Southbury, Connecticut

Connecticut

In 1937, a farming town in Connecticut wrote a zoning law to stop the American Nazi movement from building its largest training camp.

historicalculture

In November 1937, word went around Southbury that a man named Wolfgang Jung had bought a hundred and seventy-eight acres of farmland. Residents started asking questions. Jung turned out to be a member of the German American Bund, a group of ethnic Germans in the United States who supported Adolf Hitler. Its leader, Fritz Kuhn, was considered the leading anti-Semite in the country. And the land was meant for the Bund's largest training facility anywhere in America. The town called a meeting. Out of that meeting came a zoning department with one rule, plainly written. No military activity in Southbury, except by the United States Army. The law was adopted on the fourteenth of December, a matter of weeks after the first rumor. The Bund put down its tools. Eventually it sold the land and left.

This is the first of 2 parts. The rest runs about 2 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.

What this was written from
Residents objected by calling a town meeting and set up a zoning department with one simple rule, no military activity excluding the United States Army. The law was adopted December 14 and the Bund stopped work and eventually sold the land.

Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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