Secret Armies Part 9

The White Russians and the n.a.z.i agents then decided to start a publis.h.i.+ng business as the first step to attract followers. They issued a paper called the _Gentile Front_. They were extremely careful to keep the editorial and publication addresses secret. All mail was sent only to Post Office Box No. 526 in the old Chicago Post Office. The company was named the Patriotic Publis.h.i.+ng Co. and with the utmost secrecy editorial offices were established at 5 S. Wabash in Chicago and the paper printed in the bas.e.m.e.nt at 4233 N. Kildare where the Merrimac Press functioned.

Subsequently, to throw anyone who might be watching them off the trail, they changed the name of the publis.h.i.+ng company to the Right Cause Publis.h.i.+ng Co. and issued an avalanche of n.a.z.i propaganda. It was through this secretly organized and secretly functioning propaganda center that Harry A. Jung, ultra-"patriot," distributed printed attacks on Roosevelt just before the Presidential election.

The _American Gentile_, backed by n.a.z.i money, published the most insane rantings imaginable. But when one is inclined to dismiss them as insanity, one remembers that it was the same sort of stuff Hitler used in winning millions of bewildered Germans to his banner. The pre-election issue (October, 1936) of the _Gentile_ will serve as an ill.u.s.tration of what they published and distributed through the United States mails:

Former Congressman Louis T. McFadden[11] died on October 1 from a stroke. He was sixty years old. The _American Gentile_, however, implied that he had been murdered by Jews; Senator Bronson Cutting (killed in an airplane crash) also was murdered by Jews. Huey Long was murdered by Jews. Walter A. Liggett, the newspaper editor, was murdered by Jews, and it was an international ring of Jewish bankers who hired Booth to murder Abraham Lincoln.

Of course it was crazy, but the coal digger in Kentucky or the bedeviled farmer in the Middle West who couldn't pay his taxes or the unemployed worker in an industrial center who couldn't find a job did not know history any too well nor understand the workings of the economic system; and when they were told by newspapers brought to them by the United States Government mails that their economic difficulties were due to a Jewish-Communist plot, that Roosevelt was a Jew and was controlled by Jews and Communists, some of them were p.r.o.ne to believe it. With this irresponsible propaganda anti-semitism grew. Men and women were attracted to the n.a.z.i web without dreaming of the forces disseminating the propaganda of the motives behind them.

The most capable of those drawn into the n.a.z.i propaganda machine were chosen for more serious work. Some were used for propaganda; others were given definite espionage a.s.signments. The espionage and propaganda divisions of the n.a.z.i machine in this country are separate bodies. They overlap only in serving as a recruiting ground.

The smuggling of anti-democratic propaganda off n.a.z.i s.h.i.+ps entering American ports was exposed by the McCormick Congressional Committee, but it stopped only for a brief period. The n.a.z.i s.h.i.+ps which bring in propaganda also bring secret instructions to agents here and take back their reports. To eliminate tell-tale evidence, Dr. George Gyssling, n.a.z.i Consul in Los Angeles, has paid out cash to leaders of the German propaganda machine on the West Coast. Affidavits to this effect are in my possession.

The headquarters for the West Coast propaganda machine which dabbles a little in espionage, is the _Deutsches Haus_, 634 W. 15th Street, Los Angeles. The building is supposed to be merely a meeting place for German-Americans and sympathizers of the Hitler regime. Actually its functions are far more sinister.

The _Deutsches Haus_, before it was turned into a center of n.a.z.i activity, had been a typical Los Angeles home. When the n.a.z.is took it over, they ripped out several of the front rooms and turned it into a barn-like affair with a skylight overhead and a raised platform from which speakers sing the praises of Hitler and fascism. In the rear part of the hall is a combined bar and restaurant where the German-Americans drink their beer and whiskies and plot the smuggling of propaganda from n.a.z.i s.h.i.+ps and the carrying on of espionage against American military and naval forces.

I use the word "plot" for precisely what it means. From this house, naturalized American citizens and native Americans direct espionage and propaganda activities paid for by a foreign government and designed against the peace and security of the United States.

The leader of this group, Hermann Schwinn, was appointed by Minister of Propaganda Goebbels in Germany and is the recipient of personal letters of praise from Adolf Hitler for his work. Schwinn is a naturalized citizen,[12] a comparatively young man in his early thirties, ruddy-faced and with a thin, quivering mustache on his upper lip. This little Fuhrer's office is just off the meeting hall and adjoins the small bookstore where the purchaser can get pamphlets, books, and newspapers attacking democracy.

When I called upon Schwinn at the n.a.z.i headquarters and introduced myself, he smiled amiably and granted my request for an interview. The German-American Bund, he explained immediately (the reorganized Friends of the New Germany), is now a patriotic organization, consisting only of American citizens.

