There was a time, from the late 1930’s to 1945, when a group of determined and hardcore Jewish American boxers and gangsters banded together, with the unofficial okay of local and federal police and government officials (including the FBI), to physically strike the German American Bund and various other Nazi groups in America during their recruitment drives, rallies and parades. The German American Bund was sponsored directly by the Nazi party in Germany. Some of its members were originally from Germany. There were many other groups with different names who shared the Nazis beliefs all throughout the United States. The Silver Shirts, The Christian Front, Defenders of the Christian Faith and the Knights of the White Camelia were all virulently anti-Semitic in their views and actions. These despicable views were protected by the First Amendment of the American Constitution.
In May of 1933, under the direction of Germany’s Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess, German immigrant Heinz Spanknöbel set up an American Nazi group. The German consul located in New York City, under direct orders from Hess, helped Spanknöbel create what would become the Friends of New Germany. The group was based primarily in New York City and Chicago. The Friends of New Germany was rabidly pro-Nazi.
However, both Chicago and New York City boasted very strong and well organized Jewish Mafia organizations as well as a plethora of ultra-tough Jewish boxers. The FONG utilized propaganda and scare tactics to openly intimidate American Jews in New York and Chicago. Eventually Spanknöbel was deported in October of 1933 because he had neglected to register as a foreign agent with the federal government. Needless to say, Spanknöbel was full of hate but not full of brains.
On March 19, 1936, the insidious German American Bund was established as the successor group to the Friends of New Germany. Their leader was a German born American who belonged to the Nazi party in Germany. His name was Fritz Julius Kuhn and he was recognized as the Bundesführer. He saw himself as the Adolf Hitler of America. In time, Kuhn was outed as an embezzler and fraudster and was ousted from the German American Bund, stripped of his citizenship and deported back to Germany. His deportation greatly frustrated the Mafia as they were looking to kill him. In fact, Lansky had told government officials, “We would have done the job for you minus all the paperwork.”
These sinister cabals often paraded through Jewish neighborhoods, in their SS uniforms (with swastika armbands), carrying Nazi flags and chanting “Heil Hitler!”, deliberately frightening many Jewish Americans. These groups also printed hated-filled magazines and pamphlets which they distributed through the mail. Something or rather, someone had to take a stand and start pushing back against these Nazi groups in a manner which would greatly impress upon them to cease and desist from their openly anti-Semitic activities.
The police and the government were almost non-existent during these terrifying pro-Nazi rallies and parades. In fact, the police were only present to make sure the Nazis weren’t attacked during their odious events. Jewish Americans felt and left to their own devices. They needed more than protection. They needed Jews who were willing to bring the fight to the doorstep of these repugnant Nazis whereever and whenever they reared their hate-filled heads.
Enter judge Nathan David Perlman, a pillar of the New York Jewish community and a Republican member of the U.S. House of representatives from New York’s 14th district. Perlman was born in Prusice, Poland on August 2nd, 1879. At that time and for hundreds of years previously, Poland and Russia had been lightning rods for murderous pogroms against Jews. In fact, a seven year-old Meyer Lansky hid under a horse cart with his grandmother, in the town of Grodno, Russia watching a Cossack behead his grandfather and then laugh about it. The murder of his grandfather left a lifelong impression on the young Lansky. Lansky swore to himself that when he got older, he would one day kill all of the Cossacks in the same savage fashion.
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