In the 1930s, there were Nazis in America. In the summer of 1934, residents of Griggstown, New Jersey watched with alarm as tents emblazoned with swastikas were erected on the banks of the Delaware and Raritan Canal. Two hundred boys ranging in age from eight to sixteen, dressed in khaki shirts, black rubber-soled shoes, and brown stockings rolled below the knees, conducted military-style drills before swastika flags that were four feet long. These exercises were part of a youth summer camp called Wille und Macht (Will and Might), sponsored by the Friends of the New Germany, the largest Nazi organization in America, with more than ten thousand members.
Camp Wille und Macht opened shortly after the Friends of the New Germany held a massive rally attended by twenty thousand people in New York's Madison Square Garden. Nazi storm troopers stood at attention atop a red-draped platform. On each side of the stage were black columns decorated with the German eagle bearing the swastika. The Nazis wore swastika armbands and uniforms consisting of military trousers, Sam Browne belts, high boots, and white shirts. Seven hundred policemen patrolled the Garden, attempting to rein in rowdy counterprotesters including the Young Communists' League and the "Anti-Nazi Minute Men."
