#april 1924

[mote-historie]

Fashion Illustration painted by John La Gatta (John LaGatta), The April Fashion Tour, Dresses from Harzfeld's, Selected by Isabel De Nyse Conover. Published in Woman's Home Companion, April 1924.

Isabel De Nyse Conover (American, 1891-1968) was a magazine editor and author.

[chaplinfortheages]

On location shooting “The Gold Rush”, Charlie Chaplin stands on the side of a mountain with his publicist Eddie Manson in front and I believe that is asst. director Eddie Sutherland behind him.

[todaysdocument]

Letter to Senator Willis from the Woman's National Party of Ohio

Record Group 46: Records of the U.S. SenateSeries: Committee Papers of the Committee on the JudiciaryFile Unit: Petitions and Memorials, Resolutions of State Legislatures, and Related Documents, which were Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary from the 68th Congress

The Champion Chemical Co.

Manufacturers of

Champion Embalming Fluids

Steel Burial Vaults

Undertakers Sundries

Springfield, Ohio,

April 7th,

1924.

Senator Frank B. Willis, 

Senate Office Bldg.,

Washington, D.C.

My dear Senator Willis: -

I am sure you will be interested to know that the attached resolutions were passed recently in Springfield.

Resolution No. 1 was passed unanimously by a body of men and women among whom were the presidents of the Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions, Optimists, Business and Professional Women's, and Woman's Federated Clubs.

Resolution No. 2 was passed on March 21st by the Civil Rights Protective League, membership four hundred and fifty, whose president is Mr. Charles L. Johnson.

Sincerely,

Margaret Baker [signature]

Chairman, Seventh Congressional District.

WOMAN'S NATIONAL PARTY.

MEB*MF

RESOLUTION #1 

WHEREAS, it is the sense of this meeting that the Lucretia Mott Amendment, which reads " Men an women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction." should be passed at this session of Congress. 

Therefore, BE IT RESOLVED 1st. That we ask our Senators and Representative in Congress from this State to vote and work in tis favor, and further 

BE IT RESOLVED, that this Resolution be read into the Congressional Record. 

RESOLUTION #2 

WHEREAS, it is the desire of this audience that Congress pass the Lucretia Mott amendment, which provides that "men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction," and that this amendment be sent to the states for ratification as speedily as possible, therefore, be it resolved that:

Our senators and representative be requested to work and vote for the passage of this amendment, and see that this resolution shall be placed in the congressional record of the United States.

[clarabowlover]

Fritzi Ridgeway (BOTD 8th April 1898) - By Walter Fredrick Seely 1924

Credit To Forever Louise Brooks @ForeverLouiseB1 (Twitter)

[ma-pi-ma]

Siamo tutti attori, le persone mentono per sopravvivere ogni giorno.

Marlon Brando

[russellolsonart]

2023 Daily drawing no.:098 Daily drawing no. to date.: 1,924 . . . . . . #day098of2023 #day1924 #1924 #april #april2023 #kraken #procreate #character #random #onedrawingadaychallenge #onedrawingaday #dailydrawing #drawing #illustration #russellolsonart https://www.instagram.com/p/Cqzl6RauHU2/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[shisasan]

April 9, 1924 Journals of Anais Nin 1923-1927 [volume 3]

[oatflatwhite]

BOBSTROLOGY

A completely serious presentation by @pegasusdrawnchariots and oatflatwhite

written version under the cut!

