-Caveat Lector-
In a message dated 12/18/98 10:45:21 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>Man, Roads End, quick research. I'm too bogged down right now to analyze in
>
>depth the pscho-babble of the pathetic Jean-Paul Sarte --- but I'll take
>
>this up when I post Fr. Fahey's short, concise clear definition of
>
>"anti-Semitism." Jim Condit Jr.
Here is some info on your Fr. Fahey. Pathetic, I guess, is in the eye of . .
.
-----
an excerpt from:
Shrine of the Silver Dollar
John L. Spivak(C)1940
Modern Age Books
New York, NY
-----
VII
PHONY PATRIOTS
NAZIS AND COUGHLIN
ON JULY 9, 1938, Vladimir Kositzan, one of the most active Nazi propagandists
in the United States, wrote the following code letter to Ernst Goerner of
Milwaukee, another active Nazi agent: "The seeds are on way to you. More of
the Italian and English available yet. Polish will follow later, from my
Erfurt nursery. I want to get rid of my supplies before my probable
departure."
The "Erfurt nursery" is the press in Erfurt, Germany, where World Service, a
Nazi propaganda organ, is published in various languages for distribution
throughout the world. Nazi ships smuggle this material into the United States
where secret German agents distribute it to groups, organizations and
individual propagandists. The "seeds," of course., were copies of World
Service, printed in the languages Kositzan listed. It was part of Kositzan's
work to keep Goerner supplied with propaganda material and informed of likely
prospects who would help distribute the smuggled literature. Kosit zan was a
sort of wholesaler, while Goerner was one of the numerous agents handling the
retail end.
At the top of his letter to Goerner, Kositzan typed this name and address:
"Miss B. R. Burchett, 3411 Race St., Philadelphia, Pa." and scrawled in
pencil: "Needs material. Mention me. Very active."
July, 1938, was also the period when the Reverend Charles E. Coughlin, who had
already begun disseminating Nazi propaganda issued by the Ministry of
Propaganda in Berlin, launched his extreme anti-Semitic campaign. His efforts
to arouse racial and religious hatred in this country brought immediate
protests, not only from Jews but from high dignitaries of the Catholic church
and prominent Catholic laymen. Several radio stations announced they would not
sell time to the priest unless he submitted his script for advance reading to
see if he was "bearing false witness" as former Governor 'Alfred E. Smith had
publicly charged. When Coughlin would not agree to this "censorship," the
radio stations refused to let him go on the air.
Suddenly groups to defend Coughlin popped up. They called meetings to demand
that he be given his "constitutional rights of free speech." What these groups
were and the leaders' strange tie-ups will be dealt with in this chapter. At
the moment I am interested in Bessie Burchett, formerly head of the department
of foreign languages in the South Philadelphia High School for Girls, the lady
whose name Kositzan had sent to Goerner.
Within a few weeks after the Nazi agent in Milwaukee received Kositzan's
letter, Miss Burchett was on the public platform with Nazi and Silver Shirt
leaders, demanding that Coughlin be returned to the air. Most of her talks,
delivered in an atmosphere of Hitler salutes, were vicious anti-Semitic
diatribes. At no time did she mention how she became involved in Coughlin
defense efforts or that she had received material from Nazi agents.
At about this same period a young man named Edwin Westphall, hungry-looking, a
bit shabby, and down at the heels, 'Managed to eke out an existence by
peddling razor blades to the dinner and theater crowds on Times Square in New
York. Sometimes he made a couple of dollars, but it was hard sledding. Like
most Broadway peddlers, the seedy Mr. Westphall had something quick and alert
about him and he had that gift of gab so necessary if you're going to work the
Broadway population.
Times Square, where Westphall roamed with the coming of night, was being made
a concentration point by distributors of Social Justice. Frequently a Social
Justice peddler and the hawker of razor blades found themselves side by side.
Then one day Westphall disappeared, only to pop up again in the Bronx with new
shoes and new suit, cleanshaven, spick and span--and an authority on the
Constitution and the Bill of Rights. He was indignant about the radio stations
which would not permit Father Coughlin to go on the air. The same glib tongue
that sold razor blades now sold the need of "saving America"--and Coughlin-
through the "Crusaders for Americanism," which was headed by one George A. Van
Nosdall with offices at 126 East 123rd Street, New York City.
