will sound familiar.
On Friday, Toronto Police reported that hate crimes were up a staggering 47% in 2023 with a bigger increase slated for 2024. More than half targeted Jews.
Meet the new Bund. Same as the old Bund.