Chairman Martin Dies of the House Committee on un-American Activities today used the impending Russo-German non-aggression treaty to refute an anti-Semite’s assertion that Jews were responsible for Communism.
Henry D. Allen, of Pasadena, California, former member of the Silver Shirts and organizer of the defunct American White Guards, testified that Jews started Communism in Russia.
“That probably explains why Germany and Russia are getting together new,” commented Dies caustically.
The part of the examination in which this reference came was as follows:
Allen: “We know from documentary evidence that the Jews are the founders, promoters, financiers and agitators of Communism.”
Rep. J. Parnell Thomas: “Don’t you know that the communistic leaders in the United States are not Jews and don’t you think it wrong to use that phrase accordingly?”
Allen: “No, sir.”
Dies: “You mean the Jews started Communism in Russia?”
Allen: “Yes.”
Dies: “That probably explains why Germany and Russia are getting together now.”
Previously, Allen had testified that Silver Shirt meetings were held in German-American House in Los Angeles of the Friends of New Germany, until the McCormack Committee began investigating un-American activities in1934. Then the Silver Shirts became inactive or “sub-rose,” he said, holding no more open meetings.
Asked by Committee Counsel Rhea Whitley if William Dudley Pelley, Silver Shirt head, was anti-Jewish, Allen said: “The flavor of Pelley’s speeches was that you couldn’t talk about Communism without talking about the Jews. He attacked Communism and identified the Jews behind it. “He added that Pelley did not approve of the Nazi regime except that “Hitler red Germany of the Jews.”
Allen said the German-American Bund and the Silver Shirts exchanged literature and attended each other’s meetings. At meeting of both organizations, he said, there was distributed “literature of all groups combating Jewish Communism, including releases of the German World-Service.
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