Fascism In The Americas

Nazism in the Americas has existed since the 1930s and continues to exist today. The membership of the earliest groups reflected the sympathies of some German-Americans and German Latin-Americans toward Nazi Germany, embracing the spirit of Nazism in Europe and establishing it within the Americas. Throughout the inter-war period and the outbreak of World War II, American Nazi parties engaged in activities such as sporting Nazi propaganda, storming newspapers, spreading Nazi-sympathetic materials and infiltrating other non-political organizations.

The reaction to these parties varied, ranging from widespread support to outright resistance, including the formation of the first anti-Nazi Jewish resistance organizations in the United States, such as the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League to Champion Human Rights.

United States

Inter-war period

Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. German-Americans for years attempted to create pro-Nazi movements in the U.S., often bearing swastikas and wearing uniforms. These groups had little to do with Nazi Germany and lacked support from the wider German-American community."American Bund – The Failure of American Nazism: The German-American Bund's Attempt to Create an American "Fifth Column"". TRACES.Retrieved May 2nd 2019.
/ref> In May 1933, Heinz Spanknöbel received authority from Rudolf Hess, the deputy führer of Germany, to form an official American branch of the Nazi Party. The branch was known as the Friends of New Germany in the U.S. The Nazi Party referred to it as the National Socialist German Workers' Party of the U.S.A. Though the party had a strong presence in Chicago, it remained based in New York City, having received support from the German consul in the city. Spanknöbel's organization was openly pro-Nazi. Members stormed the German-language newspaper '' New Yorker Staats-Zeitung'' and demanded that the paper publish articles sympathetic to Nazis. Spanknöbel's leadership was short-lived, as he was deported in October 1933 following revelations that he had not registered as a foreign agent. Some American corporations had trade relations that continued even after declarations of war.

Coming of World War II

The Friends of New Germany dissolved in the 1930s. The German American Bund, led by Fritz Kuhn, formed in 1935 and lasted until America formally entered World War II in 1941. The Bund existed with the goal of a united America under ethnic German rule and following Nazi ideology. It proclaimed communism as their main enemy and expressed anti-Semitic attitudes. Inspired by the Hitler Youth, the Bund created its own youth division, where members "took German lessons, received instructions on how to salute the swastika, and learned to sing the 'Horst Wessel Lied' and other Nazi songs." The Bund continued to justify and glorify Hitler and his movements in Europe during the outbreak of World War II. After Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Bund leaders released a statement demanding that America stay neutral in the ensuing conflict, and expressed sympathy for Germany's war effort. The Bund reasoned that this support for the German war effort was not disloyal to the United States, as German-Americans would "continue to fight for a Gentile America free of all atheistic Jewish Marxist elements."

After many internal and leadership disputes, the Bund's executive committee agreed to disband the party the day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. On December 11, 1941, the United States formally declared war on Germany, and Bund headquarters were raided by Treasury Department agents. The agents seized all records and arrested 76 Bund leaders.

After World War II

The Office of Special Investigations estimated around ten thousand Nazi war criminals entered the United States from Eastern Europe after the conclusion of World War II.Schiessl, Christoph. ''Alleged Nazi Collaborators in the United States after World War II''. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2016. It has since been determined that the number is much smaller, albeit it still runs into the thousands. Some were brought in Operation Paperclip, a project to bring German scientists and engineers to the U.S. Most Nazi collaborators entered the United States through the 1948 and 1950 Displaced Persons Acts and the Refugee Relief Act of 1953. Supporters of the acts showed only a slight awareness of the possibility of Nazi war criminals' entering the United States through them. Most of the supporters' concern was about disallowing known communists from entering. This shift of focus was likely due to the pressures of the Cold War in the years after World War II, when the United States focused on countering Soviet communism more than Nazism.

During the 1950s, several investigations into suspected Nazi war criminals were conducted by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, but no official trials came from these investigations. The Holocaust and the possibility of Nazi collaborators living in the country entered the national discussion in the 1960s with the trial of Adolf Eichmann