How could they have a Nazi parade in America around the time of World War Two?

There were no Neo-Nazis in 1938, just Nazis.

Here is some documentary evidence from the U.S. Holocaust Museum about contemporary American groups that supported the Nazis. There’s even a photo of the rally that you mentioned. Here’s an article about the German American Bund, which was a Nazi front group in the U.S.

Fascism was not just “a German thing.” There were many latent or overt Nazi/fascist supporters in the U.S., Britain, France, etc.

How could they have a Nazi parade in America ?
Because thousands of Soldiers died so that they may have the freedom to parade there views in a public parade.
Unfortunately they are not very respectfull of that fact.

Well, this was before U.S. involvement, and before Nazi aggression on Russia or England.
It was also many years before we knew the truth about the concentration camps.

But the Nazi’s are a German thing right, so how was American groups involved?

I tried to change the contents of my question before, but it just keeps coming back to the original thing..but I am referring to events that happened in 1938 in Madison Square Garden.
Nazis not Neo Nazis.

When Germany invaded Russia there were still people saying we should have supported Germany over Russia. They were more afraid of communism than Hitler.

@Eggie,The Nazi party was the German fascist party.

The Italian Partito Nazionale Fascista came to power in Italy in 1923, ten years before the Nazis took control in Germany.

The German American Bund was an American fascist group

The UK had the British Union of Fascists.

In 1938 we were just recovering from a terrible depression. Many Americans saw the incredible recovery of Germany and thought Hitler was a genius. They didn’t understand how he achieved such economic recovery.

Remember, there were many in the US who sympathized with Hitler before 1939. They organized against “Communist” trade unions and leftist sympathizers, and got support from mainstream American Conservatives. Even Lindbergh was a bit sympathetic, as were the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

Take a look at this timeline beginning in 1834. The English translation ‘National Socialism’ was being used since 1870.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_timeline_of_Nazism#Prehistory_of_National_Socialism

One thing that no one mentioned is that overt Anti-Semitism and other kinds of racism were widespread in the U.S. and other countries at the time!!!!

The same reason there are white supremist and neo Nazi parades now. People basically explained it in answers above. Antisemitism has always been around as far as I can tell. Always, throughout time, more heavily in some places than others and also worse during various times in history. People think the Nazis were the worst, but during the Pogroms in Russia it was no cake walk for the Jewish people. There were signs in shop windows saying “no dogs or Jews” in some parts of America less than 100 years ago. Jews were accused of owning everything, even money, because it was not unusual for Jewish people to be in the banking business, and in hard times, if they held the note on your property and you couldn’t pay, you lost your house to the bank. There is an old joke that Jews don’t ski they own the mountain. It isn’t true that Jews own the majority of property, how can it be, we are 2% of the US population and less than one quarter of one percent of the world population, we are a spec in the world population, but still we are very often the scapegoats for people’s whoas. It’s a tradition.

Add in fear of comunism, and economic difficulties in America. Remember, Hitler was voted in, Germany was having difficult economic times also. Germany was modern, a democracy, it would see unthinkable what actually happened under Nazi Germany. It isn’t that the Germans are so different. Growing up Jewish we are taught if it can happen in Germany it can happen anywhere. It was not a backwards country, it was a country that pursued science, was sophisticated in many ways. My point is, it shouldn’t be so surprising there were Nazi sympathizers in America. Henry Ford (the auto guy) published The International Jew basically saying getting rid of the Jews would solve a lot of problems. Back in the day Jews did not buy Ford they bought Chrysler.

The British Union of Fascists existed in the UK in the run up to World War II and organised marches in London. It doesn’t exist anymore but there are similar extremist organisations today that are growing in strength such as the EDL though it is anti Islamic rather than anti Jewish.

Then why did America side with the Russia then and decided to oppose Hitler?

My history knowledge is terrible. Hopefully, someone with a better more detailed answer will post here, but part of the reason is because we were allied with England. The Holocaust, the killing of 6 million Jews and 3 million others was separate, but not mutually exclusive from the war. It was all going on at once. There is a story told that the US President at the time was presented with photos of the Nazi concentration camps, and that was the tipping point for him to finally get into the war, I’m not sure if I believe it, but I do believe he would have found the photos horrific.

Just because there were Nazi sympathizers in America does not mean the majority of America agreed with the Nazis. Jewish people overall felt safe in America and grateful to be in a country with religious freedom. Many of the Jewish people in America at the time of the war had fled years before from horrific conditions in Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and other countries. Some places antisemitism was very bad, other places they had been in extreme poverty. America was a place for new starts, and being full of immigrants the Jewish people were one of the many.

@Eggie: The U.S. only became directly involved in the war after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. The Japanese were our main enemies in World War II, but they were allied with the Germans, so the Germans became our enemy as a function of that. The alliance with Russia was a sort of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” deal. Tensions between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R were high before the war, but a temporary and pragmatic alliance with Russia was seen as preferable to the Nazi takeover of the entire European continent. And @JLeslie is right that just because there were Nazi supporters in the U.S. does not mean that the government or the majority of American people supported the Nazis.

@bookish1 Had Germany done anything to encourage the Japanese to launch an offensive action against the US by bombing Pearl Harbor? Was the US in Germany’s sights at all up until that point? I assume we had been selling arms and doing some other things to help our clear allies in Europe?

@Eggie – Why did America side with the Russia and decided to oppose Hitler? Because of the my enemy’s enemy is my friend principle. Hitler attacked the Soviet Union. Hitler declared war on America.

@mattbrowne So, Hitler had actually declared war on the US? Did the US respond right away?

@JLeslie – Yes, on December 11, 1941. See

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/11/newsid_3532000/3532401.stm

Yes, the US responded right away.