Investigation of Un-American Propaganda Activities in the United States: Appendix, Part IV: German-American Bund: Three Documents on the German-American Bund
by Special Committee on Un-American Activities
House of Representatives
Seventy-Seventh Congress
First Session
on
H. Res. 282
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INVESTIGATION OF UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES IN THE UNITED STATES
SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SEVENTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
ON
H. Res. 282
TO INVESTIGATE (1) THE EXTENT, CHARACTER, AND OBJECTS OF UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES IN THE UNITED STATES, (2) THE DIFFUSION WITHIN THE UNITED STATES OF SUBVERSIVE AND UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA THAT IS INSTIGATED FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES OR OF A DOMESTIC ORIGIN AND ATTACKS THE PRINCIPLE OF THE FORM OF GOVERNMENT AS GUARANTEED BY OUR CONSTITUTION, AND (3) ALL OTHER QUESTIONS IN RELATION THERETO THAT WOULD AID CONGRESS IN ANY NECESSARY REMEDIAL LEGISLATION
APPENDIX— PART IV
GERMAN-AMERICAN BUND
Printed for the use of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities
MAR 27 1944
SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES
WASHINGTON, D. C.
MARTIN DIES, Texas, Chairman
JOE STARNES, Alabama
NOAH M. MASON, Illinois
JERRY VOORHIS, California
J. PARNELL THOMAS, New Jersey
JOSEPH E. CASEY, Massachusetts
HARRY P. BEAM, Illinois
Robert E. Stripling, Secretary and Chief Investigator
J. B. Matthews, Director of Research
THREE DOCUMENTS OF THE GERMAN-AMERICAN BUND
I. Source or the Documents
The three documents, whose originals form a part of the exhibits submitted herewith, were obtained by duly constituted authorities from the personal effects of G. Wilhelm Kunze, Bundesfuhrer of the German-American Bund. The committee has satisfied itself concerning the authenticity of the documents.
G. Wilhelm Kunze was named Bundesfuhrer of the German-American Bund after Fritz Kuhn, the former Bundesfuhrer, was committed to prison in the State of New York.
II. The Three Documents
The three documents which are presented in this report speak for themselves. The following observations concerning them are, however, in order at this point:
(1) They attest the ruthless efficiency of the military set-up which characterizes Hitler's machine in Germany.
(2) The discipline to which members of the German-American Bund are subject is clearly reflected in the endless rules and regulations which extend to the minute details of the Bund members' lives. The documents speak of "absolute loyalty" and "blind obedience." Document #3 says of the OD Platoon Leader: "He will never complain of his superiors before his comrades, but will display the absolute loyalty and correct behavior which he expects from his men. The blind obedience that will be absolutely necessary in serious situations can be provided only if the Platoon represents a true association of comrades which feels respect for and confidence in its leader" (p. 1608).
(3) The German-American Bund organization clearly anticipates violence by its assertion that "the OD man gives assurance that our movement will, at the sacrifice of life if necessary, remain the inexorable opponents of Jewish Marxism * * *" (p. 1611).
(4) The German-American Bund extols the "fanaticism" which has characterized Hitler and his movement in Germany. According to Document #3, "anyone who is not filled with this unshakable faith and courage and cannot march along as a fanatical fighter does not belong in the OD; to have embraced the National Socialist view of things means definitively breaking off all ties with liberal halfway measures" (p. 1611). This is a clear espousal of the totalitarian, as opposed to the democratic, way of life.
(5) The following quotations indicate something of the religious bigotry of the Germany-American Bund: "All OD men and OD Leaders in particular are required to procure a certificate of Aryan blood" (p. 1610). "We are looking for men who enter our organization not in order to procure personal advantages or to be allowed to play soldier pleasantly, but who intend with their whole power to eradicate the red Jewish pestilence in America" (p. 1611).
We refuse to permit the effort of Communist, Fascist, and other totalitarian-minded groups to pervert this powerful medium into an instrument for the dissemination of un-American ideas and beliefs. We pledge ourselves to fight, with every means at our organized command, any effort of any group or individual, to divert the loyalty of the screen from the free America that give it birth.
-- Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, by Wikipedia
(6) The German-American Bund aims at the establishment of a new kind of government in the United States, one which incorporates the principle of Nazi religious bigotry. According to Document #2, "the duty of the Bund Fuhrer is to maintain and develop the AV by every adjustment to the temporary requirements of the times as the defensive and offensive movement of the national consciousness of American Germanism dedicated philosophically (Weltanschaulich), national-socialistically, and politically to the service of an actually independent, aryan-governed United States of North America" (p. 1552).
(7) Document #1 reveals the keeping of systematic records on "enemies" of the German-American Bund. "Record cards containing personal information about friends, enemies, merchants, politicians, association officers, and similar whom we should know are to be made out in duplicate exactly as are those for members, patrons, and Youth Command members, and submitted monthly; one card is to be retained by the Unit or Branch Directorate; the other is to be sent to the National Executive Committee" (p. 1491). "Yellow cards bearing the letter 'F' are intended for enemies. Where they are German a 'D' is to be inserted at the top. They are not to be used for Jews. Light blue cards bearing the letter 'J' are for Jews" (p. 1492). Hitler explained to Rauschning his system of keeping just such a card file on "friends" and "enemies."
(8) Document #1 specifies the manner in which a meeting of the Bund shall be closed, as follows: "To a free, Gentile-ruled United States and to our fighting movement of awakened Aryan Americans, a three-fold rousing 'Free America! Free America! Free America!" (p. 1495).
(9) The documents reveal the principle of secrecy practised in the Bund, as follows: "All names and addresses of Bund members and officers must be kept confidential and must not be divulged to anyone " (p. 1490). "Names and descriptions of those available for work in the block, the block leader commits to memory, but he is bound upon his honor not to betray any member's name or description to the public" (p. 1560). "Patrons may be admitted also under 'cover' names and 'cover' addresses (fictitious)" (p. 1581).
(10) These documents betray an assumption regarding the status of Americans of German descent which the committee finds wholly false. Document #2 declares: "We owe to ourselves, our ancestors, and our descendants, the right to be a free people, and not the despised spit-upon menials of inferior despots (dictators) who deserve still to be cursed by our children" (p. 1582). While the committee has failed to find any shred of evidence that Americans of German descent are subjected to the kind of discrimination implied in this statement, it is of the opinion that the very spirit of the German-American Bund is calculated to breed the discrimination against which it pretends to fight.
(11) Many passages in these documents betray the existence of a close political and ideological tie between the German-American Bund and Hitler's movement in Germany. For example, Document #1 specifies: "Closing song at 'Horst-Wessel' memorials and other memorials in honor of the fallen of the Hitler-Movement: All four stanzas of the 'Horst-Wessel' song (salute during last stanza)" (p. 1500). Provision is made for the celebration of the birthday of Adolf Hitler (p. 1499). "When a representative of the Reich speaks at a celebration, the German national anthem is to be played immediately after his address" (p. 1496). Speaking of the regulations contained in Document #2, it is stated that "they are the result of the serious study not only of the experiences of our Bund and its predecessors, but also of the experiences of the old home under the leadership (Fuhrung) of the greatest German of all times" (p. 1583). This is a frank acknowledgement of the source of much of the German-American Bund's set-up in Hitler's movement in Germany.
III. Investigation of the Bund
From the very beginning of its existence, the Special Committee on Un-American Activities has made the German-American Bund one of the subjects of its investigation. The first witness heard by the committee in the summer of 1938 testified at length on the nature and activities of this organization. Since that time, more than a score of witnesses have added to the evidence which the committee has assembled with a view to determining the character and activities of the Bund.
On the basis of the voluminous testimony which the committee has heard, the conclusion has been reached that the German-American Bund is an un-American organization engaged in promulgating the ideology and attempting to further the interests of nazi-ism in the United States. That conclusion is reinforced by the original documents which form a part of the exhibits in this report.
In order that a complete picture of the German-American Bund may be presented at this time, the previous findings of the committee are included in this report.