♈️Patrick O’Keefe [April 3 1926] ♈️Robert Sink [April 3 1905] ♈️John Julian [5 April 1924] ♈️Renée Lemaire [10 April 1914] ♈️James Miller [11 April 1924] ♈️Walter “Smokey” Gordon [April 15 1920] ♉️~Ronald Speirs [April 20 1920] ♉️Alton More [April 22 1920] ♉️Henry Jones [27 April 1924] ♉️Edward “Babe” Heffron [May 16 1923] ♉️John Martin [May 12 1922] ♉️Joseph Liebgott [May 17 1915] ♉️Norman Dike [May 19 1918] ♉️William Guarnere [April 28 1923] ♊️David Webster [June 2 1922] ♊️George Luz [June 17 1921] ♊️Roy Cobb [June 18 1914] ♋️Frederick “Moose” Heyliger [June 23 1916] ♋️Albert Blithe [June 25 1923] ♋️Donald Hoobler [28 June 1922] ♋️Thomas Meehan [8 July 1921] ♋️John Janovec [9 July 1925] ♋️Robert “Popeye” Wynn [July 10 1921] ♋️James "Moe" Alley [July 20 1922] ♌️~Burton “Pat” Christenson [July 23 1922] ♌️Eugene Jackson [29 July 1922] ♌️Donald Malarkey [July 31 1921] ♌️Edward Tipper [3 August 1921] ♍️Floyd Talbert [August 26 1923] ♍️Alex Penkala [August 30 1922] ♍️William Dukeman [3 September 1921] ♎️Eugene Roe [October 17 1922] ♎️Harry Welsh [September 27 1918] ♎️Lewis Nixon [September 30 1918] ♎️Ralph Spina [October 5 1919] ♎️Thomas Peacock [October 9 1923] ♏️Denver “Bull” Randleman [November 20 1920] ♑️Lynn “Buck” Compton [December 31 1921] ♑️Antonio Garcia [January 17 1925] ♒️Richard "Dick" Winters [January 21 1918] ♒️Herbert Sobel [January 26 1912] ♒️Carwood Lipton [January 30 1920] ♒️Warren “Skip” Muck [January 31 1922] ♓️Lester Hashey [23 February 1925] ♓️Charles “Chuck” Grant [1 March 1922] ♓️Robert Strayer [March 2 1912] ♓️Wayne “Skinny” Sisk [March 4 1922] ♓️Frank Perconte [March 10 1917] ♓️Darrell “Shifty” Powers [March 13 1923] ♓️Joseph Toye [March 14 1919]

6 Aries 🥉 8 Taurus 🥇 3 Gemini 7 Cancer 🥈 4 Leo 3 Virgo 5 Libra 1 Scorpio 0 Sagittarius 🥄 2 Capricorn 4 Aquarius 7 Pisces 🥈

10 🔥 13 🪨 12 💨 15 💧

20 cardinal 17 fixed 13 mutable

22 masculine 28 feminine

[rockpaperscissuhs]