>From now on we get into a group of closely cooperating men, most of them
native Americans, some of them phonies and others just hopeful of becoming
spies for foreign governments under cover of ultrapatriotic rackets. All of
them, I found, were galvanized into action to defend Coughlin's ("right of
free speech," and the unison in which these apparently separated individuals
and leaders of groups raised the same rallying cry seems to point to one
directive source.
Van Nosdall, who headed the save-America crew, was closely tied up with Nazi
agents and was once publicly acclaimed as "the greatest living American" by
Fritz Kuhn, head of the Nazi Bund in this country. Besides being a crusader
Van Nosdall was also a bit sanguinary. At one of the Coughlin defense
meetings, held at Triboro Palace, Bronx, New York, he gave the Nazi salute to
the applauding crowd and shouted: "When we get through with the Jews in
America they'll think the treatment they received in Germany was nothing. . .
. Judaistic gore will soon flow in the streets of New York City!"
One of the frequent chief speakers for these pro-Coughlin "Crusaders" was G.
Wilhelm Kunze, press agent for the German-American Bund. Another who often
conferred with Van Nosdall in secret sessions was Edward James Smythe, a drunk
who ran an imposing outfit called Protestant War Veterans of the United
States, with offices at 149 Vermilyea Avenue in New York. Smythe was one of
the chief organizers of the Christian Front, Coughlin's potential corps of
storm troopers which I shall deal with later in this chapter.
In the midst of Coughlin's row with the radio stations, his Eastern
representative, the Reverend Edward Lodge Curran, arranged a big patriotic
fest at the Hotel Iroquois in New York which was to defend Coughlin and save
the Constitution at the same time. A number of organizations were hand picked
to participate in this Coughlin defense drive. Let me list some of them:
Citizens Protective League, headed by Kurt Mertig, a Nazi and one of the chief
propagandists for the GermanAmerican Bund. Associated with Mertig was Edward
James Smythe, whom I have just mentioned.
League for Constitutional Government, headed by John B. Snow, a professional
patriot.
Patriotic Service Bureau, Mrs. Elizabeth ("Red Network") Dilling's
organization.
The International Catholic Truth Society, headed by Father Curran.
Catholic War Veterans of America, founded by the Reverend Higgins, who serves
as pinch hitter for Father Curran.
Both Father Curran and Father Higgins batted a pretty good average in
delivering anti-Semitic propaganda in their speeches.
This brings us to another Coughlin defender, one Allen Zoll, who went to Royal
Oak to discuss with the priest the steps he should take to regain the lost
radio stations. Zoll was later arrested for trying to extort $7,500 from WMCA,
in return for calling off the picket line of Christian Fronters he had thrown
around the station. Part of Zoll's story is now in the police records, but
before he was picked up Father Curran hailed him as "one of America's great
patriots."
I don't know whether Father Curran knew that in his patriotic zeal to save
America, Zoll had gone to Germany in 1936 to confer with Goebbels, whom he met
at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin. Shortly after his return to the United States
Zoll approached Dr. Roy Akagi, Japanese propagandist in this country, and
offered the services of American Patriots, Inc. which Zoll had organized, to
the Japanese government for $5,000 a month. Dr. Akagi smelled a rat and
declined.
Several years ago Zoll went into the business of rescuing America by
cultivating blueblooded dowagers with fat checkbooks and a holy horror that
the reds were plotting to nationalize them. His incorporated patriotism
arranged small luncheons to which select groups of the nice old ladies were
invited to hear how the reds and the Jews were just about ready to gobble them
up. The stated object of American Patriots, Inc., was "to preserve America and
American principles"--a line invariably used by racketeers in patriotism. The
luncheons were usually held at the Hotel Iroquois in New York, and a lot of
the guests got indigestion from what they heard. When they were properly
worried, the patriot appealed for contributions.