In its report to the House of Representatives at the beginning of 1939, the committee made the following resume of evidence which had been placed before it:
In its investigation of Nazi and Fascist activities in the United States, this committee, recognizing the splendid work done by the McCormack Committee, which made its report to Congress on February 15, 1935, has started where that group left off.
The so-called McCormack Committee investigated and traced the Nazi movement in the United States from the days when Kurt Georg Wilhelm Luedecke became their first real representative here on through the various steps taken until we come to the creation of the the German-American Bund.
The German-American Bund had as its predecessors the "Teutonia Society" and "The Friends of the New Germany."
This committee had divided its Nazi and Fascist investigation into a number of subtitles which we classify as follows: Storm troops, correspondence and records, youth movement, consular aid, funds and propaganda, guns, rifle ranges, etc., Nazi-Fascist merger, German Bund, Italian Black Shirts, Un-American organizations.
It was definitely shown that the Nazi activities in the United States have their counterpart in everything that has been and is being done by similar movements of Nazi minorities in Mexico, South America, and Europe.
These Nazi activities in the United States are traceable to and linked with Government-controlled agencies in Nazi Germany, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that unless checked immediately an American-Nazi force may cause great unrest and serious repercussions in the United States.
At this point it should be made distinctly clear that the Nazi ranks in the United States are not really German-Americans but rather American-Germans. In other words, they consider themselves the identical type of minority as the Polish-German minority in Poland, the Austrian-German minority which recently brought about the annexation of Austria, or the Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia (vol. 2, p. 1108).
As an indication of the thoroughness with which this Nazi minority has been operating in this country through its connections with Germany, evidence was introduced showing that the official newspaper of the German-American Bund has had advance information on what was about to transpire in Germany and gave every evidence of intimate knowledge of events to come.
This committee heard testimony showing that the use of storm troops, the youth movement, the training and drilling, the consular aid — in fact all of the Nazi activities here are on lines identical with those used abroad.
There are approximately 80 Bund posts in the United States. There are no positive or definite figures of the membership although it can be stated that there are approximately 25,000 active members in the German-American Bund. The fact has also been established that some 100,000 persons are willing to be seen at the public manifestations of the Bund.*
STORM TROOPS
From this membership, the German-American Bund can muster within its own ranks a uniformed force of 5,000 storm troops and it was testified that in time of necessity this force could be augmented with "strong-arm" detachments of allied groups, such as Italian Black Shirts, Silver Shirts, Ukrainians, White Russians, and similar organizations (vol. 2, p. 1110).
Repeatedly it has been asserted that the storm-troop division of the Bund is nothing more than a force of ushers for public meetings. The fact is that this storm-troop division of the Bund is patterned after the Hitler storm troops and its members are the political soldiers of a Hitler-inspired movement in the United States. A witness testified that from the manpower of this force the Bund, working hand in hand with the German Government, can draft men for a sabotage, machine and spy net.
Despite assertions by the heads of the German-American Bund that there are no German citizens in the storm-troop ranks, evidence presented before this committee clearly shows that members of that organization in all parts of the United States have privately admitted that they are not American citizens but are German citizens and in many cases have boasted that they never intend to become American citizens.
* Subsequent investigations revealed that there were 100,000 members and supporters of the Bund.
This committee has failed to find any reason for the existence of such storm-troop groups, but there is no Federal statute to prevent their formation and activities.
A witness testified that Herman Schwarzmann, leader of the Astoria, Long Island, post, read a book of German Army instructions to his storm troops, explaining it as follows:
I am reading this to you not so much because I want you to know what my duties are, but because some day all of you may be fuehrers of your own groups. You can reach these heights if you work hard and come to thoroughly understand the problems before us. Every storm trooper should look forward to the day when he may become a fuehrer himself. He must know how to handle people, he must understand people, he must be able to lead and teach them.
I tell you that exactly what happened some years ago is happening now in this country. In Germany the people finally rose up in resentment. This will happen here. It is inevitable. When that day comes, and it is probably not far off, we must be prepared to fight for the right kind of government. We must win the masses to our side. There will be bloodshed and fighting. We shall have to do our part.