Band of Brothers Birthdays

January

1 John S. Zielinski Jr. (b. 1925)

21 Richard D. “Dick” Winters (b. 1918)

26 Herbert M. Sobel (b. 1912)

30 Clifford Carwood "Lip" Lipton (b. 1920)

31 Warren H. “Skip” Muck (b. 1922) & Robert B. Brewer (b. 1924)

February

8 Clarence R. Hester (b. 1916)

18 Thomas A. Peacock (b. 1920)

23 Lester A. “Les” Hashey (b. 1925)

March

1 Charles E. “Chuck” Grant (b. 1922)

2 Colonel Robert L. “Bob” Strayer (b. 1910)

4 Wayne “Skinny” Sisk (b. 1922)

10 Frank J. Perconte (b. 1917)

13 Darrell C. “Shifty” Powers (b. 1923)

14 Joseph J. “Joe” Toye (b. 1919)

24 John D. “Cowboy” Halls (b. 1922)

26 George Lavenson (b. 1917) & George H. Smith Jr. (1922)

27 Gerald J. Loraine (b. 1913)

April

3 Colonel Robert F. “Bob” Sink (b. 1905) & Patrick S. “Patty” O’Keefe (b. 1926)

5 John T. “Johnny” Julian (b. 1924)

10 Renée B. E. Lemaire (b. 1914)

11 James W. Miller (b. 1924)

15 Walter S. “Smokey” Gordon Jr. (b. 1920)

20 Ronald C. “Sparky” Speirs (b. 1920)

23 Alton M. More (b. 1920)

27 Earl E. “One Lung” McClung (b. 1923) & Henry S. “Hank” Jones Jr. (b. 1924)

28 William J. “Wild Bill” Guarnere (b. 1923)

May

12 John W. “Johnny” Martin (b. 1922)

16 Edward J. “Babe” Heffron (b. 1923)

17 Joseph D. “Joe” Liebgott (b. 1915)

19 Norman S. Dike Jr. (b. 1918) & Cleveland O. Petty (b. 1924)

25 Albert L. "Al" Mampre (b. 1922)

June

2 David K. "Web" Webster (b. 1922)

6 Augusta M. Chiwy ("Anna") (b. 1921)

13 Edward D. Shames (b. 1922)

17 George Luz (b. 1921)

18 Roy W. Cobb (b. 1914)

23 Frederick T. “Moose” Heyliger (b. 1916)

25 Albert Blithe (b. 1923)

28 Donald B. "Hoob" Hoobler (b. 1922)

July

2 Gen. Anthony C. "Nuts" McAuliffe (b. 1898)

7 Francis J. “Frank” Mellet (b. 1920)

8 Thomas Meehan III (b. 1921)

9 John A. Janovec (b. 1925)

10 Robert E. “Popeye” Wynn (b. 1921)

16 William S. Evans (b. 1910)

20 James H. “Moe” Alley Jr. (b. 1922)

23 Burton P. “Pat” Christenson (b. 1922)

29 Eugene E. Jackson (b. 1922)

31 Donald G. "Don" Malarkey (b. 1921)

August

3 Edward J. “Ed” Tipper (b. 1921)

10 Allen E. Vest (b. 1924)

15 Kenneth J. Webb (b. 1920)

18 Jack E. Foley (b. 1922)

26 Floyd M. “Tab” Talbert (b. 1923) & General Maxwell D. Taylor (b. 1901)

29 Joseph A. Lesniewski (b. 1920)

31 Alex M. Penkala Jr. (b. 1924)

September

3 William H. Dukeman Jr. (b. 1921)

11 Harold D. Webb (b. 1925)

12 Major Oliver M. Horton (b. 1912)

27 Harry F. Welsh (b. 1918)

30 Lewis “Nix” Nixon III (b. 1918)

October

5 Joseph “Joe” Ramirez (b. 1921) & Ralph F. “Doc” Spina (b. 1919) & Terrence C. "Salty" Harris (b. 1920)

6 Leo D. Boyle (b. 1913)

10 William F. “Bill” Kiehn (b. 1921)

15 Antonio C. “Tony” Garcia (b. 1924)

17 Eugene G. "Doc" Roe (b. 1922)

21 Lt. Cl. David T. Dobie (b. 1912)

28 Herbert J. Suerth Jr. (b. 1924)

31 Robert "Bob" van Klinken (b. 1919)

November

11 Myron N. “Mike” Ranney (b. 1922)

20 Denver “Bull” Randleman (b. 1920)

December

12 John “Jack” McGrath (b. 1919)

31 Lynn D. “Buck” Compton (b. 1921)

Unknown Date

Joseph P. Domingus

Richard J. Hughes (b. 1925)

Maj. Louis Kent

Father John Mahoney

George C. Rice

SOURCES

Military History Fandom Wiki

Band of Brothers Fandom Wiki

Traces of War

Find a Grave

[girlactionfigure]

This is Gerda Weissmann Klein.

She spent three years in several different Nazi concentration camps. In late January of 1945, Gerda and 4,000 other Jewish women were forced to embark on a 350-mile death march to flee the advances of the Allied forces.

By early May, Gerda was one of only 120 women who were still alive. The rest—including several of her childhood friends—had died from exhaustion, starvation, random executions, and exposure to the elements.

Gerda was one day shy of her 21st birthday when she was rescued by American soldiers. Weighing only 68 lbs. (30.84 kg), Gerda’s hair was nearly white and her clothes were tattered and crawling with lice. She hadn’t taken a bath in three years.

She later recalled seeing the man who saved her life:

“I stood in the doorway of that factory, and I knew that I was free. I saw a strange car coming down the hill, with the white star of the American army on its hood. Two men in strange uniforms sat in it, we gathered them to be Americans. One of the men came towards me, and I looked at him with incredible awe and disbelief that I was looking at someone who fought for us. Of course I was terribly frightened. I looked at him and said, ‘we are Jewish.’ There was a long paused, then he said, ‘so am I.’ It was the greatest moment of my life. He asked me to come with him, and he held the door open for me. He has now been holding the door open for 50 years as my husband.”

Gerda married Kurt Klein in Paris and moved to Buffalo, New York where they eventually had three children and eight grandchildren.

Gerda became a human rights activist and published her own autobiography titled, "All But My Life."

May 8, 1924 – April 3, 2022

historycoolkids

[beggars-opera]

On April 3rd, 1924, 23 year old Beulah Annan shot her lover, Harry Kalstedt, after an argument in her Chicago apartment, then made a cocktail and played a record on repeat for hours, watching him die.

Over the course of her murder trial, Beulah claimed at various times that she had shot Harry to prevent him raping her, that she had shot him because he became violent when she told him she was pregnant, and that she had narrowly grabbed the loaded gun first as they both lunged for it. Throughout all of this, Beulah's husband nearly bankrupted himself attempting to help her, convinced of her innocence. The day after she was acquitted she told the press that she was getting a divorce because he was "too slow." The baby never materialized.