One of Zoll's close associates who watched the activities of American
Patriots, Inc. was an elderly dumpy woman known as Mrs. Leslie Fry, who led a
rather mysterious existence in Glendale, California. She had no visible means
of support but never seemed to lack money. Zoll brought her to a couple of his
meetings, which she observed with shrewd, appraising eyes.
I had come across this lady in the course of looking into Nazi and Japanese
espionage activities on the West Coast. The enigmatic Mrs. Fry had financed an
important trip East for Henry Allen, a native American with a couple of prison
terms behind him. Allen was the liaison man between secret Nazi agents in this
country and Mexico. On this trip East he had been instructed to see Fritz Kuhn
first, after which he called at the Italian and Rumanian embassies in
Washington. When these calls were completed he met with James True, a well-
known Nazi propagandist operating out of Washington, and True subsequently
wrote to Allen that he was now in a position to get him U. S. Army supplies
"in any quantity." When I published their letters, though I did not mention
Mrs. Fry, she fled the country.
Among those who also worked closely with Zoll in the efforts "to save
Coughlin's constitutional rights" was Robert Edmund Edmondson, whose
activities as a Nazi propagandist are now too well known to necessitate my
presenting evidence of them.
This gives some idea of Zoll's connections at the time he took his flying trip
to Royal Oak to confer with Coughlin about WMCA's cutting him off the air.
Upon his return Zoll organized the picket line around the radio station and
then, the police charge, he tried the little flyer in extortion which landed
him in jail.
The fact that this Nazi propagandist, would-be spy for Japan and leader of the
Coughlin defense forces was arrested for attempted extortion is of less
significance than that Seward Collins promptly bailed him out. Collins
happened to be the man who put up $5,000 as bail for Mrs. Maria Griebl, wife
of the suspected Nazi spy who fled to Germany during the sensational case
which resulted in the conviction of four German spies. How the man who
supplied bail for persons involved in a Nazi spy ring suddenly popped up to
bail out one of Coughlin's chief defenders, has never been explained.
Van Nosdall, Westphall, Goerner, Kositzan, Zoll, Mrs. Fry--and this is only a
fraction of the list--all of them were tied up with Nazi agents in this
country, and all were galvanized into action at the same time to save
Coughlin's right to spread his propaganda. I mentioned these few names only to
illustrate the strange and unexplained affinity between the radio priest and
Nazi agents-and I haven't told the whole story by a long shot.
These "patriots," whom earnest and well-meaning Americans are following, eat,
pay rent, travel around, put up money for halls to hold meetings, print
propaganda, and support organizers. Contributions received at their meetings
are frequently insufficient to cover even the cost of the hall. Innocents with
fat checkbooks are getting a bit scarce since too many "unselfish patriots"
have turned out to be crooks. But the money is still coming from hidden
sources that are anxious for Coughlin to continue with his propaganda.
Many of these super-patriots, closely tied up with Nazi agents, are found
working with the Christian Front, Coughlin's storm troop organization which is
guided in the East by the Reverend Peter Baptiste Duffe, pastor of St. Francis
of Assisi Church, Seventh Avenue and 31st Street, New York City. Father Duffe
acts as a sort of clearing house through which important problems are relayed
to Couglin. The chief contact man with Father Duffe is Carl Pinkston,
president of Social Justice Distributors Club, with offices in Donovan Hall,
308 West 59th Street, a place also used for Christian Front meetings.
Pinkston, as a side issue, organizes small military groups of Christian
Fronters which drill twice a week in the hall, and the Social Justice Club
pays him for the time he puts in drilling them. None of the units trained in
military maneuvers is apprised of the existence of others, lest word get out
that a large private army is being fostered and drilled.
I have never been certain, after looking into Coughlin's financial wizardry,
whether the Christian Front was first organized to save Christianity or to get
peddlers for Social Justice magazine. It's not easy to find volunteer street
salesmen, even though they do make a few cents on each copy sold, because the
magazine doesn't attract crowds of buyers. I've watched salesmen in various
cities, and frequently they spend a whole day without selling half a dozen
copies. Even if they got the magazines for nothing, which they don't, it still
wouldn't pay; they could earn more selling a local newspaper. But on a high
religious and patriotic plane you can get volunteers, and this is one of the
functions of the Christian Front.