No one knows where we shall have to go — New Jersey, New York, or some other part of the country, or what we may be called upon to do. When that time comes every man must be thoroughly trained to assume his responsibility. The important duties, of course, will fall upon the shoulders of our membership. (Implying the storm-troop membership.)
You may think I am just dreaming or talking in the clouds. But I tell you I know what I'm talking about. This trouble will come probably sooner than you think. It has to come, judging from the trends of the Nation.
When we understand how Germans handled their situation in Germany we shall know how to handle the difficulty which will arise in America. In all likelihood the day of trouble will come — Der Tag — with a financial crisis in Washington. Then will be the time to wipe out our enemies.
Remember we are still Germans, for blood is stronger than paper, even though we are also American citizens. And as American citizens we have the same rights as any other citizen. But our rights have not been observed. The storm troops are not even permitted to march on the streets. The controlled press will not print our side of the story. Some day that will be changed, for some day we shall demand our rights.
It was testified before the committee that although the Nazis in this country claim to follow democratic ideas in electing their officers in reality the elections were conducted along the lines of recent European plebiscites where everything is under such control that no one dares vote against the machine (vol. 2, p. 1113).
Another indication of the close connection between the German-American Bund and the Fatherland is to be found in the evidence showing that crews of German warships have been entertained by the storm troops of the Bund. German World War veterans are active in storm-troop ranks and help train and drill the men.
Many Bund storm troopers are constantly urged to make and have made trips to Germany, returning with great quantities of Nazi propaganda material (vol. 2, p. 1114).
Members of the Nazi groups have been found to be working in some of the great aviation manufacturing companies of the United States. They were found working in the United States Navy shipyards where they had succeeded in securing positions which placed them in direct possession of secret plans for the construction of United States Navy battleships of the latest type. They have even been assigned to trial runs on the latest type of these ships (vol. 2, p. 1115).
This committee also learned that as the result of its recent national convention in New York — the one held in September 1938 — the German-American Bund is planning to create a strictly American division in conjunction with the bund. First steps in this direction have already been taken by the high command of the German-American Bund. If this plan is carried out, a merger of a number of minor subversive forces in this country may be expected under the swastika leadership of Fritz Kuhn and the German-American Bund.
CORRESPONDENCE AND RECORDS
The investigation of this committee into Nazi activities was seriously hampered and handicapped because as soon as the resolution creating the committee had been adopted by the Congress, officials of the German-American Bund issued an order to their posts throughout the country to destroy all their records.
Dr. Otto Willumeit, 4344 North Sheridan Road, Chicago, Ill., in a sworn statement made on July 15, 1938, said:
I became an American citizen in 1932 at Hammond, Ind. Shortly after taking over the leadership of the local chapter, I received a letter from Fritz Kuhn, of New York. I carried this letter with me for about a month and recently tore it up as I did not believe it was important. This letter, although I do not remember the exact wording, advised me that in view of the coming congressional investigation of the bund, Mr. Kuhn deemed it advisable for me to destroy all correspondence between the local bund and Germany. He further pointed out that no matter how harmless it may be, the letters could be interpreted in a different light (vol. 1, p. 42).
Another affidavit, part of the proof that Fritz Kuhn, head of the German-American Bund, had ordered records of that organization destroyed, was made by George Froboese, who resides at 3227 North Second Street, Milwaukee, Wis., and who is the leader of the middle west district of the bund. He stated:
I have been asked by Mr. Kuhn to destroy such private letters as may be interpreted as being inconsistent with the proper behavior of an American citizen (vol. 2, p. 1144).
However, the investigator for the committee was able to secure possession of 25 letters which constituted correspondence between the Chicago Bund post and Nazi Germany (vol. 1, pp. 29 through 40).