Also in jail at this time was another murder suspect named Belva Gaertner, who had also shot her lover and claimed to have no memory of the incident because she was drunk when it happened. The two became the poster children for the supposed dangers of nascent jazz culture. Maureen Watkins, a reporter at both of the trials, later wrote both characters into a play called Chicago, which was eventually made into the musical we all know and love.

[mote-historie]

Armand Vallée (1884-1960), Danseuses Type Sport, A Quoi Pensent Les Jeunes Filles (What Do Young Girls Think), La Vie Parisienne, 19. April, 1924.

[citizenscreen]

Henry Mancini (April 16, 1924 – June 14, 1994) 🎶

[todaysdocument]

Letter from the President of Roosevelt Worsted Mills to Representative George S. Graham against the Child Labor Amendment

Record Group 233: Records of the U.S. House of RepresentativesSeries: Bill Files of the Committee on the JudiciaryFile Unit: Papers Accompanying Specific Bills and Resolutions of the Committee on the Judiciary from the 68th Congress

[[Letterhead]]

ROOSEVELT WORSTED MILLS

WORSTED YARN SPINNERS

WEAVING YARNS     2016 NAUDAIN STREET     KNITTING YARNS

PHILADELPHIA, [[end of letterhead]] April 8, 1924

[[handwritten in blue]] H Res 184

Hon. George S. Graham,

House of Representatives,

Washington, D.C.

Dear Sir:

We wish to express to you our heartiest congratulation and deep appreciation of your courage and statesmanship as revealed in your report in opposition to the proposed Child Labor Amendment to the Constitution.

We hope that this report will be accorded wide publicity and that it will help to stop the vicious tendency, lately developed, in trying to cure every evil by a proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Yours very truly,

ROOSEVELT WORSTED MILLS.

[[signed]] Fritz Quittner.

President

FQ/L

[nomeutenteerrato]

« Giacomo Matteotti fu assassinato da sicari fascisti il 10 di giugno del 1924. Lo attesero sotto casa in cinque, tutti squadristi venuti da Milano, professionisti della violenza assoldati dai più stretti collaboratori di Benito Mussolini. L'onorevole Matteotti, il segretario del Partito Socialista Unitario, l'ultimo che in Parlamento ancora si opponeva a viso aperto alla dittatura fascista, fu sequestrato in pieno centro di Roma, in pieno giorno, alla luce del sole.

Si batté fino all'ultimo, come lottato aveva per tutta la vita. Lo pugnalarono a morte, poi ne scempiarono il cadavere. Lo piegarono su sé stesso per poterlo ficcare dentro una fossa scavata malamente con una lima da fabbro.

Mussolini fu immediatamente informato. Oltre che del delitto, si macchiò dell'infamia di giurare alla vedova che avrebbe fatto tutto il possibile per riportarle il marito. Mentre giurava, il Duce del fascismo teneva i documenti insanguinati della vittima nel cassetto della sua scrivania.

In questa nostra falsa primavera, però, non si commemora soltanto l'omicidio politico di Matteotti; si commemorano anche le stragi nazifasciste perpetrate dalle SS tedesche, con la complicità e la collaborazione dei fascisti italiani, nel 1944.

Fosse Ardeatine, Sant'Anna di Stazzema, Marzabotto. Sono soltanto alcuni dei luoghi nei quali i demoniaci alleati di Mussolini massacrarono a sangue freddo migliaia di inermi civili italiani. Tra di essi centinaia di bambini e perfino di infanti. Molti furono addirittura arsi vivi, alcuni decapitati. Queste due concomitanti ricorrenze luttuose, primavera del '24, primavera del '44, proclamano che il fascismo è stato lungo tutta la sua esistenza storica - non soltanto alla fine o occasionalmente - un irredimibile fenomeno di sistematica violenza politica omicida e stragista.

Lo riconosceranno, una buona volta, gli eredi di quella storia? Tutto, purtroppo, lascia pensare che non sarà così.

Il gruppo dirigente post-fascista, vinte le elezioni nell'ottobre del 2022, aveva davanti a sé due strade: ripudiare il suo passato neo-fascista oppure cercare di riscrivere la storia. Ha indubbiamente imboccato la seconda via.

Dopo aver evitato l'argomento in campagna elettorale, la Presidente del Consiglio, quando costretta ad affrontarlo dagli anniversari storici, si è pervicacemente attenuta alla linea ideologica della sua cultura neofascista di provenienza: ha preso le distanze dalle efferatezze indifendibili perpetrate dal regime (la persecuzione degli ebrei) senza mai ripudiare nel suo insieme l'esperienza fascista, ha scaricato sui soli nazisti le stragi compiute con la complicità dei fascisti repubblichini, infine ha disconosciuto il ruolo fondamentale della Resistenza nella rinascita italiana (fino al punto di non nominare mai la parola "antifascismo" in occasione del 25 aprile 2023).

