National socialism

Speech delivered in the German Reichstag on National Socialism and world relations. Translated from German to Italian.

This thesis examines the history of the influential Ge rman colony in
Guatemala and the deportation of the Germans to United States detention
camps and nationalization of their properties during World War II. Material
is included on the historical, economic, and political factors
which made the presence of a powerful German colony in Guatemala intolerable
to the United States and which led to the strong measures taken
against the colony during the war.

It is not generally known that a pro-Nazi organization, the German-American Bund, held sway among certain segments of American society during the 1920s and 1930s. The organization achieved its greatest successes after the self-proclaimed "American Fuehrer," Fritz Julius Kuhn, took up the reigns of leadership in 1936. Under Kuhn's leadership, the Bund saw a dramatic increase in its membership rolls; it is estimated that over 25,000 dues-paying members belonged to this first-ever National Socialist organization created outside the environs of Nazi Germany. This thesis explores reasons why this blatantly pro-Nazi organization thrived in the bastion of democracy. While most historians attribute other reasons for the Bund's success, this thesis argues that it was the outstanding organizational skills of Kuhn that kept the movement alive in the years prior to World War II.