A picnic incident at the Bronx Zoo

Monday, December 17, 2001
Walt Sehnert

There are other things, besides ants and rain, that can spoil a picnic.

In 1940 the World' s Fair was held in Flushing Meadows, in New York City. My father, Walter, was a great fan of fairs, whether it was a county, state, or world's fair.

He had taken the family to Chicago in 1934, and to San Francisco in 1939 for the fair, and now he felt that we needed to go to New York as well. My mother, Lenita, while not as much of a fan of the large fairs, liked to travel, so we all looked forward to a motor trip to the east coast to what was billed as the World's Greatest Fair.

During that long car trip from Nebraska to New York, our folks tried to prepare my sister and me for the wonderful things we'd see at the fair, from the pavilions of the various countries, where people would be dressed in their native costumes -- just like visiting that country -- to the wonderful new inventions that would be on display. And then there would be that giant midway, with rides of all kinds, and especially the parachute jump, that was heralded in the newspapers as the ultimate in thrill rides (during the days we were at the fair it was deemed too windy to let the parachute ride operate, so we missed out on that).

But the big attraction for me was to be the Chase & Sanborn Coffee House. At that time Chase and Sanborn Coffee was the sponsor of the Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy radio program, one of the most popular programs on radio, and my personal favorite. (Edgar Bergen was a ventriloquist who was always being upstaged by his saucy little dummy, Charlie). Chase & Sanborn coffee was a product of General Foods, who also made Fleischman's Yeast.

At my dad's bakery we were users of Fleischman's Yeast, and our salesman had gotten us tickets to the Chase & Sanborn hospitality room at the fair. Edgar & Charlie (complete with monocle and tall silk hat) would be on hand, and we would get to meet them. I thought that was a really big deal.

In 1940 the world was in turmoil, though at that time we didn't realize just how close we were to World War II. The German Nazi Army had annexed Czechoslovakia in 1938 and had invaded Poland in 1939, and while we were aware of the trouble in Europe and knew that things were not good -- well, that was in Europe, a long way from America.

The United States was protected by the Atlantic Ocean. The Isolationists were vocal and there was much popular sentiment that we should let the Europeans handle their own affairs, and we should not get involved in troubles outside the Western Hemisphere.

On a Sunday in New York we made a trip to the Bronx Zoo, reportedly one of the finest zoos in the world, with wild animals on display, animals that we had only seen before in books. In addition to the animals, there were beautifully landscaped lawns. It was a beautiful day and families and groups filled the picnic area inside the grounds. There were impromptu ball games, small groups singing and laughing, and picnic tables groaning under the weight of great quantities of food. Everyone seemed to be having a wonderful time.

We were on our way to the animal cages. Suddenly, just ahead of us, there was a commotion. A group of young men, in black suits, wearing beards and skullcaps, began to argue with another group of young fellows, dressed in a kind of uniform, with brown shirts and red armbands, with the black swastika symbol.

My Dad hurried us along the path as the shouting turned to pushing and shoving and punching. We hadn't gone very far when we had to get off the path to make way for policemen, who came running down the path toward us.

Apparently they had been monitoring the situation because they had billy clubs in their hands and quickly stopped the potential riot. We really were never in any danger, but we watched with real interest while the police dispersed the crowd and led off a couple of the brown shirted fellows in the direction of the police cruisers.

The scene had happened so fast we really didn't grasp what had taken place. My dad struck up a conversation with an older fellow with a beard, wearing a black suit and black hat. He explained that he was a member of the picnicking group. They were Hasidic Jews who had come to the zoo as an outing of their Synagogue, and the brown shirted fellows were members of the German-American Bund, who were followers of Hitler and hoped to set up an American Nazi party in this country.

The German-American Bund had attempted to align itself with the America First Party, but the fellow said that was just a sham. They just wanted to keep America from joining the war in Europe. He said that the brown-shirts were nothing more than thugs, and that his group had had trouble with them before.

Recently, some of their members had been beaten up, and that there had had been yellow paint splashed on their Synagogue. They had heard rumors that one of the Synagogues in the city was going to be torched. He was more than a little agitated. He was also quite critical of the police, saying that while they had reacted quickly this time, generally they tended to look the other way, and if they didn't get serious about the Nazi threat there was going to be real trouble. He was talking about Nazi trouble in the United States, but at that time the world really wasn't taking Hitler all that seriously either. Had he only known of the trouble that Hitler would unleash upon the Jews.

But how could any of us know what evil the reality of Hitler and that Nazi threat would bring to the world in the next five years.

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