Mentre vi parlo, siamo di nuovo alla vigilia dell'anniversario della Liberazione dal nazifascismo. La parola che la Presidente del Consiglio si rifiutò di pronunciare palpiterà ancora sulle labbra riconoscenti di tutti i sinceri democratici, siano essi di sinistra, di centro o di destra. Finché quella parola - antifascismo - non sarà pronunciata da chi ci governa, lo spettro del fascismo continuerà a infestare la casa della democrazia italiana. »

- Antonio Scurati

Monologo (censurato dalla Rai), ma qui per condividerlo perché: antifascismo sempre!

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

A Nazi rally held in Madison Square Garden, February 20th 1939

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

October 21, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Oct 22, 2024

On Saturday, September 7, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump predicted that his plan to deport 15 to 20 million people currently living in the United States would be “bloody.” He also promised to prosecute his political opponents, including, he wrote, lawyers, political operatives, donors, illegal voters, and election officials. Retired chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley told journalist Bob Woodward that Trump is “a fascist to the core…the most dangerous person to this country.” 

On October 14, Trump told Fox News Channel host Maria Bartiromo that he thought enemies within the United States were more dangerous than foreign adversaries and that he thought the military should stop those “radical left lunatics” on Election Day. Since then, he has been talking a lot about “the enemy from within,” specifically naming Representative Adam Schiff and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, both Democrats from California, as “bad people.” Schiff was the chair of the House Intelligence Committee that broke the 2019 story of Trump’s attempt to extort Volodymyr Zelensky that led to Trump’s first impeachment. 

Trump’s references to the “enemy from within” have become so frequent that former White House press secretary turned political analyst Jen Psaki has called them his closing argument for the 2024 election, and she warned that his construction of those who oppose him as “enemies” might sweep in virtually anyone he feels is a threat.

In a searing article today, political scientist Rachel Bitecofer of The Cycle explored exactly what that means in a piece titled “What (Really) Happens If Trump Wins?” Bitecofer outlined Adolf Hitler’s January 30, 1933, oath of office, in which he promised Germans he would uphold the constitution, and the three months he took to dismantle that constitution.

By March, she notes,  the concentration camp Dachau was open. Its first prisoners were not Jews, but rather Hitler’s prominent political opponents. By April, Jews had been purged from the civil service, and opposition political parties were illegal. By May, labor unions were banned and students were burning banned books. Within the year, public criticism of Hitler and the Nazis was illegal, and denouncing violators paid well for those who did it.

Bitecofer writes that Trump has promised mass deportations “that he cannot deliver unless he violates both the Constitution and federal law.” To enable that policy, Trump will need to dismantle the merit-based civil service and put into office those loyal to him rather than the Constitution. And then he will purge his political opponents, for once those who would stand against him are purged, Trump can act as he wishes against immigrants, for example, and others.

Ninety years ago, as American reporter Dorothy Thompson ate breakfast at her hotel in Berlin on August 25, 1934, a young man from Hitler’s secret police, the Gestapo, “politely handed me a letter and requested a signed receipt.” She thought nothing of it, she said, “But what a surprise was in store for me!” The letter informed her that, “in light of your numerous anti-German publications,” she was being expelled from Germany.

She was the first American journalist expelled from Nazi Germany, and that expulsion was no small thing. Thompson had moved to London in 1920 to become a foreign correspondent and began to spend time in Berlin. In 1924 she moved to the city to head the Central European Bureau for the New York Evening Post and the Philadelphia Public Ledger. From there, she reported on the rise of Adolf Hitler. She left her Berlin post in 1928 to marry novelist Sinclair Lewis, and the two settled in Vermont.

When the couple traveled to Sweden in 1930 for Lewis to accept the Nobel Prize in Literature, Thompson visited Germany, where she saw the growing strength of the fascists and the apparent inability of the Nazi’s opponents to come together to stand against them. She continued to visit the country in the following years, reporting on the rise of fascism there, and elsewhere. 

In 1931, Thompson interviewed Hitler and declared that, rather than “the future dictator of Germany” she had expected to meet, he was a man of “startling insignificance.” She asked him if he would “abolish the constitution of the German Republic.” He answered: ��I will get into power legally” and, once in power, abolish the parliament and the constitution and “found an authority-state, from the lowest cell to the highest instance; everywhere there will be responsibility and authority above, discipline and obedience below.” She did not believe he could succeed: “Imagine a would-be dictator setting out to persuade a sovereign people to vote away their rights,” she wrote in apparent astonishment.

