San Diego has become the headquarters of a branch of the Silver Legion of American-the “Silver Shirts”-who meet Monday nights in a back room of a one-story building at 4224 University Avenue.
These meetings are very mysterious. A sentry stands at the door to demand cards from all who wish to enter. Most of the legionnaires, who wear the silver shirt with a flaming L’just under the left shoulder, are under 35. Many of them wear shirts beneath their regular clothing, and come to the meetings in work clothes.
In the front part of the little building the organization runs a small stor, whose windows are filled with Nazi literature. The leader of the local Silver Shirts, W. W. Kemp, however, denies that the Nazis are the group’s source of income.
San Diego Silver Shirts meet nightly in some other part of the city, but this meeting place is also secret. On Friday evenings, the members and their families hold an open meeting.
Kemp refuses to give an estimate of the number of legionnaires in San Diego, Southern California, or the United States. He said, however, that there are organizations growing up rapidly all over the country.
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.
