History Unfolded: US Newspapers and the Holocaust

Headline: Bombing Threats Beset Bund Rally
Sub-Headline: N. Y. Police Prepare for Riot at Garden

Publication Date: Monday, February 20, 1939
Historical Event: American Nazis Rally in New York City
This database includes 1,208 articles about this event
Tags: Gannett full page downloadable; Public Responses in America; Racism and Antisemitism in America
Article Type: News Article
Newspaper: The Detroit Free Press
Location: Detroit, Michigan
Page Section and Number: 1
Author/Byline: Special to Free Press and Chicago Tribune
Article Text: NEW YORK, Feb. 19 — The most drastic police precautions in the history of Madison Square Garden were taken today after reports that three bombs, timed to explode while the German-American Bund rally was in progress there tomorrow night, either had been or would be planted inside the building.

A twenty-four-hour guard of 15 patrolmen and a sergeant was placed on duty at the Garden immediately. Detectives of the Bomb Squad combed the interior of the Garden and the Fire Department's Prevention Bureau made a thorough inspection.

Even more spectacular were the emergency orders issued in preparation for tomorrow night's Nazi meeting, at which at least 60,000 Fascists and anti-Fascists, climaxing a week of ominous threats, will meet within and outside the Garden in the presence of an unprecedented massing of 1,327 plain clothes men and uniformed foot and mounted police.

The jittery feeling produced by the bomb scare and the swelling roar of protests from anti-Fascists failed to shake the La Guardia City Administration's determination to permit even Fascists to exercise their constitutional right of free speech.

Councilmanic President Newbold Morris, acting mayor in La Guardia's absence from the city, on a speaking tour, insisted that the Bund's permit for the rally will not be canceled.
History Unfolded Contributor: Marlene K.
Location of Research: Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com)