Bradley W. Hart. Hitler's American Friends: The Third Reich's Supporters in the United States. : Thomas Dunne Books, 2018. 296 pp. Illustrations. $28.99, cloth, ISBN 978-1-250-14895-7.

Reviewed by Stephen H. Norwood

Published on H-Diplo (August, 2019)

Commissioned by Seth Ofenbach (Bronx Community College, The City University of New York)

Bradley W. Hart’s Hitler’s American Friends gressively against US military and economic sup‐ makes a convincing case that during the period port for Britain when it stood alone against Nazi from ’s assumption of power in Ger‐ Germany’s war machine, which by the end of June many until the US intervention in World War II, 1940 had overrun most of non-Soviet Europe. In groups sympathetic to attracted much addition, Hart’s work examines how the Hitler more support among Americans than most schol‐ government developed relationships with mem‐ ars acknowledge. Hart focuses on three of the bers of the US Congress and congressional staf, most important of these groups—the German and with American university administrators and American Bund, the Silver Legion, and the Chris‐ some faculty members, to present a favorable im‐ tian Front—that promoted a virulent anti‐ age of the Third Reich in the United States and semitism almost indistinguishable from that of even to conduct espionage. the Nazis. Hart emphasizes the groups’ broad geo‐ The book begins with one of the most famous graphical reach across the country. They drew sig‐ antisemitic speeches given in the United States nifcant support from two of the nation’s largest until that time, delivered by aviator hero Charles ethnic groups, (especially the Lindbergh, the AFC’s “most popular circuit speak‐ Bund) and Irish Americans (the Christian Front). er” (p. 2), in Des Moines, Iowa, on September 11, The Silver Legion’s backing came largely from 1941. The speech was broadcast on radio across Protestants, the Christian Front’s from Catholics. the country to a sizeable mainstream audience. Hart also devotes considerable attention to The nation’s press gave it considerable attention the America First Committee (AFC), the nation’s the next day. Lindbergh accused the of using leading isolationist organization in the years prior their “large ownership and infuence in our mo‐ to American entry into World War II, whose esti‐ tion pictures, our press, our radio, and our gov‐ mated membership of eight hundred thousand ernment” to push the United States into a disas‐ was easily the highest of the groups he discusses. trous war. He warned darkly of a pogromist back‐ Primarily a conservative isolationist organization, lash if the United States entered the European the AFC included some liberal and socialist paci‐ confict: the Jews “will be among the frst to feel fsts and many militant antisemites. The AFC was its consequences” (p. 2). Hart quotes New York particularly dangerous to the security of Euro‐ mayor Fiorello La Guardia’s characterization of pean and American Jewry because it lobbied ag‐ H-Net Reviews

Lindbergh’s statements as “a carbon copy of a Flannagan declared on the House foor that “he Nazi paper” (p. 3). did not want ‘any Ginsberg’ to lead his son in bat‐ The book includes a chapter on US citizen and tle.”[1] pro-Hitler propagandist George Sylvester Viereck, The book devotes attention to the economic whom Hart identifes as the Nazi government’s assistance many leading American corporations “single most important source of US political intel‐ provided by establishing sub‐ ligence” (p. 98). Viereck had been a paid propa‐ sidiaries there. These corporations, some of which gandist for the German government during World had already invested considerable funds in Ger‐ War I, both before and after US entry, and had many before Hitler came to power, included Coca backed Hitler since 1923. Shortly after Hitler as‐ Cola, IBM, Woolworth’s, Ford, and General Mo‐ sumed power in 1933, Viereck began working tors, which had taken over the German automo‐ with the German Tourist Information Ofce to en‐ bile manufacturer Opel in 1929. These corpora‐ courage Americans to vacation in Nazi Germany. tions violated the boycott of German goods and This efort was designed to provide the Hitler gov‐ services, well underway in the United States by ernment with much-needed foreign exchange and the fall of 1933, thereby economically strengthen‐ expose the visitors to Nazi propaganda. Viereck’s ing Nazi Germany as it was rapidly rearming. most important accomplishment was developing Hart details the signifcant assistance some of relationships with members of the US Congress these corporations provided the German military. and their stafs that allowed him to obtain inside, He notes that Opel trucks “became the German and sometimes very sensitive, information about army’s favorite form of mechanized transporta‐ congressional discussions of afairs of concern to tion” (p. 123). Opel also provided parts for Luft‐ the Hitler government. Viereck developed particu‐ wafe bombers deployed in the Battle of Britain. larly strong contacts with isolationist senators , America’s most famous antisemite Ernest Lundeen and Burton Wheeler and with and AFC member, opened a plant in Cologne, Representative Hamilton Fish. Viereck had Ger‐ which supplied Hitler’s army with military vehi‐ man ofcials arrange for, and fund, the distribu‐ cles that it used in occupying Czechoslovakia. Ed‐ tion to the American public of massive numbers sel Ford decided to continue production at the of copies of isolationist and anti-British speeches company’s factory in France after its surrender in by members of Congress. The German embassy in 1940. Hart points out that American corporations Washington, DC, also fnanced Viereck’s purchase with plants in the Third Reich had a “vested inter‐ of Flanders Hall, a book company that he trans‐ est” in preventing US intervention in a European formed into Nazi Germany’s major publishing war, “especially with the Royal Air Force starting house in the United States. to bomb German factories that might soon in‐ Hart should have provided more context in clude their own” (p. 130). this chapter by discussing open expressions of an‐ In a chapter entitled “Students,” Hart sup‐ tisemitism on the foors of Congress. David S. ports the argument I made in The Third Reich in Wyman in his The Abandonment of the Jews the Ivory Tower (2009) that American institutions (1984) quoted US Representative John Rankin’s de‐ of higher learning helped to legitimize the Third nunciation of Jewish journalist Walter Winchell, Reich by forging friendly ties with German uni‐ who repeatedly condemned and the versities, despite the Nazifcation of their curricu‐ Third Reich in his column, as “that little kike.” lum, the discharge of Jewish faculty, and the Leonard Dinnerstein in his Antisemitism in Amer‐ sharp limitation on Jewish enrollment. For exam‐ ica (1994) reported that US Representative John ple, university administrators warmly welcomed

