Nazis in New York
History Daily
History Daily
4.4 • 2.5K Ratings
🗓️ 20 February 2025
⏱️ 19 minutes
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Summary
February 20, 1939. Thinly disguised as “a mass demonstration for true Americanism”, a Nazi rally takes place in Madison Square Garden, where 20,000 people cheer the rise of Adolf Hitler and spout anti-Semitic rhetoric.
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Transcript
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| 0:31.5 | Thank you. It's the evening of February 20th, 1939, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. 26-year-old plumber Isidore Greenbaum silently rages at the people cheering all around him. Holding his hands at his side, |
| 0:40.1 | Isidore clenches and unclenches his fists and tries not to let his anger show. |
| 0:45.2 | Up on the stage in front of him is a 30-foot painting of George Washington. The first president of the |
| 0:51.1 | United States is flanked by the stars and stripes and two giant swastikas. |
| 0:56.7 | Isidore is in the middle of a crowd of supporters from the German-America Bund. The Bund |
| 1:02.0 | advertises itself as a place where Germans in America can reconnect with their homeland. |
| 1:07.2 | But its leader, Fritz Coon, is an ardent supporter of the Nazi party, and he has attracted |
| 1:11.8 | a crowd of 22,000 fellow believers to this rally in the heart of New York. Many wear Nazi |
| 1:18.0 | armbands and uniform stormtroopers stalk the aisles. But not everyone here is a fascist. Young |
| 1:24.8 | Plummer Isidore is a Jewish American who snuck into the rally to witness |
| 1:28.7 | it firsthand. He's already listened to hours of hate from the speakers on stage, but now he |
| 1:34.4 | watches with disgust as Fritz Coon himself struts out to a hero's welcome. Coon begins his |
| 1:40.6 | diatribe, and with each mocking and hate-filled statement, Isidore becomes more and more |
| 1:45.4 | angry. Coon's audience, though, responds with laughter, cheers, and Nazi salutes. It's too much to bear. |
| 1:53.1 | So Isidore pushes his way through the crowd and charges onto stage right at Fritz Coon himself. |
| 1:58.9 | Coon startled, angry and afraid, |
| 2:01.2 | but Isidore doesn't attack him. |
| 2:03.4 | Instead, he grabs the microphone cable |
... |
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