I have noticed that when the sale of Social Justice seems in any way
threatened, Coughlin gets really vicious. The period when the magazine started
to lose money heavily-sums which were not met by sales or contributions from
the public-is the same period when he apparently found an angel to make up the
deficit. But oddly enough, it was also the period when he began to spread Nazi
propaganda, launched his violent anti-Semitic campaign, and started to
organize the Christian Front, modeled upon Hitler's Brown Shirts and
Mussolini's Black Shirts.
The Christian Front was born during the days of the Spanish Civil War. It was
organized with a great deal of secrecy, lest public denunciation follow the
discovery that storm troopers were being trained "to save Christianity," since
such a move could mean only an attempt to supersede the forces of law and
order. Meetings were held stealthily in the Paulist Fathers' rectory at 413
West 59th Street in New York, and mail was received through a post-office box
to prevent the headquarters from becoming known. The box was 69, Station G; it
was taken out in the name of, and paid for by, the Paulist Fathers.
'Coughlin had cast longing eyes upon a storm troop organization for some
years, but apparently felt that the time wasn't ripe. Then came the Spanish
Civil War and the accusation that Franco was fighting a red Spain. This, plus
the knowledge that in the main the Catholic hierarchy supported Franco,
supplied Coughlin's excuse to establish storm troops "to defend Christianity."
So far as I have been able to trace it, this desire for a body of plug-uglies
goes back to the days when Newton Jenkins directed the Coughlin-Lemke party in
the 1936 presidential campaign. Jenkins was openly pro-Hitler and tried to
organize storm troopers on the Hitler model. When Coughlin's attempt to put
his own man in the White House flopped, Jenkins slipped out of the picture for
a while. But Coughlin apparently never lost sight of the need for a body of
men trained in military fashion. With the launching of his anti-Semitic
campaign, he invited his followers to establish ".platoons," and on May 23,
1938, urged that each platoon "be composed of no more than twenty-five
members."
On June 13, 1938, he again addressed his follow ing: "You and your group are
directly affiliated to me." In one issue of Social Justice a spokesman for
Coughlin said: "When the proper moment arrives, and not before that time,
Father Coughlin will assemble all organizations whose leaders care to follow
him."
This was the beginning of his attempt to use the Christian Front as an
organization to which other pro-Hitler organizations could gravitate. These
other organizations were loosely drawn together in the campaign to save his
"rights of free speech."' A Committee for Defense of American Constitutional
Rights was established under the guidance of Father Curran and Allen Zoll, and
offices were opened at 11 Broadway in New York. Sometimes this committee was
also known as Friends of Christian Social Justice.
Associated in the committee which was so anxious about keeping the
Constitution off the rocks, were:
German-American Bund and German-American Business League. Both of these
outfits are too well known as Nazi propaganda mediums to require further
details.
Social Justice Distributors Club, whose purpose is "to organize the
distribution and circulation of Social Justice magazine."
American Nationalists, commanded by Dudley P. Gilbert, 2 West 45th Street, New
York City, who started a few years ago in El Paso, Texas, and met secretly
with Gen. Nicolas Rodriguez, commander of the Mexican Gold Shirts, which was
organized by Nazi agents operating out of Los Angeles, California.
Citizens Protective League, headed by Kurt Mertig, one of the German-American
Bund's chief propagandists. Associated with Mertig is Edward James Smythe,
Coughlin representative.
There are a few others, but this will give the reader an idea of the defenders
of the American Constitution who, promptly after organizing themselves,
inserted an advertisement on December 15, 1938, in the Deutsches Weckruf Und
Beobachter, official organ of the Nazi Bund, for a "patriotic" rally at the
Manhattan Opera House.