In this correspondence it was definitely shown that the Foreign Institute of the Nazi Government at Stuttgart was one of the instrumentalities used in assisting the German-American Bund in spreading propaganda in this country. One of the letters (vol. 1, p. 31) proves conclusively a Nazi Government plan to take American children on vacations to Germany and the letter states that "properly handled, this can be of the utmost importance for the development of foreign connections."
And another quotation from the same letter —
Friendships cannot be made early enough. Youth is especially susceptible at this period. The impressions of a youth in a foreign country influence hundreds of his comrades on his return.
Other correspondence definitely indicates that German consulates in the United States have been the clearing houses for much of the Nazi activity here (vol. 1, p. 38).
Throughout this entire correspondence there is definite evidence and proof that the groups operated in this country are directed by organizations in Germany which get their support and direction from the German Government itself. Despite this connection, none of these groups in this country have registered with the Secretary of State in accordance with the foreign propaganda law which became effective September 8, 1938.
In fact, the Foreign Institute at Stuttgart is being conducted by one Fritz Gissibl, a former leader of the Nazi group in this country and whose brother even now is a member and leader of the Nazi group in Chicago.
Photographs placed in evidence before the committee, properly identified, show a number of German consuls in this country taking an active part in the affairs of the German-American Bund and particularly in the Nazi festivities arranged at a number of camps throughout the United States (vol. 2, p. 1122).
YOUTH MOVEMENT
Some German-American children are being Hitlerized by the leaders of the German-American Bund, despite the fact that under the American law every child born in this country is an American citizen.
The evidence thus far heard indicates that every effort is being expended by the bund's high command to instill in these boys and girls, most of whom have never even been outside the United States, the doctrines of racial and religious hatreds preached under the pagan German kultur (vol. 2, p. 1123).
American ideals and principles of democracy are boldly shoved into the background and a worship of Hitlerism is inculcated in these youthful unsuspecting minds. Although the committee's investigator frequently visited Nazi camps in various parts of the country, he testified that never once was there an occasion where he saw these nazified children led to a Christian religious service in a youth camp.
Health, Hitler, Heils, and Hatred are the "4-H's" used by United States Nazis to prevent Americanization of children whose parents are members of the German-American Bund.
In the coming years all the unity and all the efforts will be required in order to put a stop to the former crippling by the Americanization of their young —
declares the bund yearbook, reprinted from the German magazine Deutsche Arbeit, in referring to children of Germany who have emigrated to America.
Hence —
the yearbook states, after pointing out that Germany's youth movement at home must confine itself to German children still in the Fatherland —
the youth groups of the German-American Bund are a real achievement for Germany.
In forwarding this program, childish voices ring out in a crescendo of "Heil Hitlers" in German-American camps throughout the Nation.
These American boys and girls sing hymns to Der Fuehrer and to the Fatherland they never have seen.
"Our youth are the lifeline of our movement," leaders repeatedly insist. "We may be gone soon and the youth must carry on our fight. * * *."
Under the guise of health, some German-American children are being trained and marched away from the democratic traditions of America.
They must learn to speak fluent German and to understand the Nazi ideology. They listen to lectures on the Hitler philosophy and the policies of the Third Reich.
In its youth movement, as in the parent organization, the bund professes a defense of the United States Constitution and "true Americanism." But the camps are completely Nazi Germany. The United States is forgotten except for an occasional display of American flags. The swastika of Germany is the important flag to the boy and girl scouts. "Old Glory" is of secondary importance (vol. 2, p. 1124).
The scouts eat, sleep, talk, and dream nazi-ism with the same fervor of the regimented youth of Germany. They are taught to avoid outside "contaminating influences." American history, according to testimony before the committee, is revised in public addresses for them to show that this country has been saved from destruction only through the influence of German-Americans.
Just as in Germany, the youth movement is divided into three sections — the Jungenschaft (boys); the Maedchenschaft (girls), and the Jungvolk (smaller children too young to join other groups).
Youngsters are thrust into the Jungvolk organization when only 5 and 6 years old. They wear uniforms of brown and blue shorts or skirts, white blouses with Hitler-brown scarfs. Older boys wear brown shirts with Sam Browne belts, military trousers and boots, and are armed with long hunting knives and spears.