2 H-Net Reviews high-level Nazi Party and government ofcials diately following . The Bund estab‐ who came to their campuses to present Hitler’s lished a network of camps to indoctrinate German case. American colleges and universities hosted American youths in Nazi ideology and to instill a German exchange students that the Hitler govern‐ martial outlook in boys. Hart does not discuss the ment had trained as Nazi propagandists, while Friends of the New Germany’s and Bund’s aggres‐ sending American students to the Third Reich, sive, often violently enforced boycott of Jewish- where they were subjected to Nazi indoctrination. owned shops in ’s heavily German American exchange students often became advo‐ American Yorkville section. The Bund terrorized cates for the Hitler regime upon their return to and physically attacked Yorkville Jews and ruined this country. The chapter also devotes attention to many Jewish businesses.[3] Yet, strangely, Hart the Paul Reveres, allegedly engaged in espionage mistakenly claims at one point that the Bund was for Nazi Germany at colleges and universities, not “openly antisemitic” (p. 66), even as he and to American fascist propagandist Lawrence presents evidence elsewhere contradicting this. Dennis, who received many “high-profle” campus Closely associated with Nazi Germany, the Bund speaking invitations (p. 159). The Hitler govern‐ was unable to survive US entry into World War II. ment provided some funding to Dennis through The similarly pro-Nazi Silver Legion, headed George Viereck. by William Dudley Pelley, was about the same size The book’s frst two chapters provide useful as the Bund—ffteen thousand to the Bund’s twen‐ overviews of the virulently antisemitic German ty thousand, by Hart’s estimate of their peak American Bund and Silver Legion, respectively; membership, with each having an additional hun‐ the third, on “The Religious Right,” is devoted dred thousand sympathizers (p. 239). The Silver mainly to Charles Coughlin and the Christian Legion identifed as Christian, and its locals had Front. The third chapter also includes some dis‐ chaplains. It had a paramilitary branch, the Silver cussion of the rabidly antisemitic ministers Ger‐ Rangers, whose “weapon of choice was a scourge ald Winrod and Gerald L. K. Smith, who after whip based on the one Jesus had supposedly used World War II became arguably America’s most to drive money changers from the temple in the prominent antisemite before Louis Farrakhan. Gospels” (p. 55), an image antisemites frequently Hart shows how German Nazi ideology strongly used to contrast Christians’ “spirituality” with infuenced all of these groups and individuals. But Jews’ alleged materialism. The Silver Legion he largely overlooks how the Christian Front’s vi‐ claimed that the Jews controlled the United States ciously antisemitic propaganda inspired savage by dominating itsfnancial, industrial, and com‐ violence against Jews, escalating in the late 1930s, munications systems, and its leading politicians. and peaking in what were called at the time Hart could have drawn a parallel between Sil‐ “small .”[2] ver Legion chieftain Pelley and contemporary an‐ The Bund, which evolved out of the Friends of tisemitic leader Louis Farrakhan, both of whom the New Germany (1933-36), was founded in 1936, embraced bizarre theories about Jews’ modeled on the Nazi storm troopers, and com‐ vast power and demonic intent and had delusions posed largely of frst- and second-generation Ger‐ of being in communication with divine beings or man Americans. Even though the Bund’s strong spirits. Farrakhan claimed that he had been trans‐ German American identity limited its appeal to ported in a beam of light to a massive spacecraft other ethnic groups, it still benefted from a size‐ called the “Mother Wheel,” where the deceased able German immigration precipitated by the col‐ Nation of (NOI) leader , lapse of the German economy in the years imme‐ whom the NOI regarded as a prophet, spoke to

