With the issuance a short time ago of orders for German-made sidearms for the Silver Shirts, a of this group came to light. Few outside the exclusive circle of Pelley and his immediate henchmen are aware of the large American organization operating under the leadership of William Dudley Pelley, the true starting nature of this organization. It is certain that the thousands who have paid ten dollar initiation fees to join Silver Legion’s movement for a “Christ Democracy” are unaware both of the Fascistic nature of Pelley’s envisioned corporate state and the bloody methods by which the Silver Shirt dream is to be realized.
It is equally true that most members of the League of Friends of New Germany, the direct outgrowth of the American branch of the Nazi Party, and other German American groups subscribing to the policies of the League of Friends of New Germany, are unaware of the damning testimony of League members in a recent court case in Los Angeles, when plans for the corruption of defense forces and veteran organizations were divulged.
Full details concerning the machinations of these organizations will be given in succeeding articles.
With regard to the evidence of planned insurrection by Pelley’s Silver Shirts, documents are in the hands of authorities which point to the cooperation of German elements with the Silver Shirt revolution. Under the letterhead of the Silver Shirts, a communication to this effect was sent to Captain John Edward Rawlins, who gained a reputation as a formidable anti-Semite during the Ku Klux Klan disturbances of a decade ago. Rawlins appeared in New York a few weeks ago with Pelley to negotiate a merger of the Silver Legion and another Fascist group, the Order of ’76 under the leadership of Royal Scott Gulden. The following has been copied by the reporter from a Photostat of the original communique:
“SILVER SHIRTS COMMUNICATION
“G.H.Q.
“Chief of Staff, Asheville, N. C.
“Read, Memorize, and Completely Destroy.
“To Captain Rawlins:
“Captain Summerville is sending secret orders to you. Never allow them to leave your possession. Destroy if in danger of being taken–Never Surrender them.
“Leave by a non-German boat to a non-German port, and then go to Hamburg Poste Restante. There you will have two tasks to perform. The first is to receive instructions from the storm brigade. Our friends will willingly give you instructions. The second is to purchase a quantity of side-arms. Negotiate for payment of these on the basis of two years’ credit on future shipments. If successful, you will know the chief’s generosity. Things are happening very fast. We must be prepared to strike first. Explain to him in Hamburg and to those in Berlin that we are inadequately financed.”
ASKS FOR 100,000 MEN
In another communication, introducing Rawlins to the agent of a German steamship concern in Philadelphia, Major L. I. Powell, Silver Shirt Chief of Staff, explained that “We need 100,000 men before 1935 to overthrow the Government.” He said that he had already made arrangements to purchase horses and that he was negotiating for the purchase of planes. The communication stated that orders for pistols were payable in advance to the German agent in Philadelphia, and it outlined the need for rifles and other arms.
Closely linked with the Silver Legion is the League of Friends of New Germany, which despite the resignation some weeks ago of Fritz Gissibl, national leader of the movement and member of the National Socialist Party in Germany, continues to operate under the complete direction of this German agitator. In New York City Silver Legion membership is reported by observers to be composed of more than fifty percent of members of the League of Friends of New Germany.
Other important connections between the League of Friends of New Germany and the Silver Legion will be discussed in succeeding articles. It is sufficient to say at this time that the connections are real and that both are striving toward the same end — the American Fascist Revolution.
INTRIGUE AGAINST U.S.
Intrigue against the Government is more openly undertaken by the Friends of New Germany than by the Silver Shirts. It is, from the viewpoint of origin, decidedly more bold than that springing from the home-grown reactionaries of the Silver Legion. As far as can be determined from court testimony and other information at hand, the Friends of New Germany intend instituting a revolution in the United States, using as their stormtroops here Germans, German-Americans, and all who can be stirred to revolt against the “Jewish Government of the United States.” Thus far their plans have more nearly become palpable realities than any undertaken by the imported leaders of the American Soviet revolution.
This reporter, after having studied the Fascist movement both here and in Germany for more than one year, does not pretend to know all the intrigues of the Friends of New Germany. The instances of Nazi conspiracy which have come to my attention, however, point without any doubt in the writer’s mind to the un-American nature of the League of Friends of New Germany and its allied German-American and American organizations.
NATIONAL GUARD GROUP
As far as can be learned, for the first time in the history of the National Guard, a group has partitioned itself as a distinct non-American national group. The existence of the “National Guardsmen of German Descent,” a group drawn from various units of the National Guard throughout New York City, came to light about three weeks ago. Under the direction of Carl Nisselbeck, an active worker with the League of Friends of New Germany, a military concert and ball was held in the main ballroom of the Turn Halle at Lexington avenue and Eighty-fifth street on Sunday night, March 25. The ball, according to announcements, was held in cooperation with the Stahlhelm, a thoroughly Hitlerized organization of German War Veterans.
Nisselbeck, an enlisted man of the 244th Coast Artillery, was rebuked for his action by superior officers at the New York National Guard headquarters in New York. Nevertheless, according to the offices of the manager of the Turn Halle, the concert and ball came off as scheduled. Nisselbeck’s resignation was accepted by the National Guard on March 30. Since then, according to word from the National Guard headquarters, nothing more has been learned of the organization, which has been created and may still exist contrary to all rules of the National Guard.
The organization, which gained its inception in the 244th Coast Artillery in the armory at Sixth avenue and Fourteenth street, elicited the severe criticism of a spokesman at the National Guard headquarters. He said, “We will not tolerate any such faction within the National Guard, whether it be of German, Jewish, Irish, French or of any other national descent. The National Guard is an organization to defend the nation. Particularly in this cosmopolitan city of New York,” he added, “will we set severe restrictions against the formation of any racial or national group of the National Guard.”
From one source of information, it is learned that the National Guardsmen of German Descent came as a result of agitation on the part of local Nazi groups, inclusive of the Friends of New Germany. The Stahlhelm, with which the German guardsmen cooperated, has been coordinated with the Hitler Government.
SCHEME IN CALIFORNIA
On the other side of the country, throughout California, a similar scheme, more daring in nature and considerably better developed, has been undertaken by the Western Division of the League of Friends of New Germany. First intimation of the Nazi plot to corrupt American military forces and veteran organizations came to light when in a Los Angeles suit between rival members of the Western Division of the League of Friends of New Germany for control of the highly profitable branch, damning testimony was introduced to show that Nazis, some of them not American citizens, had planned to organize within the National Guard, to import arms from German ships, and to agitate among veterans with the intention of stirring them to revolt against the government. The testimony indicated that German stormtroopers had been drilling in anticipation of Der Tag, when they would lead American Fascist troops to power and glory.
The length of the startling charges incorporated in the testimony make impossible their reproduction in this article. They will be fully discussed in later articles, along with Nazi methods of proselyting German-American and American societies.
In other than military forces, the influence of the Nazis has been felt. Their efforts have been directed toward the banding together of disgruntled laborers and farmers in the middle west where the organization is aided by an international German group, which has been carrying out the dictates of the Hitler Government in all foreign countries since the ascent of the chancellor to power.
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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.
