SOUTHBURY: BOOK READING AND DISCUSSION: Swastika Nation, Fritz Kuhn and the Rise and Fall of the German-American Bund

Swastika Nation, Fritz Kuhn and the Rise and Fall of the German-American Bund by Arnie Bernstein has recently been published by St. Martin’s Press. The story of how Southbury said ‘no’ to the Bund in 1937 (also depicted in the documentary Home of the Brave) is told in about ten pages of this new book.

The author will read from his book and answer questions in Southbury:

·         Thursday, November 21 at B’nai Israel Synagogue, 7:00 p.m.

·         Friday, November 22 at the South Britain Congregational Church, Southbury, 1:00 p.m.  (“Home of the Brave” will be shown at 12 noon preceding the talk).

The events are free of charge, and all are welcome.

From the book’s press release:

Arnie Bernstein’s Swastika Nation is the true story of Fritz Kuhn and the rise of the German-American Bund, a pro-Nazi group of the 1930s.  At their height in 1939, the Bund packed 20,000 people into Madison Square Garden for a so-called Washington’s Birthday rally.  Outside the Garden, 100,000 protestors wanted to get at Kuhn and his minions.  And beyond the protestors was a wild amalgamation of disparate characters all aimed at taking down the Bund with their own unique methods.  The Bund was a small, but powerful national movement, determined to conquer the United States government with a fascist dictatorship.  It seems ludicrous now, but what if they had succeeded?

The Bund met in private social halls and beer garden backrooms, gathered at private resorts and public rallies, and developed their own version of the SS and Hitler Youth.  They even published a national newspaper, and – for a brief moment of their own imagined glory – seemed poised to make an impact on American politics.

While the Bund kept trying to live out their dreams a multi-faceted and divergent group of people came together to stop them.  Walter Winchell used the power of his newspaper column.  New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia teamed with District Attorney Thomas Dewey to bring Kuhn to justice after catching him embezzling Bund money to pay for his extramarital expenses.  In Washington DC, Congressman Samuel Dickstein formed the House Committee on Un-American Activities specifically to investigate the Bund.  And powerful members of the Jewish Mafia in the U.S. – Meyer Lansky, Mickey Cohen and Longy Zwillman, and others – used their connections to put down Bund activities.  There were other significant names of the time that played roles in this drama: Henry Ford, Bugsy Siegel, Jack Ruby, and so many others. 

Arnie Bernstein prides himself as a researcher and his talents are on full display in Swastika Nation.  Inspired by events of his childhood growing up in the Chicago area, when, in 1978 a group of self-described Nazis tried to march on Skokie, Illinois, Bernstein investigated fringe groups like the American Nazis, Aryan Nation, and other such militias, and this led him to learn more about Kuhn and the Bund.  The result is a thorough examination of a movement that could have had catastrophic results for American society had they succeeded.  His book is a story of good guys and bad guys, and those that fell in between.  But they united for a common cause: to root out an organization bent on the destruction of the American way of life and liberty.

Swastika Nation.  is a sometimes funny, sometimes harrowing, and constantly compelling story of a time in our nation where freedom was at risk.    

Arnie Bernstein Bio

Arnie Bernstein is a nonfiction writer based in Chicago. His latest work Swastika Nation: Fritz Kuhn and the Rise and Fall of the German American Bund, explores a pro-Nazi movement that swept the United States in the 1930s, and the disparate confederacy that brought this bunch to an inglorious end. Swastika Nation is now available from St. Martin's Press. Publishers Weekly calls Swastika Nation "...fast-paced...a fresh account of a well-documented era."

His award-winning 2009 book Bath Massacre: America’s First School Bombing, brought to light the forgotten story of a madman who detonated a rural Michigan school building on May 18, 1927, killing 38 children and six adults. Bernstein is the author of three books on Chicago history, which earned praise from the late United States Senator Paul Simon (D-Illinois) and Roger Ebert.

Bernstein has been interviewed by many media outlets, including The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Chicago Tribune, National Public Radio, PBS, radio programs in Australia, England, and Ireland, and many television, documentaries, radio shows, and podcasts.

***

For more information, contact:

Rev. Shannon Rye Wall

South Britain Congregational Church

revwall@gmail.com

203-264-5890

www.southbritainchurch.org