Youths graduate into the "Ordnungs Dienst," the storm-troop organization of the bund, and are trained mentally and physically to lead the troops when the often predicted "trouble" comes. Scouts are told they must be prepared to withstand the onrush of the coming "red" revolution.
From their elders, scouts learn to be suspicious of strangers. They will not discuss the bund unless they know the listener is sympathetic. The investigator for the committee testified that he entered Turner Hall at Eighty-fifth Street and Lexington Avenue in the Yorkville German section of New York City, where the bund holds many of its meetings, and asked a young scout fuehrer where the bund headquarters were situated.
"Bund?" the youth asked in pretended ignorance. "I don't know anything about the bund."
Investigation by this investigator disclosed that beyond the door he was guarding a group of boys and girls [who] were attending one of the "Bundes-Redner-Schule." A propaganda film showing the delights of new Germany was part of the day's instruction.
Landesjugendfuehrer (national youth leader) is Theodore Dinkelacker, 9238 Lamont Avenue, Elmhurst, Long Island. Under 30, Dinkelacker devotes all of his time to drilling and teaching potential national socialists. He leads them in parades behind the storm troops at summer festivals and in the city drill halls of the bund during the winter.
Our youth love the fight—
Dinkelacker explained to a witness.
They are mostly sons and daughters of old fighters and thus they will not permit the fighting spirit of the bund to die out.
National socialism is a world-wide philosophy of strength. We teach our youth along these lines so that they may take the right road in life. We instill in them pride of German nationality and race. We insist on order and discipline to build character and a broad athletic program to build the body.
Youth builds are proud of being the future of "the only fighting organization in German-America" Dinkelacker says according to testimony before the committee, and "will always look down with contempt upon those who avoid the battle, who gather in little groups and clubs in order, when they reach manhood, to change into rabbit-breeding societies or bowling clubs" (vol. 2, p. 1125).
All boys and girls —
he continued, according to this same testimony —
have the obligation to keep themselves strong and healthy for their German race; healthy in order to transmit as a link in an unending chain the heritage of our ancestors to the coming generation; strong in order to ward off every attack against the German race; politically and economically.
The bund youth group "does not only have the purpose to breed a new generation, as certain malicious tongues assert," Dinkelacker explained, according to the testimony of a witness before the committee.
We wish to train the young to become useful members of the German racial community. We wish to train our youth groups to such an extent that by observation we may be able to pick out talented boys and girls, support them in their education, and thus create the possibility that the most capable be placed at the head, for the benefit not only of the German element but of the entire Nation.
Camp Hindenburg, near Grafton, Wis., 18 miles north of Milwaukee, is the "summer home" of Chicago and Milwaukee scouts. The camp is in its third year. There was also testimony that two signs, one in blue and one in red, point the way to the camp down a gravel road from U. S. Highway 141. The signs are lettered merely "A. V." The camp itself is set in the valley surrounded by wooded hills with the Milwaukee River providing swimming facilities on the west side of the tract. There is a parking lot for autos through which one must pass before entering the camp proper. The camp and lot are separated by a wire fence with a single pole carrying a sign "Private property."
Unlike the eastern camps, there are no elaborate permanent buildings at Camp Hindenburg. The Kaffee Kucha (coffee kitchen) and beer stand are housed in small wooden structures. Tents are set in a circle. In the center is a tall flagpole from which are flown the American flag and the Jungenschaft flag — a white streak of lightning or half swastika on a black background. Regulation German swastika flags are displayed on special occasions.
About 80 boys from Chicago and Milwaukee gave up the tents on August 1, after a 2- week stay at the camp, and about 100 girls moved in. The boys and girls marched behind a military band of German World War veterans to the flagpole for a ceremony, during which the boys' flag was replaced by that of the girls' organization.
Uniforms worn by the Chicago and Milwaukee boys include a wide brown belt with a silver buckle bearing a swastika and the legend "Blut and Ehre" (blood and honor). One boy displaced a hunting knife which had a similar inscription on the blade.
