People Are Talking About This 1939 American Nazi Rally For Obvious Reasons

On Sunday, with a little over a week to go until Election Day, former president Donald Trump took time out of his busy Bible-selling schedule to visit the non-swing state of New York for a rally in Madison Square Garden.

  The Washington Post / The Washington Post via Getty Images
The Washington Post / The Washington Post via Getty Images

At the event, speakers made a variety of racist and inflammatory statements. Opening "comedian" Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico, a US territory, a "floating island of garbage" and "joked" about Black people carving watermelons. Former Fox News bowtie-wearer Tucker Carlson dropped hints about the great replacement theory and mocked Vice President Kamala Harris's identity as "Samoan-Malaysian low-IQ."

Twitter: @atrupar

Disgraced former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani claimed that Palestinians are taught to kill Americans when they're literal toddlers. Other speakers compared Harris to a prostitute with "pimp handlers," called her "the antichrist," and called the Democratic party and its supporters "degenerates." In short, it was a very racist night that came on the heels of a handful of former Trump officials calling him a fascist.

Twitter: @atrupar

One of the ways people are trying to understand this fraught political moment is by looking to history. And unfortunately, Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden echoes another dark moment in American history: the Bund rally of 1939, when 20,000 Americans converged in the same venue for an evening of Nazi rhetoric.

Twitter: @JosiahHawthorne

The Feb. 20, 1939, rally was put on by the German American Bund Party, a pro-Hitler domestic political organization. Led by Fritz Kuhn, it's estimated that the German American Bund Party had 25,000 members — including 8,000 Sturmabteilungen (aka Storm Troopers).

A large crowd fills a stadium for a rally, facing a speaker on stage with banners in the background
Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

The 1939 event was billed as a "Pro American Rally."

Marquee outside Madison Square Garden displays upcoming events: Pro American Rally, hockey game Rangers vs Detroit, and basketball game Fordham vs Pittsburgh
PBS / Via youtube.com

According to New York Times reporting from 1939, 1,700 police officers were posted outside the venue where an estimated 100,000 anti-Nazi protesters gathered.

Historical photo: A police officer on horseback maneuvers through a crowd outside Grand Railroad terminal, with people gathered and signs held high
PBS / Via youtube.com

The "Americanism" rally was scheduled in February in honor of George Washington's birthday. Speakers at the event described Washington as "the first American fascist," and the stage was decorated with a portrait of the first president flanked by swastika banners and American flags.

Black-and-white image of a large event with a portrait of George Washington, uniformed men with drums, and numerous American flags
PBS / Via youtube.com

Footage from the event shows attendees doing the Nazi salute.

  PBS / Via youtube.com
PBS / Via youtube.com

And uniformed Storm Troopers marched down the aisles of the venue.

A large crowd fills an indoor arena, likely attending a public event or gathering, as seen in this black and white image
PBS / Via youtube.com

Speakers denounced "job-taking Jewish refugees" and referred to then-President Roosevelt as "Rosenfeld," implying that he was "in the pocket of rich Jews."

A historic black-and-white image showing men in uniforms performing a Nazi salute at a 1939 Bund rally in Madison Square Garden, New York
PBS / Via youtube.com

Bund leader Fritz Kuhn spoke at the event, calling for a "socially just, white, gentile-ruled United States," and "gentile-controlled labor unions."

A man in uniform speaks at a podium on stage. Subtitles read: "first, a socially just, white, Gentile-ruled United States"
PBS / Via youtube.com

During his remarks, a young Jewish man named Isadore Greenbaum rushed the stage. The Nazis beat up Greenbaum until the New York police simultaneously rescued and arrested him. Greenbaum was later fined $25 for his disruptive action, and supporters (including the arresting officers) took up a collection to pay it for him.

  PBS / Via youtube.com
PBS / Via youtube.com

If you have six minutes to spare, this footage of the event is absolutely worthwhile to see for yourself:

Following the rally, it was all downhill for this iteration of American Nazis. It came to light that Kuhn had embezzled $14,000 from the Bund party. He was tried for tax evasion later in 1939 and sentenced to serve two and a half to five years in Sing Sing prison. And, as American forces joined the war against Hitler in Europe, pro-Nazi sentiment went back underground in the US.

Historical image of people in uniform holding flags on a stage with garlands
Fpg / Getty Images

In 2024, historians can say that the Madison Square Garden rally was the beginning of the end for the German American Bund party. Whether MAGA may soon meet the same fate is still anyone's guess.

Twitter: @EricColumbus

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