German-American Bund in Missouri

The image is retrieved from publishings of the FBI in which they were doing investigations of “Un-American Propaganda Activities.” https://archive.org/details/HCUAInvestigationOfUnAmericanPropagandaActivitiesInTheU.S.Vol.2/page/n185/mode/1up?view=theater. The German-American Bund was a frequent target of government agencies, as it was an organization mostly made up of newer German immigrants who still had loyalties to Germany and/or believed in Nazism. The Bund had their own Nazi youth camps, just like in Germany, as well as various publishings and plans to help Hitler’s reach extend to America.

In this particular cropping, the context is that an investigation is questioning the legitimacy of information regarding German sympathizers, and someone reports that a letter stamped from St.Louis was sent to someone in Chicago, and that both people were German. While it is not confirmed that anything bad was happening in this correspondence, it does show the presence of Nazi agitism in Missouri. The fact that FBI investigators were so concerned about a mailing containing information of German churches tells us that they have deep suspicions of those of German descent of being loyal to Germany over America or being in Nazi groups.