Chicago boys and girls when not in camp meet once a week or oftener at the Bundesheim (bund home) at 3853 North Western Avenue and at the south side headquarters at 605 West Sixtieth Street. They also attend the Theodore Koerner Schule, operated at the north side home.
The American Nazi youth movement is much stronger in the East and Middle West than in the Far West.
According to one witness, the west coast bund members enthusiastically welcomed Erich Barischoff, member of the Brooklyn, N. ., Jungenschaft, who appeared at Deutsches Hans, Los Angeles headquarters, August 1, after a 24-day hike across the country. Erich was en route to the Dutch East Indies and thence to Germany to visit relatives. According to testimony before the committee he had nothing but scorn for the American Boy Scouts (vol. 2, p. 1126).
They're sissies —
he exclaimed.
They don't know what hardships are like. They take little walks while we travel hundreds of miles. There is no comparison between the American Boy Scouts and the Jungenschaft. The Americans are babies alongside of us.
The Philadelphia youth encampment is part of the bund layout of the Deutschorst Country Club, near Croydon, Pa. Forty boys and 25 girls live in tents and in an old mansion, which had been used at one time as a speakeasy and later as a home for wayward girls before the bund leased it 4 years ago, according to testimony before the committee. The owner offered to sell the property to the bund for $12,000 4 years ago but boosted his price to $18,000 last summer just before the lease expired.
A Philadelphia storm trooper in a conversation with his fuehrer, G. W. Kunze, on July 25, revealed "how we fooled those newspapermen." A reporter and photographer of the Philadelphia Record spent several hours at the camp that day.
They didn't see a thing and got only a lot of pictures that don't mean anything —
the trooper explained.
The funniest thing happened when they went to the youth camp. All they saw was the boys and their tents with a little American flag on the staff. They didn't get to see our flag.
The trooper indicated the swastika had been removed purposely for the day in anticipation of newspaper photographers.
Efdende camp, 9 miles north of Pontiac, Mich., serves the Detroit post. It does not compare in size or in buildings and improvements with the eastern camps. Entrance is down a side road off United States Highway 10 at the Springfield Gladiola Farms. A small sign reads "Summer Camp A. V." Detroit members are cautious about displaying swastikas or other Hitler emblems at their camp.
A small frame building houses a kitchen and bar near the lake shore while headquarters for the Jungenschaft is beyond an athletic field. About 20 girls and 30 boys are accommodated in separate units of a one-story building.
The most elaborate of the bund's camps are Siegfried, near Yaphank, Long Island, and Nordland, near Andover, N. J. It was at a youth celebration at Camp Siegfried on July 11, that National Leader Fritz Kuhn, according to testimony, said:
The youth of our great bund are the hope, the life line of our organization. Through them we must live into the future. It is, therefore, necessary that we must stand united behind them, educate them and raise them to manhood and womanhood with our ideals embedded in their hearts. We must fight together for their freedom.
We must work to win over the youth of all German-Americans and some day when our labor has reaped its reward we shall hear fine and strong German-American youths come marching from the east and west, from the south and north— marching onward to build a greater nation.
When "Achtung!" (Attention) rings out over the loudspeaker system in the eastern camps, scouts as well as storm troopers hurry to attention. If it is Sunday morning at Camp Siegfried, boys and girls form into separate ranks and prepare to greet storm troopers and other bund members arriving from New York on a special train.
Some of the scouts march behind the German swastika and the American flag to the railroad station 2 miles away through Yaphank. They line up at attention beside the track and, as the train pulls in, their arms are outstretched in a Hitler salute to the arriving guests.
With a band blaring a stirring German march, the scouts and guests — 500 or more strong — march back through the village to the camp where another contingent of scouts is at attention "heiling" the arriving storm troops.
At Siegfried and at other eastern bund camps, separate tent encampments for boys and girls are set back in the woods, away from the main building and cottages where their parents drink beer and dance. Sentries stand guard at entrances to the rows of tents. Visitors — even parents of the scouts — are not permitted in the youth camps proper. Scouts on duty in the camps must come to the entrances to visit with their parents. If not on duty, they are permitted to roam through the entire camp layout at will.
