(Mirror.)
The campers consisted of boys and girls aged eight to 18, most of them the children or grandchildren of German immigrants.
The purpose of these camps, says Suffolk County Community College curator Steven Klipstein, was to keep the United States out of the looming European war and bring the Hitlerian idea of racial politics to America.
“Anti‐Semitism was at its absolute peak at this time,” he says. “Jews were excluded, beaten and on the defense. Suffolk County was at the center of right wing politics then.”
[…]
Not surprisingly, and given the fervor surrounding the [Fascist] movement, a number of German–Americans sought to promote this political sensibility, along with its attendant racism. Among these groups was the German American Bund, a grassroots organization that sought to position itself as an American arm of Hitler’s Third Reich even though it had no formal ties with Hitler or the Nazi régime.
A Bund parade in New York, October 30, 1939. At this point in history, Germany had already invaded Poland and war was declared in Europe. The U.S. would remain neutral for another two years. (Credit: Library of Congress)
The group was founded in March 1936 in Buffalo, New York. It chose a chemical engineer by the name of Fritz Kuhn to be its leader, or Bundesleiter. The American press soon chose a different title for Kuhn, however, addressing him as the “American Fuehrer.” Born in Munich, he fought for Germany in World War I and briefly worked in Mexico. He came to the United States in 1928 and became an official citizen in 1934.
Related: ‘Scenes from Camp Siegfried, a 1930s Nazi summer camp… in Long Island!’