'Revisiting the “Temple of Liberty”: Nazi Germany and the Czechoslovakian Pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair'
Sat, Jan 06
|Parc 55, San Francisco
This paper will be given at the Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association and is part of a panel entitled 'Heritage and Hegemony: Exploring Imperialism and Cultural Diplomacy at the International Expositions of the Early 20th Century.'
Time & Location
Jan 06, 2024, 1:30 PM PST
Parc 55, San Francisco, 55 Cyril Magnin St, San Francisco, CA 94102
About the event
By the time the Czechoslovakian Pavilion opened at the New York World’s Fair in May 1939, the exposition grounds in Flushing, Queens had become the only place where the country still existed. Led by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, the campaign to open the Czechoslovakian Pavilion was championed by officials and everyday New Yorkers alike, and ultimately raised enough support to maintain the pavilion across each of the exposition’s two seasons in direct defiance of Nazi Germany. Following its annexation of Czechoslovakia one month before the 1939 World’s Fair opened that spring, the Third Reich demanded that the World’s Fair Corporation destroy any and all exposition material suggestive of Czechoslovakian sovereignty. Through analysis of archival records from both the Mayor’s Office in New York and the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin, this paper will explore the impact of the popular support afforded the Czechoslovakian delegation in New York and what role…