• About
  • Jewish Community Directory
  • Subscription Information
  • Contact Us
American Jewish World
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • All
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Australia & New Zealand
    • Europe
    • Israel/Mideast
    • Latin America
    • Minnesota
    • US & Canada
    From a brothel to a Brooklyn dress shop

    From a brothel to a Brooklyn dress shop

    On the 100th anniversary of Martin Buber’s ‘I and Thou’

    On the 100th anniversary of Martin Buber’s ‘I and Thou’

    ​​’Echoes of the Holocaust’ to have world premiere in Minneapolis

    ​​’Echoes of the Holocaust’ to have world premiere in Minneapolis

  • Arts
    • All
    • Blue Box
    • Books & Literature
    • Music
    • Televison & Film
    • Theater & Performing Arts
    • Visual Arts
    Not Great Britain’s finest hour

    Not Great Britain’s finest hour

    Five reasons to see ‘A Servants’ Christmas’

    Five reasons to see ‘A Servants’ Christmas’

    Stella Levi recalls life on Rhodes

    Stella Levi recalls life on Rhodes

  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health & Wellness
    • Home & Garden
    • Travel & Culture
    Robyn Frank finds her niche in the cookie business

    Robyn Frank finds her niche in the cookie business

    Editorial: More from my European vacation

    Editorial: More from my European vacation

    Our Rosh Hashana special edition

    Our Rosh Hashana special edition

  • Editorial
  • Opinion
  • AJW Digital Archives
  • News
    • All
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Australia & New Zealand
    • Europe
    • Israel/Mideast
    • Latin America
    • Minnesota
    • US & Canada
    From a brothel to a Brooklyn dress shop

    From a brothel to a Brooklyn dress shop

    On the 100th anniversary of Martin Buber’s ‘I and Thou’

    On the 100th anniversary of Martin Buber’s ‘I and Thou’

    ​​’Echoes of the Holocaust’ to have world premiere in Minneapolis

    ​​’Echoes of the Holocaust’ to have world premiere in Minneapolis

  • Arts
    • All
    • Blue Box
    • Books & Literature
    • Music
    • Televison & Film
    • Theater & Performing Arts
    • Visual Arts
    Not Great Britain’s finest hour

    Not Great Britain’s finest hour

    Five reasons to see ‘A Servants’ Christmas’

    Five reasons to see ‘A Servants’ Christmas’

    Stella Levi recalls life on Rhodes

    Stella Levi recalls life on Rhodes

  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health & Wellness
    • Home & Garden
    • Travel & Culture
    Robyn Frank finds her niche in the cookie business

    Robyn Frank finds her niche in the cookie business

    Editorial: More from my European vacation

    Editorial: More from my European vacation

    Our Rosh Hashana special edition

    Our Rosh Hashana special edition

  • Editorial
  • Opinion
  • AJW Digital Archives
No Result
View All Result
Morning News
No Result
View All Result
Home Arts

Hitler’s American Friends: Swastikas carried beside American flags

‘Hitler's American Friends: The Third Reich's Supporters in the United States,’ by Bradley W. Hart, Thomas Dunne, 296 pages, $28.99

mordecai by mordecai
May 23, 2020
in Arts, Books & Literature
0
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Reviewed by NEAL GENDLER

Most of us, born after 1940, know only secondhand of the wide, socially acceptable anti-Semitism in America before World War II.

READ ALSO

Not Great Britain’s finest hour

Five reasons to see ‘A Servants’ Christmas’

But try to imagine the effect on New York’s two million Jews — among them German refugees — of uniformed members of the German American Bund parading along E. 86th Street in 1939 with a flag bearing the Nazi swastika.

Bradley Hart says his Hitler’s American Friends “argues that the threats posed by the American pro-Nazi movement were far greater than we remember,” and we should keep its lessons in mind as we again see swastikas carried beside American flags.

Nazi propaganda sought to discredit Britain and “to sow enough confusion and discord that the American people would grow weary and simply want to check out of the world events,” he says.

Hitler’s helpers included the Silver Shirts, isolationist or pro-German congressmen, the religious right, students exposed to German propaganda, broadcasts and publications of Father Charles Coughlin and German spies.

Their common thread was anti-Semitism, “the entry point.”

Hart covers each in a chapter, plus one on the largest isolationist organization, America First, fronted by aviation hero Charles Lindbergh.

“Whether they intended to do so or not — or were even aware of it — the leaders of America First had become an important asset to Hitler’s government,” Hart says. “Owned and operated by some of the country’s most powerful corporate interests,” its leaders included Jay Hormel and Sears chairman Robert E. Wood, Hart says.

Businesses, including Ford and GM, feared losing profits from Germany. (Carmakers would profit from the war. After Lend-Lease in 1941, Hormel shipped overseas up to 15 million cans of meat a week.)

