That the Nazis in America are utilizing the names of Father Coughlin and even of President Roosevelt for propaganda purposes is disclosed by George Seldes in an article published in Today, magazine of which Prof. Ray#ond Moley is editor. The article relates the following:
” ‘Fuehrer’ William H. Roth, addressing a meeting of the Friends in New Jersey, did not hesitate to state — although he asked his audience not to quote him—that he had been told by the national Nazi officers in New York that they were ‘in closest touch with Father Coughlin’ and had decided to join his League for Social Justice in a body.
SEEKS CATHOLIC AID
“The object of this false propaganda, of course, has been to obtain sympathy from the Catholics, who have been among the leaders everywhere in fighting Hitlerism.
“The propaganda concerning the President is being spread by Carl Nicolai, second in command in New York, and head of the Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, local of the Friends. According to Herr Nicolai, he sent a letter to President Roosevelt inviting him to participate in a celebration of the Saar victory. The president replied, Nicolai tells audiences, in a letter which expressed regret that he could not accept the invitation because of a previous engagement. That might easily he true. But ### open meeting Herr Nicolai declares that the President also invited him to the White House for a conference ‘at some future date,’ and, from this, he deduces that President Roosevelt assured him of the ‘fullest sympathy.’ He further declares friendly recognition of the Friends of the New Germany.’ Therefore, Herr Nicolai urges his audiences, ‘go ahead with our propaganda.’
BRAGGED OF ESPIONAGE
“At one meeting Nicolai boasted that he was arrested in Pittsburgh in 1918 as a German spy, that he was in jail six months, that he refused to take out American citizenship in 1915 ‘because the damned Americans did not recognize our German rights,’ that throughout the war he served the cause of Germany; and that he was ‘proud that, in the capacity as an officer of the German-American Conference and the United German Societies, he had delivered these organizations to the Friends of the New Germany.’
” ‘Our principal goal,’ he said, is to make America an ally of Germany. Let us not be disturbed by some of these Americans (referring to the German societies which have refused to join the Nazis)—we are going to fight for the German cause. The German flag protects the Star Spangled Banner.’ “
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
