How Meyer Lansky Organized Jewish Mobsters to Fight Nazis Who Held 1939 Madison Square Garden Rally

[appalachiablue]

Daily Kos, Nov. 2, 2024. Ed. The German American Bund formed in 1936. It was active in NY, NJ, PA, Chicago, Midwestern cities, more.
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Many have noted the striking similarities between Donald Trump’s racist and hate-filled rally last Sunday at Madison Square Garden and a 1939 pro-Nazi rally at the old Garden. But what’s missing from the numerous news stories is the historical context. Back then American Nazis scapegoated the wave of Jewish immigrants as being responsible for the nation’s woes during the Great Depression.

Today, Trump and his MAGA cult spread conspiracy theories targeting Black and Latino immigrants.

On Sunday, Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s draconian anti-immigration policies, declared: “America is for Americans and Americans only.” He claimed criminal gangs were crossing “our border to rape and murder with impunity.”

Link to tweet

Back on Feb. 20, 1939, German-born Fritz Julius Kuhn, leader of the pro-Nazi German American Bund and would be Führer, was the final speaker at what was billed as a "Pro-American Rally" celebrating George Washington’s birthday. Kuhn told the crowd of 20,000 packing the Garden: "We, with American ideals, demand that our government shall be returned to the American people who founded it."

- A Night at the Garden, film 2017 (2 mins ).

The video above, posted by The Lincoln Project, features footage from the Oscar-nominated documentary short A Night at the Garden (2017). I wrote about the 1939 rally in a February 2022 story titled: In 1939, Nazis packed Madison Square Garden to celebrate George Washington's birthday... More +110 Comments,
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/2/2279761/-How-Meyer-Lansky-organized-Jewish-mobsters-to-fight-the-Nazis-who-held-the-1939-MSG-rally
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- German American Bund. Britannica. American pro-Nazi, quasi-military organization that was most active in the years immediately preceding the United States’ entry into World War II. The Bund’s members were mostly American citizens of German ancestry. The organization received covert guidance and financial support from the government of the Third Reich. Military drill and related activities were provided for adults and youths at Bund-maintained camps: Camp Siegfried, Yaphank, NY; Camp Nordland, Andover, NJ; Deutschhorst Country Club, Sellersville, PA; and elsewhere...
https://www.britannica.com/topic/German-American-Bund

- Meyer Lansky, Wiki, Ed. (b. July 4, 1902 - Jan. 15, 1983), known as the "Mob's Accountant", was an American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the National Crime Syndicate in the United States. A member of the Jewish mob, Lansky developed a gambling empire that stretched around the world. He was said to own points (percentages) in casinos in Las Vegas, Cuba, Miami, and New Orleans. Lansky had a strong influence with the Italian-American Mafia...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meyer_Lansky

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Oh. The roots of private equity.

Fascinating article on Lansky. It was all interconnected. Legitimate businesses were spawned, and still exploit the little guy.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. lol, that was not a fact, just an observation.

I can't tell if you took it seriously. But really, the root of all businesses is a person, or often, a family. It's a private enterprise to benefit the founders. In some sense it is private equity.

But following many of those links in the story, there are some interesting tidbits.

Moe Annenberg, father of Reagan's buddy, Walter Annenberg, who funded the Annenberg School for Communication at UPenn.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Annenberg

And the deal for the release of Lucky Luciano. Several thugs in suits involved.

It goes through Prohibition, casinos, casinos in pre-Castro Cuba, and the people involved.

[appalachiablue]

4. Focused on the article, I got it. My parents told us some about organized crime of that era

and some of the associations. My dad knew things from growing during Prohibition, later the Florida and Cuba connections and having a father involved in politics and business.

[UserNotFound]

5. This piece was originally published at

Uncharted Blue. Some very good, timely writing there; check it out!

https://www.unchartedblue.com/

[appalachiablue]

6. Thanks, I want to read this. It was mentioned in the article or comments I think.

[Passages]

7. "We threw some of them out the windows. Most of the Nazis panicked and ran out. We chased them and beat them up."

Even a real mobster could identify a greater evil.

[roscoeroscoe]

8. This is Rachel Maddow Quality History

I love this. Should be a movie. Hopefully will be. I'll watch anything that features wiping out Nazis.

[Mosby]

9. There were a lot of Jewish gangsters involved.

A new York judge organized a Jewish "resistance" movement to take on the Bund and others like the Silver Shirts.

You might like this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Gangsters-vs-Nazis-Mobsters-Battled/dp/0806541792

Snippet:

New York judge Nathan D. Perlman was apparently a big believer in the adage: If you need a job done right, you’ve got to turn to the right people. So in 1938, he called up notorious Jewish mobster Meyer Lansky with a favor to ask of him.

Perlman called Lansky to a face-to-face meeting and asked him to direct Jewish gangsters to violently break up meetings of the German American Bund, a pro-Nazi organization for Americans of German origin.

Perlman asked if Lansky had some boys who would want to punch Nazis. Lansky said he most definitely did, and he suggested that they could do more than just beat the Bund members up.

“I want you to do anything but kill them,” Perlman warned the organized crime boss.

Prominent rabbi Stephen S. Wise, who was on hand to lend clerical gravitas, echoed the judge’s sentiment.

“I’m sorry, but we cannot condone killing,” he said.

This left Lansky to tell his associates they could “marinate” but not “ice” those who showed up at Bund meetings, rallies and marches, where speakers spewed Jew-hatred. Lansky gave his boys license to use more than their fists. Baseball bats, clubs and other street fighting paraphernalia were fair game. Guns were out of bounds, as were the ice picks, which were the preferred weapon of killer Abraham “Kid Twist” Reles.

Book is a real hoot, the author is a true crime writer.