ABSTRACT
The Nazi-Soviet Pact, a ten-year non-aggression agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union, was signed on August 23, 1939. American anti-Nazi policies were based on the fear that Germany would upset the balance of European power and threaten American interests. Jewish interests were not a consideration in formulating America's foreign policy vis-a-vis Germany and the German-American Bund. As 1939 began, new voices in Newark's Christian community were raised against anti-Semitism. The most successful front created by the Communist Party was the American League Against War and Fascism, renamed the American League for Peace and Democracy in 1937. The Spanish Civil War was perfect fodder for Popular Front activities. Liberal groups of all stripes backed the beleaguered Loyalists. The Workers' Alliance, a joint project of the Communist and Socialist parties, was a pressure group comprised of labor unions and the unemployed that tried to obtain more benefits for its constituents from the New Deal.
