American Nazi Party IDs

[Ausweis]

Thank you Richard. According to the great book on the subject "They too were Americans" by Scott Freeland, there were chapters in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North and South Carolina and Tennessee. There were six cities in Texas with chapters.

[Br. James]

Wonderful glimpses of NS Americana! Many thanks for sharing them with us.

Br. James

[Gary Symonds]

Great stuff.It is amazing these documents survived. I certainly would have consigned these to the flames if I were the member of the Bund and owner of these membership cards. After Germany declared war on the US, just after Pearl Harbor in December 1941, nobody would be caught dead with this stuff.

Discovery of these in your possession after that date was to have the FBI knocking at your door.

[Capt. R]

great stuff, super rare and super interesting!

[Tony T-S]

Out of interest, whatever did these guys do when Hitler became the enemy. Were they rounded up or did the emigrate to Germany or what?

These are truly amazing pieces.

[kyles bullets]

Out of interest, whatever did these guys do when Hitler became the enemy. Were they rounded up or did the emigrate to Germany or what?

These are truly amazing pieces.

I believe they had the same fate as the Japanese Americans during the war....

[ErichS]

German Americans didn't have the same treatment as Japanese Americans other than a few exceptions.

[Richard]

Thank you Richard. According to the great book on the subject "They too were Americans" by Scott Freeland, there were chapters in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North and South Carolina and Tennessee. There were six cities in Texas with chapters.

I see you are in Texas so there must be some way to find things like this in that state, no matter where they were issued. Regardless of where the chapters were, I have to assume few of these things survived and have to be incredibly difficult to find.
Richard V

[stonemint]

For anyone interested in the topic, I would highly recommend this book (available from Bender Publishing):

[james m]

Out of interest, whatever did these guys do when Hitler became the enemy. Were they rounded up or did the emigrate to Germany or what?

These are truly amazing pieces.

I was in contact with the daughter of a member of the German American Bund in the Chicago area. She told me she remembers, even as a young girl, their house being visited repeatedly by the FBI. Her father was being constantly questioned about his involvement with this organization.
She had no paperwork but I did manage to buy her fathers pistol (Ortgies 6.35) and swastika ring which I still have,
The other items I acquired were sold to the author of the book on this organization.
Jim

[Br. James]

Tony does raise an interesting, and particular human, question. At it's height, the German-American Bund and all of it's similar groups did not involve more than 20-30,000 people, and many of them were American-born citizens. While the "alien" German nationals could be rounded up by the FBI and deported, as many were, a large number of the Bund's membership simply dissolved back into the population and burned their Bund uniforms and membership symbols! Of far more consequence, it seems to me, is the KKK, which supposedly had well over 2 million members at it's height in the late 1920s. When that organization was exposed for the fraud that it was, what happened to all of those millions of members? They were all American citizens, so no deportation was possible. With the huge organizational structure that the Klan had developed in the post-WWI years in the USA, one might wonder why there aren't many more documents, symbols and 'uniforms' available at flea markets and shows than there are. Could be they too were burned, when it became expedient to never have been involved with the KKK in American society?

Br. James

[ErichS]

As we know, many native born Japanese Americans were put in camps while native born German Americans were not. The major reasons were that Japan attacked the US via PH and that they were easy targets due their looks.

[james m]

Tony does raise an interesting, and particular human, question. At it's height, the German-American Bund and all of it's similar groups did not involve more than 20-30,000 people, and many of them were American-born citizens. While the "alien" German nationals could be rounded up by the FBI and deported, as many were, a large number of the Bund's membership simply dissolved back into the population and burned their Bund uniforms and membership symbols! Of far more consequence, it seems to me, is the KKK, which supposedly had well over 2 million members at it's height in the late 1920s. When that organization was exposed for the fraud that it was, what happened to all of those millions of members? They were all American citizens, so no deportation was possible. With the huge organizational structure that the Klan had developed in the post-WWI years in the USA, one might wonder why there aren't many more documents, symbols and 'uniforms' available at flea markets and shows than there are. Could be they too were burned, when it became expedient to never have been involved with the KKK in American society?

Br. James

Well:
One of them made it to the White House. Harry Truman was a member of the KKK.
Jim

[NARVIK1940]

American Nazi Party IDs

Some younger members served in the Wehrmacht. I recently saw a roster from a coastal battery in Norway that listed personnel by citizenship. One member was from the USA. Recall also the story from Band of Brothers of the German POW from Eugene, OR.

My mother recalls a middle aged couple during the war in Portland, OR that open supported Hitler and would actively proselytize with a copy of Mein Kampf, believe it or not. She clearly recalls them paying a visit as a young teen, with the book. I had a hard time believing it. Not sure exactly when this would have been, but probably early war.

[Br. James]

Thanks for that reminder, James, and indeed Harry Truman was a member of the KKK, apparently for a couple of years in the early 1920s when he was just starting out. But he wasn't President of the United States for twenty more years after that; the more scandalous truth is that numbers of US Senators, State Governors, Congressmen and state and local politicians were also members of the KKK -- at the same time they were serving in those public roles! A scarlet history, to be sure!

Br. James