History Unfolded: US Newspapers and the Holocaust

Headline: Fight Breaks Out At Bund Rally
Sub-Headline: Storm Troopers Beat Man Who Leaps To Stage After Kuhn Bitterly Raps jews

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 Palladium-Item and Sun-Telegram
Location: Richmond, Indiana
Page Section and Number: 1
Author/Byline: AP
Article Text: NEW YORK, Feb. 20.—(AP)—Fighting broke out tonight on the stage of Madison Square Garden at a mass meeting of the pro-Nazi German American bund.

A man later identified by police as Isidore Greenbaum, 26 years old, a hotel worker, jumped to the stage while National Bund Leader Fritz Kuhn was speaking and advanced toward Kuhn.

Uniformed "storm troopers" knocked him to the floor and beat him severely. City policemen leaped to the platform, pulling the victim from the storm troopers. His clothing in shreds, he was hustled by police from the Garden.

Incident Short-Lived
In scarcely more than a minute . the incident was over and Kuhn continued his speech almost immediately.

The fight was participated in by perhaps a dozen storm troopers, and at least an equal of police were used to break it up.

The extent of the victim's injuries could not immediately be determined, but he appeared conscious as the police, moving in a running wedge, lifted him above their heads and rushed out with him.

Although his trousers had been ripped off, Greenbaum did not appear seriously hurt. He was hustled to a near-by police station.

Arraigned later in night court, Greenbaum was held in $100 bail, which he could not meet immediately, on a disorderly conduct charge. The court also awaited 13 others arrested outside the hall, where street fighting continued after Kuhn concluded and the rally ended.

Jew Attack Started Fight
Kuhn had been bitterly attacking the Jews when the disturbance occurred.

The outbreak occurred in the presence of a crowd that packed the Garden. From the great throng shouts arose. But the audience generally kept to its places.

A few moments before, mounted police outside the Garden forcibly dispersed a lusty, quarrelsome crowd that waited near by for the end of the rally.

The crowds, shouting demands for their "right to picket," had made intermittent forays against the police lines. Six men had been arrested for disorderly conduct and several shop windows were smashed.

Chief Police Inspector Louis Costuma estimated 100,000 persons—including the idle curious and theatergoers—were packed around the area, isolated from the Garden itself by a shoulder-to-shoulder ring of 1,500 policemen. Police said 20,000 were inside the hall.

Entering the Garden beneath banners emblazoned with anti-Jewish slogans, the bund members assembled before a backdrop depicting George Washington—in whose honor the rally was called—standing between swastika emblems and star spangled banners.

Checked for Bombs
Twice before the doors opened, bomb squad detectives inspected
(STORM)
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History Unfolded Contributor: Linda O.
Location of Research: Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com)