The History of the Cleveland Nazis: 1933 - 1945
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Cleveland State University EngagedScholarship@CSU MSL Academic Endeavors eBooks Books 4-2016 The History of the Cleveland Nazis: 1933 - 1945 Michael Cikraji Follow this and additional works at: https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/msl_ae_ebooks Part of the Cultural History Commons, European History Commons, and the United States History Commons How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! Recommended Citation Cikraji, Michael, "The History of the Cleveland Nazis: 1933 - 1945" (2016). MSL Academic Endeavors eBooks. 1. https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/msl_ae_ebooks/1 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Books at EngagedScholarship@CSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in MSL Academic Endeavors eBooks by an authorized administrator of EngagedScholarship@CSU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. kH P Permission for Cleveland t\lcmory ProjeCt .@PI. ,.,a;u to print granTed by the copyright holder. The History of The Cleveland Nazis 1933 — 1945 By Michael Cikraji The History of the Cleveland Nazis: 1933 — 1945 By Michael Cikraji No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from Michael Cikraji. Expanded from a manuscript submitted in partial fulfillment of the Master of Arts Degree in History, Cleveland State University, December, 1999. Copyright © 2014, Erfindung Company, LLC, Cleveland, Ohio ISBN-13: 978-1500872793 ISBN-10: 1500872792 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 5 — 16 THE GROWTH OF NAZISM 11 IN GRATITUDE 15 CHAPTER NOTES 16 CHAPTER 1: Cleveland’s Nazi Bund 17 — 84 THE SWASTIKA ASCENDS 18 THE DEUTSCHE ZENTRALE 26 FIREBRAND RISING 31 A FASCIST FOUNDATION 40 THE MIDWESTERN RALLY 45 CLEVELAND’S HITLER YOUTH 52 THE LIFE OF A BUND OFFICER 59 A TERRIFYING VISION 64 THE BUND COLLAPSES 67 CHAPTER NOTES 77 CHAPTER 2: The Silvershirt Legion 85 — 146 THE WHITE RUSSIAN 87 THE DOCTOR & THE WRITER 98 THE DARK RELIGION 110 FLYING TOWARD FANATICISM 118 RALLYING OVER REVOLUTION 128 PEARL HARBOR 135 CHAPTER NOTES 140 CHAPTER 3: The Propaganda Machine 147 — 199 THE REICH’S AMBASSADORS 148 THE RECRUITER & THE SAINT 166 THE IVORY TOWER 179 CHAPTER NOTES 193 CHAPTER 4: The German Societies 200 — 246 THE GATHERINGS 201 RIDING THE FENCE 212 STRUGGLING OVER NAZISM 225 THE GOVERNMENT INTERVENES 233 CONCLUSION 240 CHAPTER NOTES 242 CONCLUSION 247 — 249 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 249 CHAPTER NOTES 249 Introduction This book is intended as a warning. Many people today that believe they know about Nazism, actually do not understand much of the movement at all. Put through the sieve of modern American political correctness, people often portray Nazism as being solely a study in hatred. For teachers and writers that do not comprehend (or perhaps even care) about what Nazism actually was, they commonly oversimplify Hitler’s mass movement. This hatred, they say, is but another example of a purely European concept to enslave and destroy any person, or any concept, that was not truly “white.” After all, the Nazis hated communists, the Versailles Treaty, the Weimar Republic, socialists, foreigners, gypsies, labor organizers, and most importantly the Jews. To people that push this overly generalized theme of systematized hatred, the image of the swastika flag is proof enough, since even the most ignorant American can recognize what seems like the simple illustration of hatred behind Hitler’s menacing, twisted cross. Yet the true lesson behind what Nazism was rests in why and how the Nazis came to their conclusions about the world. We are forever tortured by Nazism’s eternal and ominous questions! How did they gain so much influence over their followers? How did they legitimize a program that outwardly seemed so brutal and inhuman? And ultimately, how did they establish a gargantuan military machine that almost took over the world? These issues continue to haunt humanity, notwithstanding 6 THE HISTORY OF THE CLEVELAND NAZIS the fact that the other historic threats to world peace, such as monarchy, communism, and (hopefully) fundamentalist Islam have largely fell apart by what appears to be their own evil design, their own corrupt and rotting core. This wasn’t so with Nazism. What humanity must do is study the fundamental heart of Nazism, to learn what it taught us about ourselves. Yet we must realize that Nazism was by no means simply confined to Germany; it had its ardent followers in many other European nations, Latin America, and even the United States. If posterity does not understand the troubles that provided the fertile ground for Nazism to grow, and the passions that flung it forward, we may indeed see its rise again someday. This book serves to tell the story of Nazism in the form of a fascinating case study of a