Keeping Up with the Siegfrieds

Synopsis

The German American Bund is infamous for its 1939 rally at Madison Square Garden, but what happened behind closed doors was far more dangerous. At its height, they ran over 80 chapters and 25 indoctrination camps across America, where Nazi counselors groomed children as spies, funded trips to Germany for SS training, and ran a breeding program. There was a plot to bomb Los Angeles neighborhoods, kill Jewish Hollywood actors, and gain control of the ports.

At Camp Siegfried on Long Island, up to 40,000 Nazis gathered at a time. A 2015 lawsuit revealed the community still existed, limited home sales to “people of German Extraction.” Other Bund chapters adapted, too.

This film is half history and half thrilling present-day investigation. From Long Island to Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton, Los Angeles, New Jersey, and small-town Connecticut, we tracked descendants, toured indoctrination camps, interviewed former Nazis, and stepped inside the home of a current one.

This is the urgency of the film: modern extremists are using the same playbook as the Bund, recruiting and indoctrinating people of all ages, but with the added reach of the internet. Here’s the good news: there’s an opposite playbook, and it starts with confronting history.

About the Director

Dani Faith Leonard

Dani Faith Leonard has over 15 years of experience producing feature films, series, podcasts, short-form content, and live events. Films include SXSW Audience Award-Winner THE LIGHT OF THE MOON (Amazon/Showtime), Tribeca premiere RED, WHITE & WASTED, and LEZ BOMB (Netflix), which she Executive Produced with Bobby Farrelly. A community-builder at heart, Leonard produced and creative-directed more than 100 live productions and co-founded the production company and media incubator Big Vision Empty Wallet (2010–2022), which supported dozens of culturally relevant films. Creatively known for deep dives into difficult subjects, Leonard is currently directing and producing a documentary investigating the buried history of Nazis in America, supported by leading anti-extremism organizations. As a writer and performer, Leonard publishes the top 50 humor Substack Adult Sex Ed, has toured it as a live comedy show with acclaimed guests, and has been featured in Refinery29, Nylon, Esquire, and Entertainment Weekly.

Artistic Statement

In 2017, watching neo-Nazis chant “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville, a childhood memory hit me: a swastika carved into a building near my high school. What surprises most people is where I grew up: Long Island, N.Y. In the 1930s, 40,000 members of the German American Bund used to train and indoctrinate children at Camp Siegfried. A 2015 lawsuit revealed the community was still there, restricting home sales to “people of German extraction.”

I went there to see it for myself, and what I found launched a thrilling investigation. The film is bold and deeply entertaining—a story Nazis would hate and that audiences urgently need to see. At a time when Nazi ideology is popping up everywhere, historical knowledge is low, and Holocaust denial is high, it’s important to learn just how far Nazism spread. But in this story, we all have the power to fight extremism.