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I was not a good history student. In my post-WWII childhood, I lived in a bubble. We were too poor to travel anywhere, so the places where history happened were foreign to me. Some then-current things stand out, like the 1957 launch of the Soviet Union's satellite, Sputnik, or the construction of fallout shelters in our basements after the Cuban Missile Crisis, but what I remember most about my elementary school education in history was having to memorize the Gettysburg Address, the Preamble to the Constitution, and the names of the Presidents of the United States. I recall it as a requirement in order to graduate from 8th grade. I met that requirement, but remained uneducated about so much American history.

I did not fare much better in high school, more interested in the fact that my boyfriend sat next to me in U.S. History II than I was in anything my teacher was lecturing about. And this, despite the fact that I graduated in 1968, the year that everything happened.

Okay, so maybe I did a little bit better than I've implied. I maintained As and Bs in history classes, and I had the beginnings of my political leanings emerge during a time when social justice was paramount. But I have regrets about not learning more, understanding more, or being able to make reference to events that seem eerily similar to the events of the day.

I am currently reading Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, a "narrative invention" that he penned in 2004. It's frigging blowing my mind. I will have more to say about it in a future blog post, after I've finished reading it. Essentially, Roth re-imagines American history, writing of the election of Charles Lindbergh in 1940. As with most Roth novels, the focus is on the American Jewish experience. Lindbergh wins the election because he is against American involvement in the war, a position that supports Hitler's agenda.

In reading that far, I recalled stories about Hitler Youth camps existing in my own little county in New Jersey. I googled the topic and found a story in Weird New Jersey, which gave me all the information I needed. Although the events occurred before I was born, the fact that the Nazi presence was so close to home was jarring. (Although my information comes from the Weird New Jersey story, credit has to go to local author and historian Frank Dale for his research and documentation.)

Bund Camp Nordland opened on July 18, 1937 in Andover, New Jersey, a town with a population at the time of 479 people. "Bund" means "Federation," and this federation was the American equivalent of the Nazi party. Originally named "The Friends of the New Germany," it was renamed in 1935 as the "German-American Bund." Fritz Kuhn was hand-picked by Hitler to be the "American Fuhrer." The opening of Bund Camp Nordland drew 10,000 German-Americans to little Andover, and initially, the locals accepted the camp, as it contributed to their economy.

Bund Camp Nordland offered weekend retreats where German-Americans could drink beer, sing songs of the Fatherland, converse in German, and "take comfort in the knowledge of their own racial superiority." Youth camps, although looking like Boy Scout Jamborees, also celebrated German superiority. Ouch.

I am of German ancestry. I have been to Germany. I have friends in Germany. My name is German. Twice, when traveling abroad, I have been asked if I am German. I have also read a lot of Holocaust literature. Just as I know that most Americans do not approve of the xenophobic policies of the current administration, I know that not all of German citizenry approved of Nazi rule.

Eventually, local hero Denton Quick, Sussex County Sheriff, began a personal crusade against the Bund. He would take down license plate numbers of every car in the parking lot at rallies and events. He offered information to the FBI. By 1940, the Bund began to lose its acceptance in the area, and in a misguided effort to reboot its popularity, it invited the Ku Klux Klan (who claimed 60,000 New Jerseyans as members) to Camp Nordland for a joint rally on August 18 of that year. The Bund posited that it and the KKK shared common goals and ideology. Over 3,500 Klansmen and Bundists attended.

Meanwhile, Sheriff Quick was not giving up. On April 30, 1941, he and a few deputized American Legionnaires raided the compound. They confiscated material which they gave to the FBI and allowed the press to photograph Hitler's portrait and the huge swastikas affixed to the roofs. They shut the place down, never to reopen again. Fritz Kuhn served some time in Sing-Sing and other detention facilities, and ten years later, back in Germany, died.

The 205 acres on the banks of Lake Iliff, site of the Bund camp, are now used as recreational fields. I doubt that many of the children playing sports on the site know the dark history of its past. Perhaps that's not a bad thing. But adults? We need to understand how easily evil ideologies can invade a population. Pay attention. Don't let evil settle in close to home.