I remember visiting an area on a street
which ran parallel to Oraton Parkway in Irvington a little distance
north of Springfield Ave, which meets the description of Montgomery
Hall in the subject article (Nat
Bodian's 'When the Nazis Came to Newark -- Details Now Unveiled').
I remember being dragged by a neighbor to a meeting there before
WWII for the purpose of attending a meeting of a group which was
probably the Socialist party. I remember being introduced to the
main honcho of the Socialist party at that time, who was Norman
Thomas. I was about fourteen years old. I didn't know who Norman
Thomas was, nor did I know anything about the Socialist party.
I also remember that Fritz Kuhn was the head of the German American
Bund who lived as I remember it in a house on Union Ave in Irvington
just short of Irvington Center. Everyone in town knew who he was
and where he lived and were aware of the gatherings of the Bund
members, but no one really cared much until the international scene
heated up just before December 7, 1941.
I graduated from Irvington High School in 1940 and I have always
remembered that there was a girl in one of my classes who was evidently
from a German family. Her name was Johanna Lupp, and in either 1939
or 1940, she left with her family and returned to Germany. I have
always wondered what happened to her and her family. She was in
my class in Latin and was a brilliant student.
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