History Unfolded: US Newspapers and the Holocaust

Headline: Uniformed 'Storm Troopers' March Down Aisles - 20,000 'Nazis' Rally In N.Y.
Sub-Headline: Man Is Beaten After Threat To Bund Chief

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 Des Moines Register
Location: Des Moines, Iowa
Page Section and Number: 1
Author/Byline: AP
Article Text: Miss Thompson 'Escorted Out'.
Wirephotos on Page 11.

NEW YORK, N.Y. (AP)—While 1,500 police fought off lusty anti-Nazi throngs in the streets, the German American bund massed its forces Monday night in an anti-Jewish, anti-Communist rally that filled Madi- son Square Garden and resulted in the beating of one man by uniformed "storm troopers."

WIREPHOTO © (AP)
KUHN.

Police estimated that 100,000 persons, including idlers and theatergoers, were jammed outside the sports arena. A solid ring of shoulder-to-shoulder foot and mounted police kept the crowd from rushing the building.

An estimated 20,000 men and women gathered inside, beneath giant swastika emblems and banners which denounced American Jewry.

Frenzied Excitement.
Frenzied excitement in the hall reached its peak when, in the midst of an anti-Semitic tirade by National Bund Leader Fritz Kuhn, Isadore Greenbaum, 26, a hotel worker, leaped to the rostrum and advanced on Kuhn.

He was felled by six husky "troopers," one of whom seized him by the hair and hurled him across the stage. A chorus of shouts arose from the audience.

His trousers ripped off, Greenbaum was rescued by police. He later was arraigned in night court on a charge of disorderly conduct and held in $100 bail. He did not appear badly injured.

Earlier, a lesser flurry was caused when Dorothy Thompson, columnist, was escorted from the hall after she shouted, "bunk," at G. W. Kunze, bund national publicity director, who was speaking.

Arguing she had a constitutional right to heckle, Miss Thompson was readmitted—and she shouted, "Bunk!" again—after Heywood Broun, another columnist, intervened for her.

Meanwhile, the "storm troopers" at her back were replaced by police, but she left the garden a few minutes later.

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 merely wanted to test the right of free speech at a bund rally. She said:

"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."

Kunze elicited boos from the crowd with his reference to President Roosevelt as "Franklin Rosenfeld."

The audience also jeered mention of the names of Secretaries

Bund—
Continued on Page Eleven.
History Unfolded Contributor: Lael F.
Location of Research: Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com)