185: The Early Holocaust: From the “Jewish Question” to Kristallnacht

“Being a Jew is not a crime, I am not a dog.” This is the story of the start of the Holocaust. Serving as the scapegoat for everything from a disappearing child to the Black Plague, European Jews are used to “anti-Jewry.” But as the nation state rises in the modern world, it brings the so-called “Jewish Question” to the fore: can one be a faithful Jew and modern citizen? As modern antisemitism rises and European Jews face pogroms and the Dreyfus Affair, some begin to think they need a nation of their own. Jewish nationalism, or “Zionism,” is born. Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the Great War, Adolf Hitler’s Nazism is leaning into the continent’s centuries-old anti-Jewry and antisemitic ideas to claim that the Jews are responsible for Germany’s postwar woes. Once in power, he begins systematically removing rights from the Reich’s Jewish population. This includes taking their citizenship through the Nuremberg Race Laws in 1935, and an unfathomable, deadly, destructive pogrom in 1938: Kristallnacht. Stateless and persecuted, European Jews try to flee Nazism—can they find safety in America? We’ll see how that goes as we follow the St. Louis to America’s shores, and as the German American Bund gathers in Madison Square Garden… ____ Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com https://www.htdspodcast.com/ and go deep into episode bibliographies https://www.htdspodcast.com/bibliography and book recommendations https://www.htdspodcast.com/book-recommendations join discussions in our Facebook community https://www.facebook.com/groups/257926761619618/ get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette https://www.htdspodcast.com/newsletters-1 come see a live show https://www.htdspodcast.com/live-shows get HTDS merch https://htds-team-shop.fourthwall.com/ or become an HTDS premium https://htds.supercast.com/ member for bonus episodes and other perks. HTDS is part ofAudacy media network. https://www.audacy.com/ Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? ContactAudacyinc.com https://audacyinc.com/contact

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Greg Jackson?

  History that Doesn't Suck is supported by Indeed. I'm not afraid to say this. As HTDS has grown, the business requires skills I know I don't naturally possess. If I need to hire, I think this is a job for sponsored jobs. When you sponsor your job on Indeed, you'll find the candidates with the skills you're looking for. Indeed is genuinely all you need to find quality talent. Instead of putting a post out there and praying the right people see it, Indeed Sponsored Jobs proactively connects you with candidates who match your precise criteria, whether that's location, software experience, or industry experience. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs.

• 0:45Greg Jackson?

  And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at indeed.com/podcast. Just go to indeed.com/podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com/podcast. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs.

• 1:08Greg Jackson?

  History that Doesn't Suck is sponsored by Square. In 1883, a small business owner in Dayton, Ohio, James Ritty patented the first mechanical cash register. As the legend goes, while traveling to Europe a few years earlier, he grew fascinated by a device measuring the propeller's revolutions onboard. Watching the mechanism in action, Ritty considered whether a similar device could record cash transactions. Logging every sale mechanically would allow both the owner and the patron to review and verify each transaction. Small businesses have come a long way since then, and in fact, History that Doesn't Suck uses Square at the merch table for our live shows. No clunky cash register, just a small, iconic, square, tap-and-pay device and a smartphone.

• 1:53Greg Jackson?

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• 2:39Greg Jackson?

  It's a beautiful Saturday morning, May 13th, 1939. We're in Hamburg, Germany, at the city's port, where 937 passengers are in the midst of boarding the MS St. Louis. Among them is Gisela Knabel, and what thoughts must be going through her young mind? Though only 15 years old, she remembers when, despite having one loving teacher who'd remind students that Gisela was no different from them, she had to transfer to an all-Jewish school. She remembers when the SS man started standing in front of her parents' grocery store to drive away business. Only the bravest, like their Catholic neighbor, the baker, dared to push past him.

• 3:22Greg Jackson?

  She remembers when friends and family described last year's night of broken glass, a night of terror for German Jews that she luckily did not experience personally. She remembers the day when two men ordered her Polish-born father to pack a bag, grab his passport, and go with them. Gisela will always remember making him those last sandwiches for his unknown journey. Just as she'll never forget how her mother fought in the courts against their eviction so a German couple could take their apartment. A German couple. Are they not German? Gisela was born and raised here, but in recent years, the blue-eyed, blond-haired Jewish girl has seen that identity taken from her systematically.

• 4:07Greg Jackson?