A German steel helmet and a long lance are part of the equipment of the guard at the entrance to the boys' camp at Siegfried. The lance and helmet are passed along to each boy as he takes up sentry duty. Commands and conversations among the scouts are entirely in German, but they politely answer questions in English (vol. 2, p. 1127).
Discipline is rigid. Some scouts are assigned to duty at soft-drink stands in camp on Sunday. Others carry water to perspiring troopers.
German-Americans can send their children to the camp for from $3.50 to $5 a week. If their parents have the money, the children remain in camp all summer and enjoy a theoretical 3-month trip to Germany.
Camps are supported partly from contributions. Otto Arndt, one of the most active of the New York area storm troops, according to testimony, said his contributions to the Jungenschaft amounted to $25,000 during a year.
A collection was taken up for the Jungenschaft at the end of a night boat trip up the Hudson which outwardly had no connection with the bund, but which was sponsored by the Steneck travel bureau.
The youth camp at Siegfried is a half mile around a lake from the main camp building. A two-story stucco building, adaptable for winter use, serves as headquarters. Tents are pitched on wooden foundations back in the woods. At Camp Nordland, set in the wooded hills of Sussex County, N. J., the tents are in one end of the 100-acre tract.
Heels click together and the right arm goes out in a Hitler salute when a scout, boy or girl, is addressed by a youth leader or any storm trooper in uniform.
Singing forms an important part of the camp training. Both boys and girls are divided into older and younger groups and learn numerous songs in praise of Hitler and the new Germany. The boys also have a fife, bugle, and drum corps, members of which are equipped with red and white epaulets.
As part of their training for "true Americanism," scouts sing "Heute Hoert Uns Deutschland — Morgen Die Ganze Welt!" (Today Germany hears us, tomorrow the whole world) and "We are the friends of the New Germany" (vol. 2, p. 1128).
They join enthusiastically in singing "Deutschland Ueber Alles" and the "Horst Wessel," the Hitler national anthem, but have a difficult time remembering "The Star-Spangled Banner."
Girl scouts are trained in the folk dances of Germany and perform at the various bund functions.
For some of the smaller girls, camp life brings the ordeal of living away from their parents for the first time.
How quickly a German-American boy can become a part of the Hitler youth program was explained to a witness who appeared before the committee, by a woman bund member. She said, according to this witness, her youthful cousin scorned the camp idea at first, but after one visit came home singing Nazi songs and remarked that the German scouts were "real kameraden." After another visit, he became a member. Today, at 19, he is a fuehrer and has learned to speak German.
"His older brother", she said, "who is in the United States Navy, makes fun of the boy's scout uniform and his Hitler salute. But we tell him not to mind, the older brother will learn the truth before long and realize he too must join the new Germany."
The bund also maintains camps near Buffalo, Schenectady, Cleveland, Los Angeles, San Diego, Oakland, Calif., Spokane, Seattle, Portland, Oreg., and at St. Louis.
All bund leaders — from Fuehrer Fritz Kuhn down to minor leaders in local posts — recognize the importance of the youth movement, but none more than Carl (Papa) Nicolay, South Brooklyn leader and national speaker since the inception of the organization.
Nicolay, who is nearing 60, is the most enthusiastic and most verbose of the bund speakers.
Nicolay wrote of the wonders of Germany under Hitler:
The gradual education away from shallow internationalism and the often but not too obvious meaninglessness of its decadent liberalism and democracy * * * to sound and rational nationalism, which in its very desire for the strength of its own country and people, will not only tolerate but look to similar national strength in others, but make for real peace, therefore, instead of war.
He wrote of the joy of Hitler youth but did not mention the signs over Nazi youth camps: "You were born to die for Germany."
In Germany, all young people are forced by the state youth laws to become members of the Hitler Youth or the League of German Girls and undergo national socialist schooling. American children of bund members "love the fight" in the words of the national leader, Theodor Dinkelacker, and don't need a law to force them into the regimented organization.