Not a tl;dr, just my favourite bits:
Organizers believed that the fear induced by the event would help increase fundraising objectives.
The campaign was publicized in local newspapers for a few days before the event, although the “invasion” took many citizens by surprise.
Dressing stations were set up at strategic points to treat the mock casualties; they also treated the two real casualties of the event – a soldier who sprained his ankle, and a woman who cut her thumb preparing toast during the early-morning blackout.
The city was renamed “Himmlerstadt”, and Main Street was termed “Hitlerstrasse”.
At one local elementary school, the principal was arrested and replaced with a ‘Nazi’ educator dedicated to teaching the “Nazi Truth”; special lessons were prepared for high-school students throughout the city.
If Day was successful enough to spark imitations in other communities. The US government contacted the organizing committee for details of the event. A smaller-scale invasion was staged in Vancouver, using promotional materials from the Winnipeg campaign.
I’ve heard of fundraisers where members of the community are “arrested” and taken to actual jail by actual police until a certain amount of dollars are raised in that person’s name. This sounds a lot like that, just scaled up.
My dad’s stepbrother participated in one once. We knew ahead of time what was going on, so when he called to say he was “in jail” and needed help, my dad told him that he hoped my step-uncle would rot in jail and hung up. (He then called the official donation line and donated in his stepbrother’s name.)