In the United States and Europe, far-right extremism and antisemitism are rising. Since 2015, there have been 267 plots and attacks perpetrated by right-wing extremists, resulting in 91 deaths. Antisemitic and xenophobic rhetoric has also been rising. Reports of antisemitic rhetoric hit an all-time high in 2021, and antisemitic harassment has been trending upward over the last five years, including 155 instances of antisemitic vandalism at colleges and universities nationwide.
Just this fall, University of Michigan students became familiar with this harassment after antisemitic propaganda was distributed across several neighborhoods in Ann Arbor. Following this incident, then University President Mary Sue Coleman wrote a letter in solidarity with the University’s Jewish community.
In an America where white supremacists meet with former presidents and hip-hop artists openly support Hitler, it’s easy to see examples of spreading antisemitism and fascist affinity. Social media and the internet have contributed to spreading extremism, but this is not the first time antisemitism, political violence and explicit Nazism have plagued the United States.
In 1930s America, the future looked grim. The Great Depression had pushed nearly 25% of Americans into unemployment, a significant portion of Americans couldn’t adequately feed their children and the memory of tragic losses during World War I was still fresh.
In this environment of strife, isolationism abounded and extremism spread. Groups like the antisemitic Christian Front and the familiarly-named America First Committee tried to tap into American frustrations, but it was a Nazi group, the German American Bund, that would ultimately gain one of the largest followings.
The Bund first emerged in 1936 and reached an estimated 25,000 members, including a division of 8,000 “Stormtroopers,” who acted as uniformed security at events. At its height, twenty youth training camps that hosted “family-friendly” celebrations of German culture and Nazi ideology were sponsored by the group, including a “Germany Day” celebration at Camp Siegfried in Long Island that attracted 40,000 guests. The Bund sent delegations to meet Hitler and other Nazi leaders in Berlin and held rallies to spread Nazi ideology in the U.S. — including advocating for the deportation of Jews fleeing persecution in Europe.
In February of 1939, only months before Germany invaded Poland, nearly 20,000 American Nazis filed into Madison Square Garden in New York City to see the group’s leader, self-proclaimed “American Fuehrer” Fritz Kuhn, speak.
Flanked by draping American flags, swastikas and a portrait of George Washington, Kuhn started with the Pledge of Allegiance before launching into his speech. “You all have heard of me through the Jewish-controlled press,” he began, before launching into a tirade of antisemitism and white supremacy.
Outside, thousands (the exact number hasn’t been estimated) of Americans protested the event and tried to get through a wall of 1,700 police officers surrounding the venue. When a Jewish man stormed the stage and shouted “down with Hitler,” Kuhn’s security forces tore off his clothes and beat him, breaking his nose. Kuhn laughed, and the crowd cheered.
Extremism today has similarities to the extremism of the 1930s. In 2018, the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., featured slogans such as “Jews will not replace us” and “White lives matter.” Antisemitic messaging was also seen on signs and T-shirts during the Jan. 6 insurrection.
For LSA sophomore Josh Marx, who is Jewish, this rise in extremism and prejudice is concerning, but not surprising. “Antisemitism has been around for thousands of years. It’s not anything new; my family has been dealing with it for generations back to Germany (and) Europe.”
For Marx, the best path forward is through education. “We have state exams in New York — they really emphasize the Holocaust, and that’s a huge part of the curriculum in high school.” New York has one of the most detailed Holocaust education programs in the country and recently passed a bill to improve it even further.
Education isn’t the only answer though. It’s “not going to solve everything … people are still going to believe what they want,” Marx said. To fix that, Marx suggested tightening regulations on social media. That’s consistent with recommendations from the Anti-Defamation League and American Civil Liberties Union.
Extremist groups do not represent a majority of the country, and while there have been limited instances of left-wing extremism, most violence comes from the right. “Most of them are not acting upon this hatred, (but) it allows people who are mentally ill or don’t know better to … take those words against us into action,” Marx said.
When war between Germany and the Allies broke out in 1939, interest in American Nazi parties fizzled. Membership in the Bund declined, Fritz Kuhn was charged with embezzlement before being deported back to Germany and Isadore Greenbaum, the man who stormed the stage at Madison Square Garden, would enlist in the Navy to fight the Nazis once again.
In 2022, however, there is no looming geopolitical conflict to unite America. In the absence of a common enemy, new strategies need to be used. One of the main reasons the Bund became so powerful was its dominance as one of the only extremist groups on the market. Today’s extremist groups are divided, disorganized and prone to infighting. Tighter regulations on social media, specifically when it comes to hateful speech, can limit communication between groups and maintain disorganization. In the meantime, education programs like New York’s that give special attention to the Holocaust need to be expanded to every state. Extremism has plagued the U.S. before, and it’s plaguing the U.S. now.
In the face of these threats, governments, social media companies and everyday Americans need to see the fight against extremism not as a battle already won, but as a struggle in which tolerance must be continuously victorious.
Jack Kapcar is an Opinion Columnist and can be reached at jkapcar@umich.edu.