Seven youths, members of a group which organized itself under the name “United Nordic Confederation” for the purpose of emulating Hitlers racial theories–and whose leader preached the deportation of all American Jews to Israel and all Negroes to Africa–were in jail here today unable to raise bail and facing heavy prison sentences on a variety of charges. They were arrested after it was established that they planned to rob a New York bank to raise a $40,000 treasury.
Police were hunting today for “hundreds” of other alleged members of the two-month old organization formed to “unite and purify all the Nordic peoples of the race.” George Leggett, 21-year-old leader of the gang, boasted that there were more members at large and that they would carry on. Leggett Used the Prussian alias of George von Lictor in the organization which he commanded.
When police rounded up the nine gang members during the week-end they also picked up an arsenal of three 32 caliber rifles and 18 knifes, bayonets and daggers, including one official Nazi dagger with a swastika on the hilt. They also found a detailed map of the Kew Gardens branch of the Chase National Bank which the gang was planning to hold up. The money was to be used to open a Nazi-like camp “upstate somewhere.”
By the time the seven older members of the United Nordic Confederation were arraigned yesterday, they were facing a variety of charges including violation of the Sullivan Law for possession of the weapons, burglary charges for breaking into an apartment which they used as a headquarters, felonious assault of several members who broke away from the gang and conspiracy to rob the bank. In the absence of $2,000 to $9,000 in bail, the seven were sent to jail. Two 15-year-olds will be arraigned in Children’s Court tomorrow. Most of the gang members were students at Forest Hills School in Queens, N.Y.
All members of the United Nordic Confederation were required to sign an oath dedicating their lives to racial purification and the restoration of the “moral strength, spiritual greatness and physical perfection which make up the true Nordic.” The members pledged to “be superior in all things beginning with Christianity, humanity, philosophy and science.” Leggett also had stamps printed with such slogans as “The Nordics Over All” and “For the Cause.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
