Nazis, Radios & a Boxing Champ

Today in New Jersey history:

July 18, 1937: Camp Nordland, a summer camp and resort for German-American Bund members, was opened in the foothills of rural Andover Township. Members of the Bund dressed in Nazi-style uniforms and gave the fascist extended-arm salute, and the camp became the site of rallies featuring venomous rhetoric promoting a “Gentile ruled” America. In 1941, New Jersey attorney general David Wilentz authorized a raid on Nordland, which was conducted by Sussex County sheriff Denton J. Quick on Memorial Day. Quick’s men confiscated “pictures of Hitler and Nazi propaganda,” and the sheriff formally seized the camp on behalf of the state on June 10.

July 18, 1939: Radio engineer Edwin H. Armstrong began the first FM (frequency modulation) radio station, W2XMN, at Alpine, in Bergen County.

July 18, 1951: Arnold Raymond Cream (1914-1994) of Pennsauken, better known as Jersey Joe Walcott, became the world’s heavyweight champion at the relatively advanced age of thirty-seven.