NAZI TOWN, USA | Chapter 1 | American Experience | PBS

in ever increasing numbers the nation's youth has been going away to camp this year has seen more boys and girls at Camp than ever before all of them have enjoyed common experience common adventur building muscle learning Fellowship acquiring Camp Spirit it looked like any summer camp in America it looked normal but it wasn't normal it was Nazi [Music] camp in the 1930s there were these camps all across the country they were indoctrinating centers that's what they were for as well as for protecting the Purity and the health of your Superior breed the camps were the creation of something called the German American boond the Boon's Vision was an America ruled by white Christians and they thought the Nazism was entirely consistent with American ideals my fellow americ Americans what would George Washington think and do were he alive today would he not plead with his thinking the loyal and law-abiding people the true Christian Americans the German American boom is after power they're after influence within the very fabric of the United States they want their ideas to become mainstream and they want people to embrace those ideas they were against democracy and thought that America would be a kind of star in a constellation of pro-nazi governments around the world we assume that democracy is something that all Americans Embrace but in the 1930s there were people in the United States who were ready to try something different in the 1930s lots of Americans thought the whole social order was about to collapse capitalism democracy they were done for and something else was going to have to come along to take its place and a lot of people thought that was going to be [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] fascism in the 1930s one of the largest fascist groups in the United States was the German American Buon Buon simply means organization but fundamentally this is an American organization they believe in a pure Nation they believe in a strong Nation they believe that government is best when it is organized in a hierarchical way with a powerful dictator at the top and that this would improve America we have no time nor excuse to be idle so March along with the bun the popularity of The Bu showed that there were certain elements of the fascist Vision that had real appeal in the United States we have to fight for our rights when you look at American fascism in the 1920s and 30s the outcome of German fascism had not yet happened and was not known we have the benefit of hindsight but Americans at the time didn't know where it was going to go as foreign as this might seem fascist ideology tapped into some deep historical realities dark realities in America so the United States was fertile ground for groups like the German American Boon to emerge the United States in the 1920s is a place of powerful divisions it is a place of deep anti-Semitism and it is a place that has very formal racial segregation the separation of races was something that Americans had been doing for centuries but they've been doing it legally since the end of the Civil War through Jim Crow the body of laws as well as habits and Customs that kept white and black people apart in public spaces in fact the whole structure of racism in America had brought popular support in the 19 20s one of the biggest organizations in the United States was the Klux Clan which was not only anti-black it was anti-jew it was anti-immigrant and those weren't marginal ideas in 1924 four to 5 million people were in the Klux Clan including a couple dozen senators and congressmen the Clan's basic message was a combination of white Christian nationalism combined with family values which was a message that was appealing to millions of people Father cogin Charles Cogan known as the radio priest every week went on the air to 14 million listeners basically warning the country that Jews were destroying it we are Christian in so far as we believe in Christ principle of love your neighbor as yourself and with that principle I challenge every Jew in this nation to tell me that he does not believe in it anti-Semitism is rif in the United States and at this point it's out in the open the most famous anti-semite in America was probably Henry Ford Henry Ford was an inventor an extraordinary capitalist but he used his wealth to promote some of the most virulent anti-semitic conspiracy theories he published a notorious book called The International Jew and had it distributed widely around the country millions of people might have heard of this book but never actually seen it well Ford took care of that at that time anti-semitic and white supremacist ideas were supported by a pseudo scientific movement that was wildly popular in Europe and in the United States called Eugenics what is the bearing of the laws of heredity upon human Affairs Eugenics provides the answer so far as this is known Eugenics seeks to apply the known laws of heredity so as to prevent the degeneration of the race and improve its inborn qualities Eugenics said that white supremacy was biologically determined and could be proven as could the identi ities of the inferior you know so-called inferior races it rationalized white supremacism by apparently giving it a scientific basis laws were based on these ideas in 1924 the United States passes the Johnson Reed act which puts a quota system on people immigrating into the United States from Europe under this new laws roughly 90% of them are going to come from northern European countries AKA white all this sled right-wing groups like the German American bond to believe that they would actually have a receptive audience in America because look Americans had cast themselves as a white Nation we are decidedly not breaching un americanism or anything basically new we have an Asiatic exclusion Jim Crow laws and a complicated system of immigration quarters differentiating even between the various white peoples it has then always been very much [Applause] American

Channel: American Experience | PBS

Views: 895,353

Keywords: history documentary, us history, german american bund, fritz kuhn, camp siegfried, camp nordland, german gardens, world war II, antisemitism, fascism, charles coughlin, henry ford, charles lindbergh, dorothy thompson, rabbi stephen wise, john metcalfe, james metcalfe, first amendment, madison square garden rally, america first, Arnie Bernstein, Sarah Churchwell, Beverly Gage, Bradley W Hart, William Hitchcock, Leah Wright Rigueur, Steven J Ross, far right

Id: Cbp_nXMLonw

Length: 9min 21sec (561 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 16 2024