|
Trending Topics
|
Nazi-Funded Plots Sought to Topple U.S. Government
(Times of Israel) Matt Lebovic - By the time William Dudley Pelley called for the forced sterilization of all Jewish males in 1939, the American white supremacist's "Brown Shirts"-inspired militia claimed more than 100,000 members. Pelley led a plot to overthrow President Franklin Roosevelt and install a pro-Nazi government. Pelley's vision was to begin with the kidnapping and execution of 20 prominent Hollywood figures, including several Jews, after which Jews throughout the country would begin to flee. In the 1930s, radio's leading anti-Jewish personality, Father Charles Coughlin, formed the Christian Front, whose members divided themselves into "cell" teams, preparing to attack several hundred targets. Berlin's key agent liaising with Nazi-sympathizing congressmen was George Sylvester Viereck, who partnered with the Christian Front and other fascist groups to stage massive "America First" rallies with antisemitic content. Born in Munich, Viereck met with Hitler in 1933. The next year, he addressed 20,000 pro-Nazi supporters at New York City's Madison Square Garden. In Brooklyn, 17 Christian Front members were indicted in 1940 for stockpiling bombs and guns for use on Jewish targets. The local jury, however, failed to convict anyone. Meanwhile, Christian Front "gangs robbed Jewish merchants, defiled synagogues and cemeteries, and committed other acts of vandalism," said historian David Greenberg. Jews in New York City and Boston "were attacked and beaten on the streets, in parks, with some victims stabbed or disfigured." Rachel Maddow's eight-episode podcast "Ultra," released in October, depicts several antisemitic, Nazi-inspired conspiracies. The largest sedition trial in U.S. history, held in 1944, investigated two dozen U.S. senators and representatives for partnering with Berlin to spread Nazi propaganda.