Nazi activities in this country have been brought to a head by the first open attack on the Jews of America by the Friends of New Germany, Hitler organization in the United States, which has proclaimed a boycott on the Jews. The following is the seventh of a series of articles detailing the rise and growth of the Nazi-inspired anti-Semitic movement in this country in all its ramifications. The articles are based on an exhaustive investigation of Nazi propaganda activities in this country and in Germany for a period of over a year.
The Ku Klux Klan, which was to have been dissolved about eight years ago, is again taking part in the fight against Jews and Catholics. From the besheeted ranks of the KKK have emerged leaders of local Fascist groups throughout the United States, and the mother group, shorn of its terroristic powers, continues to unleash occasional broadsides, which are considerably muffled in the campaign now being waged by far more powerful Fascist forces which have come to the front with complete political, social, and economic philosophies.
From Long Beach, California, to Long Island, New York, the Klan has stirred from its lethargy. Circulars with the Klan insignia have been found in widely separated communities announcing, “Communism will not be tolerated! The Ku Klux Klan rides again!”
The Klan was revived in the East after a three days’ Konklave at Freeport, Long Island, last September. There they made plans for the distribution of propaganda and eventual resumption of terroristic operations.
The Klan began its new campaign with a show of fraternal feeling for German Nazi groups in New York and California. In the latter state, the Silver Legion had drawn heavily from the ranks of the Klan and there appears to be an interlocking of membership among the groups. The Silver Shirt alliance with the League of Friends of New Germany has been described in other articles.
KKK WOOS NAZIS
First overtures to the Nazis were made by Harry W. Garing, Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, Inc., of the State of New York, when he delivered before the Plattdeutscher Volksverein of Brooklyn a scourging attack on Jews and promised the support of his group in any anti-Jewish movement begun by German-Americans to destroy the anti-Hitler boycott. Since then he has given a number of anti-Jewish lectures before the League of Friends of New Germany both on Long Island and in Manhattan. Recently his sentiments have been received more cordially than on the occasion of his Brooklyn address, which was delivered at a time when the Plattdeutscher Volksverein was not thoroughly Hitlerized.
The Kourier, monthly publication of the Klan, is nationally circulated from Atlanta, Georgia. In this magazine appear frequent denials that the Klan is in league with “the Blue Pants, Silver Shirts, or Checkered Vests” and in one number it was said that “we do not wish them well because we know that some of the men promoting such organizations do not deserve our good wishes.” This may well be regarded as an effort on the part of the Klan to stem the sweeping of its members into the ranks of stronger, more active Fascist groups. The Klan hopes that one day the flery cross will! again be planted in all the states.
At the present the Klan is most active in Oklahoma, which, incidentally provides headquarters for many reactionary and Fascist groups. Klan demonstrations, replete with flaming crosses and sheets, have recently been held at Tulsa, Kay County, Bethany, and Oilton.
THE FLAMING CROSS
In New Jersey and Pennsylvania recently, the number of flaming crosses have been on the increase, particularly in southern New Jersey and northeastern Pennsylvania. The strongest support of the Klan comes from the smaller towns and villages. Since the federal cleanup of these organizations a decade ago, the Klan has confined its activities mainly to innocuous social affairs, although occasional anonymous threatening letters are received, bearing the stamp of the KKK.
In Illinois, the Klan is most active in and near DeKalb where they meet in the Knights of Pythias Hall and abandoned farms. The Indiana chapter headquarters is at Hammond. Florida has a great many groups with the strongest holding forth in Tampa and environs. Orlando, Daytona Beach, De Land, Eustis, Bunnell, Sanford, Ocala, and Bushnell form Province Number Three. Province Number Six is composed of units in Avon Park, Sebring, Wauchula, Ft. Myers, Arcadia, and Sarasota. Throughout the state other units are similarly grouped.
Other states in which the Klan is at its strongest include Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Connecticut, Rhode Island (a joint province), West Virginia, Missouri, Wyoming, Georgia, Ohio, and Washington.
In New York, outside of a number of units on Long Island, the Klan maintains strong and active units in Elmira, Millport, Horseheads, Binghamton, Endicott, Harpersville, Cortland and Oswego. Mineola and Freeport are Klan activity centers on Long Island.
FROM INSIDE OUT
The Klan is not by any means as active in national politics as some of its foster children, the Silver Shirts, Khaki Shirts (even in their decrepit state), the Order of ’76, and the Crusader White Shirts. Klan activities are confined to local politics, which in many sections of the country they manage to handle effectively. The Klan’s inherent hate of the Jews and acquired antipathy for Communism makes it an ally of Fascist forces, and the Klan, it now appears, has proven an excellent training school for many who now lead separate Fascist and anti-Semitic movements against the Jews.
An offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan is the Industrial Defense Association which was incorporated in 1926 under the laws of the State of Massachusetts. Its expressed purpose is “to inculcate the principles of Americanism and to oppose Socialism and Communism among the people of the United States,” but thus far it has proven an organ for inciting the country to persecution and pogrom against the Jew. It is “a strictly Gentile association.”
Edward Hunter, once a private detective in Lynn, Mass., is the Executive Secretary of the association. Through his offices a number of books and pamphlets condemning Jewry as the controllers of Soviet Russia and Communism abroad are circulated through the country. An official publication of the association, “What’s What,” has contained many bitter attacks against the Jews in description of Socialist and Communist activities abroad and in the United States. Among the literature distributed by this agency is much of the material now being written and published by Nazis in Germany. It claims association with American patriotic and fraternal societies, police departments, military authorities, and the immigration, naturalization, deportation and legal departments of the national government.
Among the many societies which have aligned themselves in the Ku Klux Klan and to some extent the American Nazis in the fight against Communism, are the National Civic Federation, the American Vigilant Intelligence Federation, the Better American Federation, the National Security League, the American Defense Society, and many others.
The manner in which these organizations frequently ally themselves (perhaps altogether unwittingly) with American Fascist groups may be cited in the case of the National Civic Federation, which has as its chairman Ralph Easley of New York. A few months ago Easley distributed copies of a book “Communism in Germany” throughout the country. The book, besides stressing an exaggerated conception of the “red menace” in Germany, contained passages which would reflect against the Jews.
Easley sent a large quantity of these books to William Dudley Pelley, who has since been selling them at fifty cents the copy. Easley distributed them, according to his statements, free of charge. He has been unwilling to disclose the source of subsidy for the spread of this propaganda in the United States, and when last heard from Easley had not made this known even to members of an “American Section of the International Committee to Combat the World Menace of Communism,” whose names had been appended to the volume. Congressman Hamilton Fish withdrew his name from the list shortly after the nature of the book became known.
Gertrude Beeks Easley, Easley’s wife, has written frequently for Amerikas Deutsche Post, a New York publication which specializes in fanatical anti-Semitism and pro-Hitlerism and which was once the organ for the revamped Nazi Party in the United States. Mrs. Easley was granted permission to use the address of the New York offices of the Sons of the American Revolution for her anti-Communist activities (which one might judge from their nature are pro-Hitlerite), although officers of that organization disclaimed any knowledge of the type of work she was carrying on.
George. Sylvester Viereck, wartime pro-German propagandist and present day propagandist for the Hitler government, is another distributor of these books, while they can also be found in almost any Nazi book shop.
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.
