Throughout the duration of the war, ADL fought bigots and fascist groups on American shores. Pro-fascist organizations at the time included the German-American Bund. The Bund staged Nazi rallies and marches, including an infamous rally in Madison Square Garden. ADL sounded the alarm in speeches to Jewish audiences and investigated these groups, successfully exposing their links to Hitler's Germany.

Nazi liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto

By the war's end, the implementation of what was meant by the "final solution" became evident: more than 6 million Jews, including 1 million children, had been ruthlessly murdered. Yet the horror of places like Auschwitz. . . Buchenwald. . . Dachau was only fully exposed at the Nuremberg trials when detailed accounts were given of the "murders and ill treatment. . . carried out by diverse means, including shooting, hanging, gassing, starvation, gross overcrowding, systematic under nutrition. . . kicking, beatings, brutality. . ."

Post-war tensions pointed to the need for the enactment of civil rights laws. The League waged a campaign against discrimination in housing, employment and education and instituted a highly successful "crack the quota" campaign against anti-Jewish discrimination in college and university admissions. ADL applauded the U.S. Supreme Court's declaring that restrictive covenants in housing were unenforceable. ADL also began its effort to bring reform to the harsh immigration quotas which had prevented the rescue of many European Jews.

Exploring new frontiers in social and judicial reform, the League filed its first church/state-related amicus brief in 1948 in McCollum v. Board of Education, where ADL questioned the constitutionality of released time for religious instruction held in public school classrooms. In the years since, ADL has filed amicus briefs in practically every major church/state case, consistently arguing that government remain distinct from religion. At the same time the League remains a champion of the right of every American to the free exercise of religion.

On May 14, 1948, as a result of the decision of the United Nations to partition Palestine, the State of Israel was miraculously born, bringing hope for a people shattered by the Holocaust. Holocaust survivors began rebuilding their lives in the fledgling Jewish state. Yet the Jewish homeland became the target of a new movement: anti-Zionism. Arab anti-Jewish sentiment erupted as a result of the new state; others who had previously scorned Jews for being stateless and homeless now excoriated Jews for having a state.

The Ku Klux Klan

At home, ADL continued its crusade to stamp out prejudice and bigotry. When the League learned that the Georgia Ku Klux Klan was planning a revival of its anti-Black terror, it joined forces with a sympathetic Southern journalist who infiltrated the Klan. For two years, the journalist, using a fictitious name, fed information to the League, which in turn made it available to appropriate law enforcement authorities and the press. This exposure assisted ADL in obtaining widespread passage in Southern states of its model statute to unmask the Klan.

Next: 1950-1960