Letter: Historical society covers good and bad

I wanted to comment on Trent Sanders’ letter in which he criticizes the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley for sanitizing the history of Crescenta Valley Park. It appears that Sanders is referring to the “CV Then and Now” column (which I write) that was in the Crescenta Valley Weekly on Sept. 24. He makes reference to my description of a “latticed building” and “a gathering place for German Americans.” The description I wrote was of a German American celebration in the 1950s, long after the existence of the pre-WWII German American Bund.

There have been a lot of misunderstandings about what Hindenburg Park was. It was purchased in the early ’30s as private picnic grounds by a German American cultural organization. There were many German immigrants in the valley then, and they celebrated their heritage, just as Armenian Americans and Korean Americans do today. The park was available as a rental facility, and in the late ’30s was rented on several occasions by the Bund, a group who thought of themselves as the American arm of the German Nazi Party. Hindenburg Park was not their headquarters. It was a park they rented.

The Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley, of which I am the past president, is not usually accused of “white washing” our local history. If anything, just the opposite. We cover the bad history equally with the good. It’s important to understand the mistakes of our past, in order to not repeat them.

Mike Lawler

La Crescenta