6 Others Indicted As Traitors
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
sistance. the department said, by Atlanta, attended public schools in the Foreign Broadcast intelligence that city and a girl's finishing Service of the Federal Communica- tions Commission, which recorded school in Texas. At the age of Dr. Pound, Best, 16 she ran away from the Texas thousands of words of short-wave school, married and settled in New propaganda broadcast by the de- York. In 1915 she went to London fendants. and worked for the London Daily Aid to Enemy Charged. Mail as a reporter. She was di- 6 Others Indicted vorced from her American husband The indictments, which follow the same general pattern, allege that in 1918 and returned to New Yciak. each of the defendants gave aid Little is known of her activities to the enemies of the United States during the decade following the As Traitors by repeated broadcasts of propa- World War except that she Made 0 ganda "designed to persuade citizens several trips to Europe, and wrote of the United States to decline to occasionally for various Ameriain District Jury Names- support the United States in the newspapers and magazines. conduct of the war." During the Spanish Civil War she Americans Serving The defendants are charged with was sentenced to death by thelaoyal- As accepting employment with the ists in 1938 on charges of being' La Italian and German governments (See INDICTMENTS, Page A-5.)._ (Pictures on age A- .lip and with writing and broadcasting speeches and statements deliber- Eigh American citizens now ately intended to weaken the morale resident in Germany or Italy, in- of the American people, dissuade Ezra Pound, Best, cluding Dr. Ezra Pound, poet, au- them from making war on the Axis, undermine faith in their own thor and musician, were indicted Governinent and the governments on treason charges today by the of their Allies, and in other ways 6 Others Indicted District grand Jury. to interfere with the military and The indictments accused the naval operations of the United 'ight, two of whom were women, States. Here as Traitors d giving aid and comfort to the The indictments said all radio faa cilities of both Germany and Italy (Continued From First Page.) enemy by broadcasting propa- are under the direct control of the ganda designed to persuade respective enemy governments and spy. At the intervention of the American citizens to refuse' tso that only such messages as will State Department the sentence was support the United States in the advance the interest of the enenaa revoked and she came to the United *war. are allowed to be transmitted. States with her second husband, the Following the declaration of 'War Count de Cienfuegos whom she had Named in eight separate indict- against the United States, the in- married some years before in Spain. ments were : dictments continued, the German On her arrival here she became a Robert H. a, 47. one-time and Italian governments immedi- militant supporter of Gen. Franco UnnEt—Sra= Army officer; fot- ately started a propaganda cam- and the Spanish Fascist. Late in merly of Sumter, S. Caaalaredarick paign by short-wave broadcasta 1939 she returned to Spain and in W. helm Kaltenbach, 48, formerly beamed to the United States to 1941 went to Germany and began of I5TVi.uque, Iowa; Dr. Pound, 57, weaken the morale of the American her propaganda broadcasts for the formerly of New York City aaaaug- people. German government. las Chandler 54, formerly of BaI- According to the indictments, the As a propagandist for Hitler she tlirravard L Delaney, 57, Axis governments sought the WI) Was introduced as a "famous Cath- formerly o ney, I .: nstance of American citizens in this efaara olic orator" and her remarks are al- Drexel 8, formerly of Philadel- because their language and knosala most entirely devoted to denunci- p a; Jane Anderson, 50, formerly edge of the customs of the Ameria ations of Communism and charges of AtITITEr—Gr---refrd Max Otto can people, reinforced by false of the "Communist domination" of Kai 41, formerlys—orNew declarations of loyalty, would mat the Roosevelt and Churchill govern- York City. such propaganda broadcasts more ments. She suddenly stopped All except Dr. Pound, the Justice credible. broadcasting in April, 1942. Department said, are in the employ Biddle's Comment. Counterpart of Haw Haw. of the German Reich and broadcast Commenting on the grand jury Kaltenbach, born in Dubuque of from Berlin and other points in action, Attorney General Biddle said German immigrant parents, who Germany. Dr. Pound broadcasts it "reaffirms the fact that the United served in the World War As a sec- from lame. Six of those indicted States will