April 20, 1938: The Battle of Yorkville Casino

Nazis after the battle

April 20, 1938: It was organized crime vs. Nazis. No matter who the other team is, always root against the Nazis.

In his alternate history novel The Plot Against America, novelist Philip Roth, a native of Newark, New Jersey, wrote of Jewish gangsters resisting Nazi influence. But it was based on reality. Abner "Longy" Zwillman, the most powerful gangster in New Jersey at the time, and professional boxer Nat Arno organized the New Jersey Minutemen, who coordinated with the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League, to find out when the German-American Bund, and other pro-Nazi groups in America, would organize, and confront them. Sometimes, violence erupted. Every time it did, the Nazis lost.

Longy Zwillman

Eventually, Zwillman began working with New York City's top Jewish gangster, Meyer Lansky; a Jewish Congressman and former Judge, Nathan Perlman; and America's leading rabbi, Stephen Wise. Lansky said, "The main point was to teach them that Jews couldn't be kicked around." Lansky talked to Perlman, and asked, "You got some boys who might want to punch a Nazi?"

"I do, Judge," the mobster answered. "Respectfully, you understand we can do better than punch? I know just the crew, in Brownsville. The boys in the press call them Murder, Inc." But Perlman knew he couldn't go too far: "I want you to do anything but kill them." Lucky Luciano, Lansky's childhood friend who ran American crime's "Commission," offered help, but Lansky told him it was a Jewish problem, and it would have a Jewish solution.

The Yorkville section of the Upper East Side of Manhattan had long been home to German immigrants and their children, but some of them were Jewish. The Bund recruited heavily there, and on April 20, 1938, they were ready to march down East 86th Street, nicknamed Sauerkraut Boulevard, from Carl Schurz Park to the Yorkville Casino, for a birthday party for German Chancellor Adolf Hitler.

There were 3,000 of them. They were faced by 60 Jewish-American World War I vets fought the 1,000-strong German American Bund at a birthday party for Hitler. As historian Michael Benson wrote, "Men who knew how to march were fighting men who knew how to hurt."

The “Battle of Yorkville Casino” had the desired effect:. When the next Bund meeting was scheduled for White Plains, on October 16, only about 250 of an expected 1,000 Nazis showed up, many still bearing injuries from the Yorkville fight. A strong police presence kept Lansky’s crew from getting into the arena, but he bribed two local Jewish teenagers, for $1 each, to smuggle corked, glass bottles into the event.

The following year, the Nazis had a rally at Madison Square Garden, and the Minutemen and Murder, Inc. did not disrupt it. By the end of the year, Britain and France were at war with Nazi Germany, Fritz Kuhn was a convicted criminal, and support for the Bund had collapsed completely.

The Yorkville Casino was at 210 East 86th Street. With some appropriateness, medical offices are on the site today.

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April 20, 1938 was a Wednesday. Football was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. The NHL season had ended 8 days earlier, when the Chicago Black Hawks won the Stanley Cup. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox had a day off. They had played 3 games in the previous 2 days, and played again the next day, all at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The New York Giants lost to the Boston Bees, 6-4 at the Polo Grounds. The Bees -- as the Braves were known from 1936 to 1940 -- scored 4 runs in the top of the 8th inning, on a grand slam by Gene Moore. Mel Ott went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-5 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Senators beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 3-0 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Dutch Leonard pitched a 7-hit shutout.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the St. Louis Browns, 9-0 at League Park in Cleveland. Bob Feller allowed only 1 hit, a single to Billy Sullivan in the 6th inning. He did, however, walk 6 batters.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds, 10-4 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-4 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Hank Greenberg went 0-for-3, but did draw 2 walks.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 9-4 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Paul Waner went 1-for-4, and his brother Lloyd Waner went 3-for-6.