Prior to World War II America was in one of the worst depressions and unemployment crisis they have ever faced. In the little state of NJ there was a massive amount of German Immigrants living there, over 100,000, and they needed a way to express there anger toward the government. There were many bloody fights between plant workers and the people who owned the plants, the Germans looked back to their home land and saw Hitler had turned around the poverty stricken economy and turned it around. Only a certain portion of the immigrants accepted the Nazi ideals that Hitler was using, they soon became known as the Bund having over 10,000 members just from NJ, the Nazi party back in Germany actually gave the Bund funding. The leader of the Bund was a man by the name of Fritz Kuhn, he was a WWI vet and hand picked by Hitler himself to lead this radical movement in America. Camp Nordland which was opened in a little town, also my hometown of Andover NJ drew a ton of people to the little area. Over 10,000 people turned out to the opening of this camp, the people of Andover which only had a population of a little under 500 people at that point accepted the Bund because they brought a ton of revenue to the small town. However they did not like them per say as they walked around saluting Hitler, wearing swastikas, and military uniforms. As time went on people would start to protest the camp and claim that they were doing wrong things, the leader Fritz Kuhn was being looked at the FBI and IRS for embezzlement of money, DWI charges, and many more. The camp would hold weekend get aways at the camp for children, they would learn to march, learn the ranks of Hitler's army, and that the only perfect man is a white Christan German. Soon the deputy of Andover started to set up a personal crusade to kick them out he would attend meetings and take down every one's licence plate and watch all the activities going on and tell the FBI. I remember when I was a little kid going to Hillside, which is now a children's park. Kinda creepy when you think about this dark party of history there.
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| Little bridge thing we had to cross to get over a little stream/mud |
Does anyone own the area right now?
ReplyDeleteThe pictures suggest Camp Nordland is only a few ruins in the woods. Actually the main building in the top picture is still in use as a Recreation Hall at Hillside Park for the Township of Andover, and the fields where rallies and marches were held are now soccer and baseball fields.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid, the area was used as a kind of a resort. The cabins were still intact. I remember people swimming on that side of the lake and docks I think
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ReplyDeleteSummer Camp NJ
Does anyone know how to get there exactly from the park entrance ?
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