city, with an ocean and thousands of miles separating it from the fascist Fatherland. It describes the political, economic and social background concerning the rise of Nazism in Europe, and further illustrates the growth of Nazi groups in America in parallel with Nazism rising to power in Germany. This book outlines the leadership and organization of the Nazi groups, and shows the problems that American Nazis were fighting against: the Great Depression, the (supposed) Jewish control of the economy, and the international boycott of German goods. This boycott is extremely important to understanding the anger and frustration of America’s Nazis, because this boycott drastically harmed German business, and consequently Germans themselves. Yet it was mainly pushed by the enemies of Nazism that had felt the brunt of Nazism’s terror: the Jews.1 It was an effective economic measure, but it also gave the supporters of Nazism something concrete to rally against. Since there are many decades that separate the time period of this book and us today, there is space dedicated in this volume to explaining the site and situation of the land and people represented in it. THE HISTORY OF THE CLEVELAND NAZIS 7 Natiollal Germall American Bund leader Frilz Kuhn addresses a crowd during an Ameri can Nazi rally, circa 1938 All phoros collrte!>y: Special Colfecliolls. Michael Schwartz Libra/y. Cleve/am/ Slale Ulliversily Fritz Kuhn, center, and other Blind leaders discuss Ihe dcvclol) ment of American Na- 8 THE HISTORY OF THE CLEVELAND NAZIS William Dudley Pelley, in dress uniform, stands in front of his Silvershirt Legion, in Asheville, NC, circa 1936 Photo cour/<:sy: Ramwy Uhrary al UNC A,~ht:l'iIft: "UN-AMERICAN acti,·ities" wanted Iloster for William ANTED Dudley Pelley, de. scribes him as be ing " distinguished looking," ha,·ing " Ilenetr.lting" e~· cs, with an intereSI in " llhJsic research" I'hOlO COUTlUy: bun_ William Dudley P elley ,""",he CoomySherifrs ........~~~ ':.t;::. ~;o:,~ Office. NC -,_........... - ,... -............. National Sil,·ershirt _ Legion leader =~~:;c:-. ... __i':'t:....~ .....:.",;",..;;' _ ..... = ,~ -_c-~-.. --......... _ol ... ___c-. ... _... .. William Dudley Pelle~· _ _"'_"_ol. __ .. _ /'htxo ("()«neJ)·: ~~dol r.:oIlfCriO~$. __._-_ =~"':::;:;t~~..... - .. M,ehmll .';ch....,n:: /~b'''".. ""t:,~L __ --< CI""",I,,~ d Slale Uni ..... " i!)' THE HISTORY OF THE CLEVELAND NAZIS 9 For millions of Americans, the Great Depression was a terrible ordeal. In this time of economic and social decay, an extreme situation emerged. Millions of hardworking Americans had become unemployed, lost their homes, and began to go hungry. With no end in sight, some Americans believed that an extreme situation called for an extreme solution. To some, fascism and communism appeared to hold the answer to our troubles, and the interest and following of these ideas flourished during America’s Depression. This book looks at Cleveland, a major metropolitan area, and how Nazism was viewed as a way out of the Depression. However, this manuscript is much about the immigrant experience in Cleveland as well. It is fascinating to study the origins of who we are today as a people, and how we got there. But for the first immigrants that came off the ships, there was ever-present confusion, apprehension and a resounding worry about their adopted nation. How much were they products of the Old World, and how much were they reborn as new citizens of America? Ironically enough, those already established here, the elite, had similar worries about stability, and some also began to see Nazism as a valid program to help destroy the Great Depression. This book serves to look at the individuals whose passions shaped the outlook of Nazism in America as people, not merely products of their environment. What must be kept in mind, however, is that it is odd today if we think in terms of German- Americans, Russian-Americans, etc. We think in terms of white and black. Yet at the time of the Depression, the old ethnic groups of Cleveland still flaunted their Old World culture, and came smashing into the troubled politics of the time. Though some of these passions and fears are long dead and buried, some are just as alive today as they ever were. The fear of immigrants and their different ways of thinking, their questionable allegiances and 10 THE HISTORY OF THE CLEVELAND NAZIS activities, and the government’s role in investigating them in times of peril, are just as much pressing issues today in our “war on terror” as they were then. The following book is designed to look at Cleveland Nazism and the Great Depression from a variety of perspectives, chapters which are stories unto themselves. This work is a blending of subjects to illustrate the struggle for stability in Cleveland in an era of turmoil, the chapters beginning with the onset of the Depression, and coming to an end with the assault on Pearl Harbor.