  Nonetheless, she's only fifteen. A fifteen-year-old with wonderfully brave parents who've shielded her and her little sister from the worst of what's been going on. It's a task her mother has shouldered remarkably well since her father's deportation. But now, her lonely mother knows that she must get these girls out of Nazi Germany. And so, clinging to her bags, Gisela walks up the gangway beside her mother and twelve-year-old sister to board the St. Louis, only semi-aware of the horrors her family and nearly every one of the ship's passengers, all of whom save a handful are Jewish, have experienced in recent years.

• 4:48Greg Jackson?

  To her, traveling to Cuba on this beautiful diesel-powered luxury ocean liner, all while knowing that her father is coming later? Well, it is, as she'll later recall, really quite an adventure.

• 5:03Greg Jackson?

  The next two weeks at sea are amazing. Captain Gustav Schreuder is an amazing man who insists that the crew treat the almost exclusively Jewish passengers like any other paying customers. And with the St. Louis boasting a cinema, a swimming pool, and a ballroom? Oh, Gisela's on cloud nine. The dances, the new friendships. For many, their fears slip deeper into the Atlantic with every nautical mile clocked. They enjoy the ship's amenities, but only most. Gisela notices those with shaven heads, released from camps at Dachau and Buchenwald on the condition that they leave Germany and never return. They remain tense.

• 5:47Greg Jackson?

  And as the St. Louis reaches Cuban waters, it turns out their tension is well-founded.

• 5:54Greg Jackson?

  At 3:00 a.m., May 27th, the St. Louis arrives in Havana Harbor, only to have most of its passengers denied entry. It seems that the Director General of Cuba's Office of Immigration, Manuel Benitez Gonzalez, has sold most of these passengers' landing documents for $150 apiece that were less than legal, or at least taking advantage of a legal loophole. And Cuban President Federico Laredo Bruz, less than a month-old, decreed 937, has put an end to that. Only four Spaniards, two Cubans, and 22 Jews are allowed to disembark.

• 6:29Greg Jackson?

  Days pass as the US-based Jewish Joint Distribution Committee negotiates with the Cuban president. But given his nation's anti-immigrant sentiments, he stands by his new decree, requiring refugees to pay a $500 bond to ensure they aren't a cost to the state. Well, the JDC doesn't have $453,500 for over 900 people. This is when Gisela's bubble bursts a little bit more. As talk of returning to Germany passes through the ship, she watches a shorn-headed man, bleeding from razor cuts, charge across the deck, throw himself overboard, then, in the water, attempt to pull out his arteries. Incredibly, sailors still manage to save him.

• 7:15Greg Jackson?

  Forced to leave Cuba on June 2nd, the captain sets a course for nearby Miami, Florida. It makes sense: 743 of his 908 Jewish passengers only intended to pass through Cuba and already have American visas in the works. Surely, something can be done?

• 7:34Greg Jackson?

  Alas, as we learned in episode 118, the Immigration Act of 1924 ended the Ellis Island era with an even stricter immigration quota than its 1921 predecessor. Meanwhile, Congresswoman Edith Rogers and Senator Robert Wagner's recent bill that would welcome 20,000 Jewish children to the US as refugees has failed. Sympathetic editorials follow, while direct pleas are sent to the Roosevelts, but it's all for naught. On June 4th, the State Department says that these passengers must wait their quota turn. So no, nothing will be done. And on June 7th, our heavy-hearted captain sets the St. Louis on a return course for Germany

• 8:14Greg Jackson?

  as his passengers, these tired, poor, huddled masses journeying to breathe free, stand on the deck, wretchedly watching Florida's shores disappear.

• 8:26Greg Jackson?

  Panic grips the ship. Suicide watches are put in place. Then finally, on June 13th, the JDC sends word that Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and Great Britain will divide the refugees among them. Gisela, her mother, and her sister are sent to England. Messages from their father continue, until they don’t. They’ll never see him again. Yet, Gisela considers herself one of the lucky ones. Of the 532 St. Louis passengers sent back to continental Europe and unable to immigrate before the impending Nazi invasion, nearly half of them will die as victims of the Holocaust.

• 9:19Greg Jackson?

  Welcome to History That Doesn’t Suck. I’m your professor, Greg Jackson, and I’d like to tell you a story.

• 9:41Greg Jackson?