Much of the activity of these groups operating under the leadership of the
Christian Front was devoted to pushing Social Justice magazine. But for all
their hard work they came nowhere near selling enough copies to cover the cost
of publishing the magazine. That Coughlin has few scruples about how or from
whom he gets the money to make up Social Justice's heavy annual deficits I
have already shown. This same unscrupulousness is also found in his deliberate
dissemination of falsehoods. I say "deliberate" because, after he issued some
of his anti-Semitic propaganda, perturbed Jews and Catholics laid evidence
before him that his "facts" were inaccurate. The radio priest ignored the
evidence and repeated the same falsehoods. Let me illustrate with one of the
books he is peddling:
The souvenir shops at the Shrine display large posters telling the visitor
that he should not deprive himself and his family of The Mystical Body of
Christ in the Modern World by the Reverend Denis Fahey, professor in Black
Rock College, Dublin, Ireland. In letters which Coughlin has written he
states:
It is because I am so anxious that my listeners will not be deceived that I am
making it a point to urge them to supplement the broadcasts by reading The
Mystical Body of Christ in the Modern World by Rev. Denis Fahey. For the
convenience of those who desire to possess this most valuable book, I have
arranged for a limited quantity to be shipped to me from abroad. This volume,
beautifully bound, is priced at $2.50.
In another letter he wrote:
If I could afford it, I would gladly present you with a gift copy of two of
Father Denis Fahey's works. Inasmuch as I am unable financially to do this, I
have ordered a limited supply of these books from abroad to have them
available for prompt delivery to those persons, like yourself, who are
genuinely interested in the real forces at work in the world today.
With this, of course, is the usual line of "What about a subscription to
Social Justice?"
This work of Father Fahey spreads anti-Semitic propaganda. It quotes long
extracts from the discredited Protocols of the Elders of Zion and offers them
as factual "evidence." The falseness of many of the book's statements has been
exposed and denounced by United States Government officials, high Catholic
dignitaries, statesmen and scholars. For example, the volume lists twenty-five
alleged "quasicabinet members" in Lenin's government in 1917, the objective
being to show that twenty-four out of the twenty-five were Jews and that the
Russian revolution was a Jewish-Communist plot to dominate the world.
This list of names has an interesting history. It came from a weekly paper
published in London called The Patriot. The Patriot got its information from
Documentation Catholique, of Paris. The French publication got it allegedly
from a report made by the American Secret Service to the French High
Commissioner. Frank I. Wilson, chief of the United States Secret Service,
after an exhaustive examination of all reports preceding and following the
Russian revolution, officially denied that any such report exists in the
Secret Service files.
Alexander Kerensky, Russian Premier right after the revolution, stated that
there was not a single Jew in the first government established by Prince
Lvoff, whom Kerensky succeeded as Premier.
There are other instances of pure fabrication such as the charge that "Jewish
bankers" financed the Bolshevik revolution-a charge made originally by "World
Service," the Nazi propaganda medium from which Coughlin pilfered the
accusation almost word for word.
Similar falsehoods were published in Social Justice and signed by the non-
existent "Ben Marcin," who claimed to give "evidence" that the Protocols were
genuine. The number of such allegations which have been proved false would
make a volume in themselves. For purposes of illustration I shall give only
these cases:
"Ben Marcin" stated that the Rabbi Rudolf Fleischman, of Schochin, and Rabbi
Grunfeld, of Swarzedz, admitted the authenticity of the Protocols. There are
no such rabbis. I have a letter from the chief rabbi of Wilno, Poland, which
states that he never heard of Rabbi Fleischman or Rabbi Grunfeld and that a
careful search of all records failed to disclose any such persons. "Ben
Marcin" also asserted that Dr. Ehrenpreis, chief rabbi of Stockholm, stated
that the Protocols actually existed and were of Jewish authorship. I have a
cable from him denying any such statement.
Much of Coughlin's anti-Semitic propaganda spread to millions over his radio
hook-up and through the pages of Social Justice, has been taken word for word
from propaganda issued by the Nazi Minister of Propaganda. Let me offer a few
instances:
Goebbels said: "In November, 1934, the Chinese Marshal Chiang Kai-shek, made
public the information that in the province of Kiangsi 1,000,000 people were
murdered by the Communists and 6,000,000 robbed of their possessions."
