A Federal Grand Jury, probing the vest Nazi propaganda network in this country since last October, today took its first action in handing down an indictment against Friedrich Ernst Auhagen, for failure to register as an agent of a foreign government.
The indictment found that Auhagen had lectured, arranged meetings and written articles seeking to create a favorable impression of Hitler’s regime for pay since September, 1938, and had attempted to contact many people who could aid him in this aim. His establishment of the American Fellowship Forum and the magazine, Today’s Challenge, were cited in the indictment.
If Auhagen fights the indictment it is expected that testimony at the trial will cast a revealing light on the extent of the Nazi propaganda effort in this country and the names and members of U.S. citizens who have cooperated in its establishment.
Still under Grand Jury investigation is the Department’s demand for the indictment of Manfred Zapp, chief of the Nazi-subsidized Transocean News Service, for the same offense. Zapp is registered as a foreign newspaperman, but he failed to describe himself as a propagandist.
Indication that the Justice Department is seeking the indictment of several other foreign propagandists in addition to Zapp was seen in the Department’s comment that “the Grand Jury has not finished its deliberations and other indictments may follow.”
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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.