  In the course of our last two episodes, we’ve seen Benito Mussolini create fascism and rise as Italy’s dictator, or Il Duce. And we’ve seen Adolf Hitler create his own brand of fascism, a German take, built on a foundation of antisemitism called Nazism, to become Germany’s dictator, or the Fuhrer. Well, considering what empowered Adolf will do in the name of that unadulterated hate, it’s time we get to know those whom he is blaming for Germany’s ills and targeting so mercilessly: the Jewish people. But even with our tight focus of contextualizing Nazism’s antisemitism, this is a big lift, about a 2,000-year lift. So let’s lay some framework ahead of our story.

• 10:24Greg Jackson?

  First, you’ll hear me mention the so-called Jewish Question a lot. Essentially, the question is how Jews fit into the social, political, and cultural aspects of a non-Jewish society. Many approach the Jewish Question from an antisemitic perspective, but many Jewish scholars tackle it too, and we’ll get a taste of that. Okay, second. Judaism’s origins aren’t a religion per se. It’s more theopolitical, that is, a divine meets legal, or simultaneously theological and political tradition. At its very core, living as a Jew means living according to the Jewish law, the 613 commandments.

• 11:07Greg Jackson?

  God is the highest authority, and as such, we’ll find that the rise of the modern nation-state puts Jews in a tricky spot between the secular state’s leader and maintaining allegiance to their god. This conflict morphs the tradition into what we’d refer to as a religion, and this religion does not make demands on its adherents that challenge the authority of the nation-state. But even as modernity presses this faith tradition to turn the “now a religion” corner, we’ll see the Jewish question follow right into the 1930s, if not beyond, though that beyond is not our concern today. So, with that framework laid, we’ll now fly through 2,000 years of Jewish history,

• 11:49Greg Jackson?

  from the Roman Empire to the Third Reich, but with a focus on modern Europe, where we’ll find the continent’s nation-state building west and old-school monarchical east are creating distinctly different challenges and responses as Jews in both spheres battle antisemitism. With all of this understanding, we’ll then go in close on 1930’s Nazi Germany, where we’ll find Adolf leaning on the continent’s age-old antisemitism as he takes professions, homes, and even citizenship from Germany’s and Austria’s combined 750,000 Jews. We’ll follow this earliest stage of the Holocaust up to 1938’s Kristallnacht, or “The Night of Broken Glass,” leaving us just shy of when young Gisela boarded the St. Louis.

• 12:32Greg Jackson?

  But why didn’t the United States welcome the St. Louis’s passengers? We’ll go there too, finishing the episode with a look at the Jewish experience in America and the spread of Europe’s antisemitism to the United States, particularly in the 1920s. We’ll even see a full-on Nazi rally in New York City. Some of this will be rough. If you listen with your kids, maybe give this one a listen-through by yourself first. Otherwise, let’s turn the clock back 2,000 years and get to it. Rewind.

• 13:07Greg Jackson?

  Zipping past the patriarchs, prophets, kings, and the Greek, or Hellenistic period, Judaism hits a new phase after the first and second-century Jewish-Roman wars. Now, let’s neither over nor understate these conflicts. The Roman Empire’s secret sauce is its pluralism, and letting the people they conquered do their thing, but the Romans can also insist rather brutally that the conquered get the “your conquered” memo. That two-edged sword renders the Second Temple’s destruction in 70 AD, a ramped-up Jewish diaspora, and, by the second century, rabbinic Judaism. No longer able to be tied to the temple, rabbinic Judaism allows this largely displaced

• 13:50Greg Jackson?

  people to adapt with the tradition in exile, but also keeps crucial continuity, as the rabbis maintain a focus on Jewish law. These rabbis are not only studying and practicing oral and written Torah, or “law,” but also interpreting it into something that can adapt to present and future diasporic conditions. This jives better with the Romans, but as Christianity survives Rome’s fall to sweep over Europe, the distinctions between it and Judaism come to the fore. Differences range from interpretations of Scripture to the Messiah, and vary from one particular sect to the next, but the key thing is that, by the medieval period, an anti-Jewish polemic becomes central to Christian Europe’s identity, with Jews serving as

• 14:34Greg Jackson?

  the go-to scapegoat for life’s unexplainable ills. Has a child gone missing? The Jews are blamed, accused of killing the child for sacrifice, under the false narrative of “blood libel.” Is the bubonic plague passing through? Again, the Jews are blamed, charged with consorting with the devil and killing Christ. Meanwhile, Christian Europe bans Jews from any professions, leaving them to fill roles that Christians need yet deem as sinful, like money lending or banking. That doesn’t help with perceptions either, and medieval Europe’s deeply false narratives and limitations on Jews will reverberate far down the road. As for day-to-day life, medieval European Jews live separately from Christians