Lindbergh drew huge crowds, his increasingly strident speeches culminating Sept. 11, 1941, in Des Moines, when he said three groups conspired to push the nation into war: “the British, the Jewish and the Roosevelt administration.”

That was too much for many Americans, drawing wide condemnation, but it didn’t come from nowhere. Since 1926, millions tuned into broadcasts by Coughlin, a workers’ advocate whose messages grew increasingly sympathetic to Germany and hostile to Jews.

The Bund was brought down by the corruption of its leader, Fritz Kuhn and by exposure in a Chicago Daily Times series led by German-born journalist John C. Metcalfe. The Silver Shirts also disintegrated, its leader imprisoned.

Congress’ German sympathizers and isolationists included Minnesota Sen. Ernest Lundeen, some of whose speeches and articles were written by a German agent, Hart says. Also North Dakota Sen. Gerald Nye, and Montana Sen. Burton Wheeler. New York Rep. Hamilton Fish III ‘s office was the center of a plot using congressional franking privileges to mail German propaganda.

A chart shows Bund membership peaking at 20,000, Silver Shirts at 15,000, each with 100,000 sympathizers. Coughlin’s Social Justice publication reached 200,000 to possibly one million, and his 1938 listenership was estimated at 29 million. America First membership hit 800,000.

A 1939 Fortune magazine poll concluded that 13 million Americans — about one in 10 — agreed that American Jews should be deported.

Heavily researched, Hitler’s American Friends is packed with fascinating and startling information clearly and well written. But it’s not a quick read, regrettably presented on rather longish pages of fairly small type.

Eight pages of photos in the middle don’t include Kuhn, Silver Shirts leader William Dudley Pelley, Coughlin or Lindbergh making his infamous speech.

Hart doesn’t mention Meyer Lansky’s thugs breaking up a New York Bund rally, or disruption of Minneapolis Silver Shirt rallies by a Teamsters local and then the fists of gambling czar Davie Berman and helpers, whose assaults ended the rallies in what then was a very anti-Semitic city.

Isolationism ended Dec. 7, 1941, but Congress declared war Dec. 8 only on Japan. It was Hitler who brought the United States into Europe’s war — his second and biggest mistake. Invading the USSR had written his defeat and declaring war on the United States on Dec. 11 sealed it.

***

Neal Gendler is a Minneapolis writer and editor.

Related Posts

Not Great Britain’s finest hour
Books & Literature

Not Great Britain’s finest hour

December 23, 2022
Five reasons to see ‘A Servants’ Christmas’
Theater & Performing Arts

Five reasons to see ‘A Servants’ Christmas’

December 11, 2022
Stella Levi recalls life on Rhodes
Books & Literature

Stella Levi recalls life on Rhodes

November 13, 2022
Attention, young Jewish artists! We want your Hanuka-themed artworks
Visual Arts

Attention, young Jewish artists! We want your Hanuka-themed artworks

November 13, 2022
Strange journey of a prophet
Books & Literature

Strange journey of a prophet

October 18, 2022
‘Uncle Philip’s Coat’ is bigger than life
Theater & Performing Arts

‘Uncle Philip’s Coat’ is bigger than life

October 18, 2022
Next Post

Paul Golin: A liturgy for the secular

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

RECENT ARTICLES

From a brothel to a Brooklyn dress shop

From a brothel to a Brooklyn dress shop

January 22, 2023
On the 100th anniversary of Martin Buber’s ‘I and Thou’

On the 100th anniversary of Martin Buber’s ‘I and Thou’

January 22, 2023
​​’Echoes of the Holocaust’ to have world premiere in Minneapolis

​​’Echoes of the Holocaust’ to have world premiere in Minneapolis

January 20, 2023
In local appearance Nick Winton told the story of his father, humanitarian Sir Nicholas Winton

In local appearance Nick Winton told the story of his father, humanitarian Sir Nicholas Winton

December 23, 2022
Not Great Britain’s finest hour

Not Great Britain’s finest hour

December 23, 2022

About

Since 1912 the AJW has served as an important news resource for the Jewish community. The Jewish World unites the main Jewish communities in St. Paul and Minneapolis, as well as those in Duluth, Rochester and smaller cities, and bridges the divides between the various Jewish religious streams.

Quick Links

  • About the AJW
  • Advertising Information
  • Submission Guidelines
  • Subscription Information
  • Jewish Community Directory

Contact Us

The American Jewish World
3249 Hennepin Ave., Suite 245
Minneapolis, MN 55408

Tel: 612.824.0030 / Fax: 612.823.0753
editor@ajwnews.com

  • Buy JNews
  • Landing Page
  • Documentation
  • Support Forum

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
  • News
  • Food
  • Health & Wellness
  • Lifestyle
  • Opinion

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.