The German-American Bund, Schwinn continued as we seated ourselves in his office, was now a "patriotic organization striving to create among Americans a better understanding of n.a.z.i Germany, to combat anti-n.a.z.i propaganda and the boycott against Germany, and to fight Communism."

He took about ten minutes to explain their peaceful objectives and their great love for the United States.

"Everything is America for the Americans and to fight all alien theories and interests?" I asked, summing up his explanation.

"That's right," he beamed.

"Does any propaganda come from Germany to help save America for the Americans?"

"No, sir!" he said. "We have nothing to do with Germany; we are Americans first. Mr. d.i.c.kstein[13] says that there is propaganda coming, but he was never able to prove any of his statements."

"Then how does propaganda like _World Service_ from Erfurt, Germany, get into this country?"

"Oh, I get it," he said casually. "Anyone can subscribe to it for a dollar and a half a year. We get two or three copies around here--by subscription, of course."

"There must be a lot of subscribers in the United States for I've seen a great many copies. I thought that perhaps it comes in batches from Germany for distribution here so members of the n.a.z.i groups in the United States could use it to help save America for the Americans."

"No," he smiled. "It's all a subscription matter."

"I see. Do you know Captain George Trauernicht?"

Schwinn shot a startled glance at me and nodded slowly. "Yes," he said, "he's Captain of the Hapag Line s.h.i.+p 'Oakland.'"

"Do you ever visit him?"

"Yes; he was here last week."

"Doesn't he bring batches of _World Service_ and other propaganda for you every time he comes into port?"

"No," Schwinn said sharply. "The visits I pay him are purely social.

Just to drink a gla.s.s of good German beer."

"Do you usually pay social visits carrying a brief case?"

"Now, wait a minute," he protested. "Don't write down the answer until I think."

I stopped typing on his office machine which he had permitted me to use to take verbatim notes of the interview and waited while he thought. After a lengthy silence I added:

"You had a brief case on Thursday when you visited him."

He continued thinking for a little longer and then said that he thought he had had a brief case on that trip.

"But why do you ask me that?" he demanded. "There was nothing in that brief case."

"Sure there was. The brief case always contains reports you send back to Germany and instructions from Germany are brought to you by Captain Trauernicht as well as other captains of German s.h.i.+ps docking here and in San Diego."

"I have never taken off propaganda nor given nor received reports,"

Schwinn insisted. "Somebody told you something and you've got it all wrong."

"Suppose I mention a few instances. At four o'clock on Monday afternoon, March 9, 1936, your beer-drinking friend, Captain Trauernicht, waited for you at the gangplank of his boat--for your 'social' visit. What he wanted was the package of sealed reports from n.a.z.i agents throughout the United States which you were bringing in your brief case. In due time you arrived and gave him the reports.

Then you started on a drinking spree--"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Schwinn interrupted.

"Maybe I can refresh your memory. That was the evening the Captain took a lady from Beverly Hills, to the first mate's cabin--remember?

You know, the lady who lives on North Crescent Drive--shall I mention her name?"

Schwinn's face turned an apoplectic red and he became quiet.

"On Monday, February 10, 1936," I continued. "Reinhold Kusche, leader of the O.D. unit in your organization and a 'patriotic' naturalized American citizen, was on board the steamer 'Elbe' docked in Los Angeles harbor. He telephoned to one of your n.a.z.i agents, Albert Voigt, that the Captain was sailing at five o'clock for Antwerp and was furious because the agents' reports had not yet been delivered to him. Kusche told Voigt to bring the reports in a hurry--which Voigt promptly did.

"On Tuesday evening, May 12, 1936, the Captain of the n.a.z.i s.h.i.+p 'Schwaben', which had just arrived from Antwerp, Belgium, came to your office and handed you a sealed package of orders and propaganda. He laid it on your desk in this room. The package contained copies of _World Service_--which is obtainable, you remember, only by subscription at a dollar and a half a year."

"It is not true--" Schwinn interrupted excitedly.

"I have a copy from the batch he brought to you. But let's continue.

On Monday, June 8, 1936, you yourself went to the n.a.z.i s.h.i.+p 'Weser'

and gave the captain secret reports to take back to Germany and left with secret orders he had brought over--orders sealed in brown, manila paper[14]--and a large package of _Fichte-Bund_ propaganda. I have a copy from that batch, too."

Schwinn stared at me and then smiled. "You can't prove anything," he said with a.s.surance.

"I have affidavits about all these items and more--affidavits from men on board the n.a.z.i s.h.i.+ps."

"It's impossible!" he exclaimed. "No German on the s.h.i.+p would dare to sign an affidavit!"