• 15:17Greg Jackson?

  in what historians term semi-autonomous corporate societies, or kahelas. Simplified, a kahela is a state within a state. They function as individual groups with feudal charters. Rabbis run the community and provide basic social services, like education and welfare. The entire rabbinic structure, performance of the law, and Torah study can be maintained, allowing Jews to live theopolitically, that is, theologically and politically, by the virtue of Jewish law. This works. For the most part, Christian Europe's rulers don't mind the Jews' theopolitical situation, not until the Enlightenment's concepts of the nation-state and citizenship, that is.

• 16:02Greg Jackson?

  Indeed, modern Western Europe's Jews are facing a new challenge. Do they remain in their semi-autonomous corporate societies? Or assimilate into Christian Europe's church-and-state-separating world? Can they balance Jewish identity, or citizenship, with, say, a secularizing French citizenship? Do Jews even want emancipation, meaning full, unencumbered citizenship in the nation in which they reside? Also, does that nation want to grant them emancipation? Well, it's complicated. To start, modern antisemitism echoes, yet is separate, from the medieval Christian idea of anti-Jewry.

• 16:44Greg Jackson?

  This antisemitism contains a few key ideas. One, nations require complete integration. Jews have their own culture and national ties that are at odds with their new nation-state. Two, political platforms can be grounded in antisemitism. Three, those who dislike modernity, especially capitalism, can blame its ills on the Jews. And four, race-based language is successful in isolating Jews.

• 17:14Greg Jackson?

  This isn't to say Europe only sees barriers to Jewish emancipation. In 1781, Prussian politician Christian Wilhelm von Domm looks to the Enlightenment's ideals of universal natural rights to argue in its favor within the German states. He writes that: "More than anything else, a life of normal civil happiness in a well-ordered state, enjoying the long-withheld freedom, would tend to do away with clanish religious opinions. The Jew is even more a man than Jew, and how would it be possible for him not to love a state where he could reach positions of honor and enjoy general esteem?"

• 17:55Greg Jackson?

  So Christian wants to emancipate Jews, but his statement "the Jew is even more man than Jew" still suggests that Jews are seen as subhuman. Furthermore, he's assuming that Jews want emancipation and will welcome the state suppressing traditional theopolitical life. He doesn't get how this will force Jews to transform Judaism into a religion to gain acceptance in a Germanic state. From the Jewish perspective, this means placing the state in the position of highest authority and subordinating their god to said state.

• 18:29Greg Jackson?

  Meanwhile, Western Europe's emancipation talk doesn't mean that European Jews are guaranteed safe and comfortable lives. It's particularly bad in the East. Pogroms, that is violent attacks against local Jewish communities, generally condoned if not blessed by the state, are becoming widespread. Yes, I trust you recall from episode 118, these sometimes deadly attacks role in driving many Eastern European Jews to flee to Western Europe and America. The first pogrom, we believe, happens in Odessa, Russia, in 1821.

• 19:06Greg Jackson?

  Avera, mesmo além da gravidade dos pogroms, a vida judaica na Europa Ocidental e Estreita agora é estruturalmente diferente. Tão grande que isso vai contribuir na eventual solução do Partido Nazista. Mas não vamos nos antecipar. Essa é uma história para um dia mais tarde. Por enquanto, vamos apenas absorver estas diferenças consequentes. Mientras que a maioria dos judas da Europa Nacional está começando o processo de emancipação, se mudando para cidades maiores e talvez se assimilando à sociedade secular, os judas europeus orientais estão vivendo em "städteles". "Städte" é um termo yiddish, aproximadamente traduzido para "casa pequena", e descreve uma comunidade insular, rural, predominantemente falando em yiddish, uma comunidade baseada no mercado, onde a vida de judas centra-se em religião, tradição e família.

• 19:52Greg Jackson?