3 H-Net Reviews him and predicted the future.[4] Pelley declared threatening to “every civilized society.”[6] He that Jesus had forecast to him Hitler’s coming to gives only passing attention to Coughlin’s promo‐ power. This was the sign that Pelley was to estab‐ tion of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, one of lish a “Christian Militia” to rescue the United the most pernicious pieces of antisemitic propa‐ States from the Jews. Jesus had again contacted ganda ever concocted. Pelley to endorse his creation of the Silver Shirts. The chapter should have included a discus‐ Like the Bund, the Silver Shirts were unable sion of the Christian Front’s anti-Jewish terrorism, to survive US entry into World War II. Both which began in the late 1930s and continued dur‐ groups sufered from incompetent leadership, ing World War II, when Jews of all ages and both which included fnancial mismanagement. Pelley sexes in and New York City were repeated‐ also charged President Franklin Roosevelt in sev‐ ly subjected to brutal beatings. These attacks, eral articles with “tempt[ing] the Japanese into which left many Jews seriously injured and some war,” and he called Japan’s bombing of Pearl Har‐ disfgured, was inspired by the massive outpour‐ bor “divine justice punishment” (p. 65). This led ing of Christian Front propaganda circulating in the US government to have Pelley arrested on those cities. The propaganda also led to serious sedition charges. damage to many Jewish-owned stores and the The Christian Front was the most infuential desecration of Jewish cemeteries. In addition, it —and violent—American antisemitic, fascist contributed to the spread of defeatist sentiment group to emerge during the 1930s. Members were during World War II, particularly pronounced in inspired by the rants of the Catholic priest Charles Boston.[7] Coughlin, whose radio audience “was the largest These criticisms aside, Hart is to be com‐ in the world” (p. 70). In 1940, Coughlin’s newspa‐ mended for drawing attention to the extent of an‐ per Social Justice, sold in front of many Catholic tisemitic agitation in the United States during a churches, enjoyed a circulation surpassing two critically important period. This subject has re‐ hundred thousand. Hart drops any substantive ceived far too little scholarly attention. In recent discussion of the Christian Front after Coughlin’s decades virulently antisemitic neofascist groups, withdrawal from political activity in 1942 as a re‐ such as the and , sult of pressure from his archbishop and the US both of which have roots in the 1930s, have be‐ government. In fact, the Christian Front remained come a signifcant danger in the United States. A a force defaming and precipitating violence greater understanding of the American Far Right against Jews not only through World War II, but and its history is essential. for a decade after the war’s end.[5] Notes Hart opens the chapter on the “Religious [1]. David S. Wyman, The Abandonment of the Right” by discussing Coughlin’s defense of Hitler’s Jews: America and , 1941-1945 (New policies against Germany’s Jews in his radio York: New Press, 2007 [1984]), 14; Leonard Din‐ broadcast after the November 1938 nerstein, Antisemitism in America (New York: Ox‐ nationwide . He also cites Coughlin’s claim ford University Press, 1994), 136. in the speech that Jewish bankers had fnanced [2]. Stephen H. Norwood, “Marauding Youth the Bolshevik Revolution. Hart could have high‐ and the Christian Front: Antisemitic Violence in lighted many more of Coughlin’s venomous anti‐ Boston and New York During World War II,” semitic slanders and libels, indistinguishable American 91 (June 2003): 233–67. from those of the Nazis. These included his charge that the Talmud contained immoral precepts

4 H-Net Reviews

[3]. Stephen H. Norwood, “Antisemitic Terror, Defeatism, and Anti-Zionism: Coughlinism and the Christian Front, 1934-1955” in From Antisemitism to Anti-Zionism: The Past & Present of a Lethal Ideology, ed. Eunice G. Pollack (Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2017), 127. [4]. Eunice G. Pollack, Racializing Anti‐ semitism: Black Militants, Jews, and , 1950- Present (Jerusalem: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2013), 30–31. [5]. Norwood, “Antisemitic Terror,” 113–47. [6]. Ibid., 122. [7]. Norwood, “Marauding Youth and the Christian Front,” 233–67; Stephen H. Norwood, “American Anti-Semitism during World War II,” in A Companion to World War II, ed. Thomas Zeiler (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), 909–25.

If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-diplo

Citation: Stephen H. Norwood. Review of Hart, Bradley W. Hitler's American Friends: The Third Reich's Supporters in the United States. H-Diplo, H-Net Reviews. August, 2019.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=53873

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

5