Americans were alarmed by the Bund. According to Leland V. Bell, “No other foreign-inspired organization except the Communist Party aroused such resentment [in Americans].” The unrest caused by the Bund led Americans to pressure their Congressmen to do something to address the issue. Congress’s fear of the Bund and the implications of the spread of National Socialist ideals in America led to the creation of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. The fear and resentment directed towards the German Bund by Americans clearly shows that the majority of Americans were apprehensive of Hitler, and after news of his brutal, anti-Semitic policies reached American shores, did not want any part of Hitler’s ideals infiltrating the …show more content…
Samuel Untermyer, an American with German-Jewish heritage, organized a mass boycott against German-made products as a means of protesting Nazi treatment of Jews. As early as 1933, it was clear to Untermyer that Hitler’s rise to power would be bad for the Jews in Germany, and so the American League for the Defense of Jewish Rights, along with a Boycott Committee, was formed to organize the boycott of German goods. In Untermyer’s opinion, it was the moral obligation of Jews around the world to abstain from supporting German industry. However, not all American Jews were on board with Untermyer’s boycott. Many Jews abstained from participating out of fear that the boycott would anger Hitler and worsen conditions for their fellow Jews still living in Germany. Because of this, Christian Americans were more willing to boycott German goods than German-American Jews were. Untermyer was outraged by the lack of support by American Jews for the boycott, and he characterized Hitler’s treatment of Jews as a “cruel campaign of extermination” while rebuking Jewish leaders who opposed the boycott without offering any alternative methods of resistance. While the boycott was effective enough to capture the attention of both American and German officials, it fizzled out in 1938 when Untermyer fell into ill