Thompson was back in Berlin in summer 1934 as a representative of the Saturday Evening Post when she received the news that she had 24 hours to leave the country. The other foreign correspondents in Berlin saw her off at the railway station with “great sheaves of American Beauty roses.” 

Safely in Paris, Thompson mused that in her first years in Germany she had gotten to know many of the officials of the German republic, and that when she had left to marry Lewis, they offered “many expressions of friendship and gratitude.” But times had changed. “I thought of them sadly as my train pulled out,” she said, “carrying me away from Berlin. Some of those officials still are in the service of the German Government, some of them are émigrés and some of them are dead.” 

Thompson came home to a nation where many of the same dark impulses were simmering, her fame after her expulsion from Germany following her. She lectured against fascism across the country in 1935, then began a radio program that reached tens of millions of listeners. Hired in 1936 to write a regular column three days a week for the New York Herald Tribune, she became a leading voice in print, too, warning that what was happening in Germany could also happen in America. 

In an echo of Lewis’s bestselling 1935 novel It Can’t Happen Here, she wrote in a 1937 column: “No people ever recognize their dictator in advance…. He always represents himself as the instrument for expressing the Incorporated National Will. When Americans think of dictators they always think of some foreign model. If anyone turned up here in a fur hat, boots and a grim look he would be recognized and shunned…. But when our dictator turns up, you can depend on it that he will be one of the boys, and he will stand for everything traditionally American.” 

In less than two years, the circulation of her column had grown to reach between seven and eight million people. In 1939 a reporter wrote: “She is read, believed and quoted by millions of women who used to get their political opinions from their husbands, who got them from [political commentator] Walter Lippmann.” The reporter likened Thompson to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, saying they were the two “most influential women in the U.S.”

When 22,000 American Nazis held a rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden in honor of President George Washington’s birthday on February 20, 1939, Thompson sat in the front row of the press box, where she laughed loudly during the speeches and yelled “Bunk!” at the stage, illustrating that she would not be muzzled by Nazis. After being escorted out, she returned to her seat, where stormtroopers surrounded her. She later told a reporter: “I was amazed to see a duplicate of what I saw seven years ago in Germany. Tonight I listened to words taken out of the mouth of Adolf Hitler.” 

Two years later, In 1941, Thompson returned to the issue she had raised when she mused about those government officials who had gone from thanking her to expelling her. In a piece for Harper’s Magazine titled “Who Goes Nazi?” she wrote: “It is an interesting and somewhat macabre parlor game to play at a large gathering of one’s acquaintances: to speculate who in a showdown would go Nazi,” she wrote. “By now, I think I know. I have gone through the experience many times—in Germany, in Austria, and in France. I have come to know the types: the born Nazis, the Nazis whom democracy itself has created, the certain-to-be fellow-travelers. And I also know those who never, under any conceivable circumstances, would become Nazis.”

Examining a number of types of Americans, she wrote that the line between democracy and fascism was not wealth, or education, or race, or age, or nationality. “Kind, good, happy, gentlemanly, secure people never go Nazi,” she wrote. They were secure enough to be good natured and open to new ideas, and they believed so completely in the promise of American democracy that they would defend it with their lives, even if they seemed too easygoing to join a struggle. “But the frustrated and humiliated intellectual, the rich and scared speculator, the spoiled son, the labor tyrant, the fellow who has achieved success by smelling out the wind of success—they would all go Nazi in a crisis,” she wrote. “Those who haven’t anything in them to tell them what they like and what they don’t—whether it is breeding, or happiness, or wisdom, or a code, however old-fashioned or however modern, go Nazi.”

In Paris following her expulsion from Berlin, Thompson told a reporter for the Associated Press that the reason she had been attacked was the same reason that Hitler’s power was growing. “Chancellor Hitler is no longer a man, he is a religion,” she said.

Suggesting her expulsion was because of her old article disparaging Hitler, in her own article about her expulsion she noted: “My offense was to think that Hitler is just an ordinary man, after all. That is a crime against the reigning cult in Germany, which says Mr. Hitler is a Messiah sent by God to save the German people…. To question this mystic mission is so heinous that, if you are a German, you can be sent to jail. I, fortunately, am an American, so I merely was sent to Paris. Worse things can happen….” 

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON