Toronto Swastika Club badge

[Belten]

I came across this interesting newspaper item apparently dating from around 1933.



It reads:

FORMED TO KEEP "THE BEACHES FOR THE BEACHES," and to show a disapproval of the influx of "obnoxious visitors" to the east-end beach area, the Swastika Club, bearing the emblem that Hitler carried to power in Germany, has made its bow in Toronto. Photos show a sign bearing the symbol, and worded "Hail Hitler," displayed on a post in front of Balmy Beach club house; a white sweatshirt with the swastika sign stenciled thereon as worn by many of the younger members, and the metal badge of the organization.

The badge pictured above might prove of interest to any collectors that might have one such 'mystery item.' An online source (linked below) describes them as "little nickel-plated badges with scarlet swastikas." In the photo above, the swastika is left-facing, so it could easily be dismissed as a good luck symbol.

http://contests.eyeweekly.com/eye/is...WS/nv0812a.php

[Don Scowen]

There was a very good book covering the Swastika Clubs & the various other right wing groups in Canada written in 1975. Obviously long out of print, but it can still be found on Ebay, ABE Books etc.

"The Swastika & the Maple Leaf - Fascist Movements in Canada in the Thirties" by Lita-Rose Betcherman.

Cheers
Don

[Belten]

There was a very good book covering the Swastika Clubs & the various other right wing groups in Canada written in 1975. Obviously long out of print, but it can still be found on Ebay, ABE Books etc.

"The Swastika & the Maple Leaf - Fascist Movements in Canada in the Thirties" by Lita-Rose Betcherman.

Cheers
Don

Thanks! There's too little information available about U.S.-based fascist organizations, and even less relating to Canadian ones. It's an interesting field but difficult to research and collect.

[Br. James]

It appears that "The Swastika and the Maple Leaf -- Fascist Movements in Canada in the 1930s" was originally published in hard cover by Fitzhenry and Whiteside, Toronto, in 1975, and was released in paperback by the same publisher in 1978. There are numerous copies available online. used but apparently in good condition.

In his landmark work on the subject: "They too were Americans -- The German-American Bund in Words, Photos and Artifacts," published by Bender Publishing in 2011, author Scott Freeland has included a limited amount of information about National Socialist, Italian Fascist and related groups that operated in Canada, Mexico and elsewhere in the 1930s and early 1940s.

I agree with Belten that "There's too little information available about U.S.-based fascist organizations, and even less relating to Canadian ones. It's an interesting field but difficult to research and collect." Though there was no connection between the German-American Bund of the 30s/40s and the American Nazi Party of George Lincoln Rockwell in the 1960s here in the USA, nor between Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists of the 1930s and Colin Jordan's National Socialist Movement in England in the 1960s...and of the many other spin-offs in both time periods in both countries...one seldom sees artifacts from either the ANP or the NSM available today. Indeed, the Ku Klux Klan supposedly held millions of members in the USA in the 1920s, yet most artifacts from that historical period seem to have vaporized since then, as well.

I imagine that, just as we so often hear that "there were NO NAZIS in post-WWII Germany," the same probably can be said for domestic versions of such movements in the USA, Canada, the UK, etc. It may take another 50-100 years for the negative sentiment engendered by such movements to dissipate, and that will be too late for any serious study to occur in this generation.

Br. James

[Belten]

It appears that "The Swastika and the Maple Leaf -- Fascist Movements in Canada in the 1930s" was originally published in hard cover by Fitzhenry and Whiteside, Toronto, in 1975, and was released in paperback by the same publisher in 1978. There are numerous copies available online. used but apparently in good condition.

In his landmark work on the subject: "They too were Americans -- The German-American Bund in Words, Photos and Artifacts," published by Bender Publishing in 2011, author Scott Freeland has included a limited amount of information about National Socialist, Italian Fascist and related groups that operated in Canada, Mexico and elsewhere in the 1930s and early 1940s.

I agree with Belten that "There's too little information available about U.S.-based fascist organizations, and even less relating to Canadian ones. It's an interesting field but difficult to research and collect." Though there was no connection between the German-American Bund of the 30s/40s and the American Nazi Party of George Lincoln Rockwell in the 1960s here in the USA, nor between Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists of the 1930s and Colin Jordan's National Socialist Movement in England in the 1960s...and of the many other spin-offs in both time periods in both countries...one seldom sees artifacts from either the ANP or the NSM available today. Indeed, the Ku Klux Klan supposedly held millions of members in the USA in the 1920s, yet most artifacts from that historical period seem to have vaporized since then, as well.

I imagine that, just as we so often hear that "there were NO NAZIS in post-WWII Germany," the same probably can be said for domestic versions of such movements in the USA, Canada, the UK, etc. It may take another 50-100 years for the negative sentiment engendered by such movements to dissipate, and that will be too late for any serious study to occur in this generation.

Br. James

Of interest regarding the Ku Klux Klan is a story related to me by my mother. My grandmother (born in 1919 in West Virginia) was looking through a trunk belong to her grandfather (my great-great-grandfather) one day and pulled out a KKK uniform, consisting of the white hood and robe. She was told to put it away and not mention it again. I'm guessing this took place at some point during the 1920s or early 1930s.