not tolerate traitors, ond lieutenant of Field Artillery, are native Americans and two—the either at home or abroad. It is our was described as the Nazi's Amer- Drexel woman and Koischwitz- intention when we can to apprea ican counterpart of Lord Haw Haw, were born in Germany. hend these defendants and to bring the expatriate British Fascist who Attorney General Biddle said all them to trial before a jury of their also_ broadcasts from Germany. fellow citizens, whom they are Kaltenbach went to Germany in would be brought to trial when ap- charged with betraying. prehended. June, 1933, ostensibly to study for "It should be clearly understood his Ph. D. at the University of Under the treason statute, the de- that these indictments are based Berlin. Instead he worked as trans- fendants face either the death pen- not only on the content of the propa- lator and free lance writer and alty or, at the discretion of the ganda statements—the lies and fals,i7 later for the government-controlled court, imprisonment for not less ficatitins which were uttered—but radio system. Kaltenbach's strong than five years and fine of not less also on the simple fact that the Nazi sympathies were well known than $10,000. people have freely elected, at a time to many of the American colony The treason charges came as a when their country is at war, to,alea iat Berlin. He began his propa- result of an investigation of nearly vote their services to the cause of the ganda broadcasts to the United a year by the criminal division of enemies of the United States. They States early in 1941, usually ad- the Federal Bureau of Investigation have betrayed the first and Most dressing his remarks to "Dear and the special war policies unit sacred obligation of American citi- Harry," and other mythical Iowa of the Justice Department. The in- zenship." friends. vestigators were given material as- Jane Anderson Sentenced as Spy. Born in Darnstadt, Germany, Jane Anderson, who was born' ih Constance Drexel came to trim on the fact of his American citizen- country in 1895 with her father and ship and his command of the Broad- obtained derivative citizenship when way vernacular, which are supposed he was . naturalized in Boston in to give his broadcast an intimate year, joining the faculty of Columbia 1898. As a young women she en- "just one of the boys from home" University as an instructor in Ger- tered newspaper work with the flavor. For a time he acted as man. In 1931, he transferred to Boston Globe and later worked for master of ceremonies of "an alleged- the faculty of Hunter College, and ly humorous program" the purpose four years later became a natural- various other papers, including the ized Amreican citizen. Philadelphia Public Ledger, the of which was to satirize events in the United States. He was taken off Koischwitz visited Germany in Chicago Tribune and the McClure 1935 and in 1937. In 1939 he made Syndicate. the air in June, 1942. Koischwitz was born in Germany, another trip to that country, taking She made half a dozen trips to the son of a prominent surgeon and his family with him. He gave. no Europe and attended the Geneva received a Ph. D. degree from the intimation of his intention to re- arms conference in 1932. Even at University of Berlin in 1925. He main in Germany, the Justice De- this early date she was known came to the United States the same partment said, but after he had re- among her colleagues abroad as a quested several extensions of his staunch supporter of Hitler. In 1938, leave from Hunter College and re- she was employed in Philadelphia fused to respond to requests for in- on the WPA writers project and left terviews made by the American con- suddenly for Berlin in 1939, ex- sulate in Berlin, it became clear that plaining that her passage was being he was planning to remain in Ger- paid for by the German government. many for the duration of the Var. She began her broadcast over the By 1940 it was known that he was German short wave in 1940. She has working for the German govern- confined her broadcasting for the ment and the following year he' went :Nazis largely to "cultural" items. on the air as a propagandist. Koisch- wits is known on the German short Chandler Educated in Balthnore. waves as "sLazz I Douglas Chandler, a native of Chi- His more recent programs con- • cagq, grew up and received his sisted on commentaries on the war -education in Baltimore. He served and international politics slanted to ='for a short time in the Navy in the Nazi cause and deriding the '`the last war, worked for a few United Nations. years as reporter and columnist for fKthe Balthnore Sunday American, land then went into the advertising 'business in New York.