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NAZI TOWN, USA: PBS American Experience ⚔
Last edited Mon Apr 20, 2026, 04:43 PM - Edit history (8)
- PBS American Experience, 2024 (53 mins).
NAZI TOWN, USA tells the largely unknown story of the German American Bund, an organization of Nazi sympathizers on American soil. The Bund's vision was an America ruled by white Christians. They were ANTI- DEMOCRATIC. The Bund created children's camps - indoctrination centers across the U.S.
- YouTube Description: In February 1939, more than 20,000 Americans filled Madison Square Garden in New York City for an event billed as a "Pro- American Rally." Images of George Washington hung alongside swastikas, underlining the organizers' belief that NAZISM was entirely consistent with American ideals.
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- President Roosevelt's NEW DEAL was a robust response to the crisis of the Great Depression (1929 -1939).
But some people thought that democracy had failed and to many in the right-wing, FASCISM seemed like a more enticing model to address America's problems.
- Wiki, The NEW DEAL was a 1933–1938 series of economic, social, and political reforms in response to the GREAT DEPRESSION (1929 - 1939) in the United States under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He introduced the phrase when accepting the Democratic Party presidential nomination in the 1932 United States presidential election, winning in a landslide over incumbent President Herbert HOOVER, whose administration was widely viewed as ineffective.
Roosevelt attributed the Depression to inherent market instability and inadequate aggregate demand (following the Keynesian economic model), and argued that stabilizing and rationalizing the economy required massive government intervention. During Roosevelt's first hundred days in office in 1933 until 1935, FDR introduced what historians refer to as the "FIRST NEW DEAL", which focused on the "3 R's": relief for the unemployed and for the poor, recovery of the economy back to normal levels, and reforms of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal
- THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 1917
The Russian Revolution of 1917 was one of the most explosive political events of the 20th century. The violent revolution marked the end of the Romanov dynasty and centuries of Russian Imperial rule.
Economic hardship, food shortages and government corruption all contributed to disillusionment with Czar Nicholas II. During the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks, led by leftist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, seized power and destroyed the tradition of czarist rule. The Bolsheviks would later become the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
When Was the Russian Revolution?
In 1917, two revolutions swept through Russia, ending centuries of imperial rule and setting into motion political and social changes that would lead to the eventual formation of the Soviet Union...
https://www.history.com/articles/russian-revolution
- FASCISM, Merriam Webster Dictionary
Fascism: A populist political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual, that is associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition.
At the core of fascism is loyalty to tribe, ethnic identity, religion, tradition, or, in a word, nation.
—Jason Stanley
There are differences between Italian Fascism, German Nazism, and their various nationalist descendants. —Josh Jones
broadly : a philosophy or system with some combination of fascist values and governing structures...
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fascism
- What to Know About the Origins of Fascism’s Brutal Ideology, TIME, March 22, 2019.
When Benito Mussolini debuted the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento, the precursor to his fascist party, on Mar. 23, 1919, in Milan, he wasn’t inventing the idea of violent authoritarianism. But he put a name on a new and terrible breed of it. Under his leadership, squads of militants attacked, beat and killed fellow Italians; later, once he had become the authoritarian ruler of Italy, he oversaw brutality in Ethiopia, an alliance with Hitler and the persecution of Italy’s Jewish population and others, among other crimes.
.. To better understand the rise and fall — and rise again — of fascism, TIME spoke to RUTH BEN-GHIAT, an expert on first fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and a professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University. -
- What is fascism? Fascism is a movement that promotes the idea of a forcibly monolithic, regimented nation under the control of an autocratic ruler. The word fascism comes from fascio, the Italian word for bundle, which in this case represents bundles of people. Its origins go back to Ancient Rome, when the fasces was a bundle of wood with an ax head, carried by leaders..
- What contributed to the rise of fascism?
Mussolini’s establishment of the proto-Fascist Party took place not too long after the RUSSIAN REVOLUTION, and the fear of COMMUNISM'S spread played a key role.
“The main way the fascists got to power was by killing off and intimidating what was the largest and most popular party, the Socialist Party,” Ben-Ghiat explains. “Squadrists — terrorists who would descend upon towns in trucks, uniformed in black shirts — had knives and they killed thousands of people in the years 1919 to 1922. The killing went on after Mussolini became prime minister.” Landowners and businessmen in particular supported the suppression of socialism, and their support allowed Mussolini to come to power. Afraid of the might of labor, they “cast their lot with Mussolini” instead. And that group included none other than King Victor Emmanuel III, whose authority would be considerably diminished under Mussolini’s dictatorship.
“Without that early support,” Ben-Ghiat says, “Mussolini wouldn’t have gone anywhere and wouldn’t have had the first fascist dictatorship.”
- When did fascism end? The defeat of the Axis powers in World War II meant the end of one phase of fascism — with some exceptions, like Franco’s Spain, the original fascist regimes had been defeated. But while Mussolini died in 1945, the ideas he put a name on did not. “It’s really not understood how influential Italian fascism was, because you had Nazism early on, but there were fascist movements in America, in Switzerland, in France, in Spain, and then fascism spread in Argentina,” Ben-Ghiat says.
“It’s a transnational movement. That’s how it stayed alive after 1945”... - More,
https://time.com/5556242/what-is-fascism/
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- German American Bund
German American Bund, or the German American Federation (German: Amerikadeutscher Bund, Amerikadeutscher Volksbund, AV), was a German-American Nazi movement organization which was established in 1936 as a successor to the Friends of New Germany (FONG, FDND in German) and disbanded in 1941 when the United States entered World War II. The organization chose its new name in order to emphasize its American credentials after the press accused it of being unpatriotic.
The Bund was allowed to consist only of American citizens of German descent. Its main goal was to promote a favorable view of Nazi Germany...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_American_Bund
- Eugenics
Eugenics is a largely discredited set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human phenotypes by inhibiting the fertility of those considered inferior, often through forced sterilization, or promoting that of those considered superior.
The contemporary history of eugenics began in the late 19th century, when a popular eugenics movement emerged in the United Kingdom, which spread to most European countries (e.g., Sweden and Germany), and many other countries, including the United States, Canada, and Australia...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics
- Immigration Act of 1924
Immigration Act of 1924, also known as the Johnson–Reed Act, or National Origins Act, was a United States federal law that prevented immigration from Asia and set quotas on the number of immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. It also authorized the creation of the country's first formal border control service, the U.S. Border Patrol, and established a "consular control system" that allowed entry only to those who first obtained a visa from a U.S. consulate abroad.
The 1924 act was passed due to growing public and political concerns about the country's fast-changing social and demographic landscape. It replaced earlier legislation by significantly reducing immigration from countries outside the Western Hemisphere...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1924
- Great Depression, 1929 - 1939
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and business failures around the world.
The economic contagion began in 1929 in the United States, the largest economy in the world, with the devastating Wall Street crash of 1929 often considered the beginning of the Depression. Among the countries with the most unemployed were the U.S., the United Kingdom, and Germany...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression
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