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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.

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·        
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 authors talk).



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

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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

 

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