By 1936, the Bund was a powerful force, under their elected leader Gerhard Wilhelm Kunze, organizing rallies with swastikas flying proudly beside American flags. They spoke of German American pride, but it was a thin veil for the hatred lurking beneath. Bund camps, places like Camp Siegfried in New York and Camp Nordland in New Jersey, were hives of Nazi indoctrination. Word had it that upward of twenty camps had sprung up across the country.
From New York to Pennsylvania, from Wisconsin to New Jersey, whispers circulated that Dayton was next. Thousands of children had already passed through these camps, some as young as six, wearing uniforms with Hitler Youth insignia. They saluted the swastika, trained in military drills, and chanted songs of the Fatherland. Perhaps worst of all, they spread lies and hatred of Jews. These camps were not just summer retreats—they were factories producing a new generation of Americans loyal to Nazi ideals.
The city’s residents were rattled. This wasn’t distant Berlin or even the streets of New York. This was Dayton, where neighbors knew one another’s names, where families went to church on Sundays and gathered for community picnics. But now, those same streets felt less safe. The swastika was no longer just a symbol from faraway lands—it was a bold reminder that hatred, once thought distant, had seeped into their own backyards.
NEW YORK, NY – LATE 1930s
A mission had been given to Jewish crime lord Meyer Lansky. One that was just too interesting for him to ignore.
The Mob’s Accountant, renowned as the mastermind behind Murder Incorporated—an organization responsible for between four hundred and one thousand contract killings throughout the ’20s and ’30s—had become one of the most feared men in a fearsome city. Despite his illicit activities, Lansky had carved out a reputation for upholding his word, navigating the treacherous realm of organized crime with a peculiar sense of integrity. So, he was intrigued when he answered the phone and found himself on the line with Special Sessions Judge Nathan David Perlman.
Perlman, a former congressman recently appointed to the New York bench of magistrates by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, possessed connections spanning both high and low society. Recognizing a burgeoning Nazi problem in America, Perlman took it upon himself to address the issue. In the meeting, Perlman outlined the escalating confidence of Nazis openly expressing anti-Semitic sentiments. The Nazi Bund, with more than twenty thousand members and growing, had become the nation’s largest anti-Semitic group. Perlman was not the type who would normally have had dealings with gangsters, but he was active in many Jewish causes, and dangerous times called for dangerous measures.