A Long Island enclave established by Nazi sympathizers
has to dramatically change the way it operates to end decades of
discrimination against nonwhite people, according to a settlement
announced today by the Attorney General's Office.
The German-American League was founded in 1937 as an offshoot of the
Nazi-promoting German-American Bund, and bought up tract homes in the
Suffolk County hamlet of Yaphank. At first, the group operated its
property as Camp Siegfried, a Nazi summer camp that for a time had its
own train from Penn Station. In the late 1930s, Camp Siegfried officials
were indicted on charges of violating the New York State Civil Rights
Act, according to the New York Times.
Subsequently, as the camp transitioned into a 40-acre residential
community, the League toned down the overt Nazi stuff, ending the
parades and sieg heiling and coming up with new names for the streets
originally named after Hitler, Goering, and Goebbels. Still, for
decades, the organization has exercised strict control over who can live
there. It owns the land beneath the houses, and long restricted leases
to members and people sponsored by members. Membership, by the way, was
limited to people "primarily of German extraction and of good character
and reputation."
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Source: Gothamist (via The Empire Report)
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