Coughlin said: "In November, 1934, the Chinese Marshal Chiang Kai-shek, made
public the information that in the province of Kiangsi 1,000,000 people were
murdered by the Communists and 6,000,000 robbed of their possessions."
Goebbels, said: "The Soviet statistician 0ganowsky estimates the number of
persons who died of hunger in the years 1921-22 at 5,200,000."
Coughlin said: "The Soviet statistician Oganowsky estimates the number of
persons who died of hunger in the years 1921-22 at 5,200,000."
Goebbels said: "The Austrian Cardinal Archbishop, Monsignor Innitzer, said in
his appeal of July, 1934, that millions of people were dying of hunger
throughout the Soviet Union."
Coughlin said: "The Austrian Cardinal Archbishop, Monsignor Innitzer, said in
his appeal of July, 1934, that millions of people were dying of hunger
throughout the Soviet Union."
This could be repeated over and over to show the Reverend Charles E. Coughlin
didn't even trouble to rewrite the Nazi propaganda releases, but I think these
will serve to illustrate the point.
While he was thus disseminating Nazi propaganda Coughlin was secretly
communicating with Nazi agents active in this country, one of his choice
contacts being William Dudley Pelley, head of the Silver Shirts. The Dies
Committee investigating un-American activities has in its files telegrams and
a record of telephone calls exchanged between Pelley and Coughlin. Don't ask
me why, in his zeal to expose un-American activities, Dies has, until this
writing, anyway, suppressed them; ask him.
Pelley, during this period, was meeting with Fritz Kuhn and Hermann Schwinn;
and it was duringthis period, too, that Oscar 0. Pfaus, director of the
American section of the Fichte Bund, which issues much of the propaganda
scattered by Nazi Germany throughout the world, planned to organize the
various pro-Nazi and anti-Democratic groups into one powerful force. Among
those whom Pfaus listed for this united fascist body were the Reverend Charles
E. Coughlin, William Dudley Pelley, James True, of Washington, D. C. (who on
February 23, 1938, wrote to a Nazi agent offering to get him United States
army guns in any quantity), Gerald B. Winrod, who got money from Cameron, etc.
Nor is the Reverend Charles E. Coughlin averse, according to an affidavit in
my possession, to a little pogrom against the Jews. Let me tell about the
conference he had with the Nazi Bund leader for the Middle West whom he
invited to Royal Oak.
William Wernecke, the Nazi leader, lives at 6250 Wayne Avenue, Chicago, but is
usually found at 30 North LaSalle Street, Chicago, where he poses as a broker.
Most of his time is spent in the office of Newton Jenkins, who directed the
Coughlin-Lemke campaign.
The affidavit I have is signed by a person still very close to the Nazi Bund
leaders. At this time I should prefer not to disclose my informant's identity.
I can produce this witness before any governmental body which really wishes to
get to the bottom of the Coughlin-Nazi tie-up. Pending such disclosure, let me
tell the story as it is contained in the affidavit:
On Wednesday night, February 8, 1939, the German-American Bund had a meeting
in its headquarters at 3855 North Western Avenue, Chicago. After the meeting
Wernecke took my informant aside and in high glee said that he had just come
back from a very satisfactory conference with the Reverend Charles E. Coughlin
at Royal Oak. My informant commented that it seemed unlikely that Father
Coughlin would meet with known Nazi representatives, whereupon Wernecke
displayed a letter on Father Coughlin's personal stationery, setting the date
and time of the conference.
"What did you take up with him?" Werneeke was asked.
The Nazi Bund leader laughed. "A number of things, but I myself was somewhat
surprised at the lengths to which Father Coughlin went during our talk, which
lasted over two hours. We met in his office in the basement of the Shrine of
the Little Flower. A man whose name sounded like Richards was with Father
Coughlin. In the course of our talk this man asked me when we were going to
kill off three or four hundred Chicago Jews. I told him that I hadn't thought
of doing that just yet. Father Coughlin laughed and said, 'It needs doing."'
This would sound incredible had not Coughlin organized his own storm troopers
and threatened in a national broadcast to show the country "the Franco way."
pp. 133-157
-----
Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
Omnia Bona Bonis,
All My Relations.
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
Kris
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