History Unfolded: US Newspapers and the Holocaust

Headline: "Bunk!" Shouts Dorothy Thompson
Sub-Headline: "Storm Trooper" Rushes Her To Exit -- Broun To Rescue

Publication Date: Tuesday, February 21, 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 Burlington Free Press
Location: Burlington, Vermont
Page Section and Number: 1
Author/Byline: AP
Article Text: NEW YORK, Feb. 20. (AP)— Dorothy Thompson, columnist for the New York Herald Tribune and other newspapers and a critic of Fascism, was rushed toward an exit from Madison Square Garden tonight during a mass meeting of the pro-Nazi German-American Bund.

Those who took her to the lobby exit were identified as a bund "storm trooper" and two policemen.

Rescued By Heywood Broun
To her rescue went Heywood Broun, another anti-Fascist columnist whose social and political theories, however, are widely at variance with Miss Thompson's.

Broun escorted her back to the press box, where a dozen of the bund's uniformed "storm troopers" lined up behind her.

The Herald Tribune was advised that Miss Thompson was escorted out of the arena by police after she gibed at a speaker's remarks, but was allowed to return when she pointed out her laughter was "part of the right of free speech."

After her return she cried "bunk !" at one point in a speech by G. W. Kunze, the bund's national publicity director. Meanwhile, the storm troopers at her back were replaced by police, but she left the garden a few minutes later.

Reporters near Miss Thompson said the incident was precipitated by her words: "Bunk, bunk, bunk, nonsense, nonsense, 'Mein Kampf' (Hitler's book) word or word."

Object to Her Laughter
Two bund members objected to her laughter and remarks and she was taken out by a police squad.

Miss Thompson is the wife of Sinclair Lewis, author of the book "It Can't Happen Here."

Upon leaving, she was closely guarded by a police detachment. She explained she was merely en route to a meeting of the Phi Beta Kappa where she was honor guest and that she wanted to test the right of free speech at a Bund rally.

Saw Same Thing In Germany
"You see," she said. " I like to see what goes on in the city I live in. I was amazed to see a duplicate of what I saw seven years ago in Germany. Tonight I listened to words taken out of the mouth of Adolf Hitler.

"I wanted to make a demonstration. Not a large demonstration or a noisy one. This meeting evidently has nothing to do with free speech. I just laughed. Not a loud laugh but a soft one It is not the rule of assembly in this country that a person in the audience must applaud everything."
History Unfolded Contributor: Ashley O.
Location of Research: Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com)