  É tipo o Cahela medieval, mas segundo gen, ou 2.0. Talvez a melhor maneira de encerrar nossos olhos sobre a vida judaica do Oriente do século XIX seja através de experimentar um mundo fictício de "städteles", criado por Solomon Rabinowitz, ou "Shalom aleichem", para usar seu mais conhecido pseudonimo yiddish, que ele compartilha com nós na sua coleção clássica de contos: "Tevya, o agricultor e as histórias de ferro". De acordo com seu biógrafo Jeremy Dauber, Shalom usa esta obra para "ironicamente juxtepar o passado no presente mudando", e, para uma boa medida, incluir doses de desordem e desilusão junto com as ocasionais excursões auto-referenciais ou autobiográficas.

• 20:37Greg Jackson?

  Tudo isso dito, me permitem colocar o palco. O nosso protagonista, Tevya, ou "Rab Tevya", para mostrar-lhe um respeito adequado, está em uma situação difícil. Após sua primeira filha, Scheitel, rejeita um marido arranjado e rico pela sua verdadeira amizade, um pobre tailor chamado Motl, e após sua segunda filha, Huddle, sair de seu "städte" para seguir seu maravilhoso marido, Perchik, para a Síberia, a terceira filha de Tevya, Chava, quer casar com um homem não judaico. Hmm, se parece com fãs de "Fiddler on the Roof"? De qualquer forma, este é um hard corner para o pai tradicionalista voltar. Vamos ver ele processar isso.

• 21:19Greg Jackson?

  It's an unspecified day in Tevye's world. He's just returned from a conversation with the local town priest, where he was informed that Fedka, a non-Jew, wishes to marry his daughter, Chava. And Tevye, well, to quote him: "When I got home, oh, everything was topsy-turvy. The children were lying with their faces buried in pillows, weeping loudly. Golda was more dead than alive. I looked around for Chava. Where is Chava? No Chava!" Laying down with his head buried in a pillow, Tevye laments: "How have I, Tevye, sinned more than the rest of the world? That I am punished more than all the Jews!" The distraught Tevye turns to his wife, Golda, asking:

• 22:02Greg Jackson?

  "Maybe you have some idea of what's to be done?" Golda responds:

• 22:07Speaker 01

  "Woe is me. A child gets up in the morning, strong and healthy, gets dressed and embraces me and begins to kiss me, hug me, and bursts into tears but says nothing. I thought that she, God forbid, had lost her mind, so I ask her: 'What's the matter with you, daughter?'" She doesn't say a word and runs out into the yard to see the cows and disappears. I wait an hour. I wait two hours, three hours. Where is Chava? No Chava! So I tell the children to run over to the priest's house for a minute."

• 22:37Greg Jackson?

  Tevye is furious: "How did you know, Golda, that she was there?"

• 22:41Speaker 01

  "Alas, alek, don't I have eyes? Or maybe I'm not her mother."

• 22:45Greg Jackson?

  "If you have eyes, and if you are her mother, then why didn't you say anything? Why didn't you tell me? A mother is not a father. A father can speak differently to a child. Just wait. Tomorrow, God willing, I'll see her." Unable to cope with the idea that his daughter would disobey his wishes to marry outside of her religion, Reb Tevye declares that: "Chava was never to be mentioned nor thought of. No more Chava. Blot it out for good." Again, this is a fictional account, but it captures well how Jews at the turn of the 20th century are struggling to balance their traditional adherence to Judaism with the demands of the modern world. Dilemmas like Tevye's are spreading throughout Europe,

• 23:29Greg Jackson?

  and both Jews and Gois, to use the Yiddish word for non-Jews, have a lot to say about the potential for emancipation and assimilation.

• 23:41Greg Jackson?

  After Tsar Alexander II's assassination leads to a particularly violent series of pogroms in 1880s Russia, Jewish Russian Leon Pinsker suggests that the answer for Jews, particularly those in dangerous Eastern Europe, is "auto-emancipation." In an 1882 book titled "Just That: Auto-Emancipation," Leon argues that Jews in a non-Jewish nation are "a ghost nation." He explains that "as neither a citizen nor a foreigner, a Jew, is everywhere a guest and nowhere at home." He compares this "ghost nation" of Jews to a sick patient, arguing that this view has

• 24:23Greg Jackson?

  given rise to the sociopathological response of Judeophobia. To quote him again, "Judeophobia is a psychic aberration. As a psychic aberration, it is hereditary. As a disease transmitted for 2,000 years, it is incurable." So what's the answer? To quote Leon one last time, "The auto-emancipation of the Jewish people as a nation." In a word, he's describing Zionism. So what is Zionism? Well, it's a response to the nearly 2,000 years of antisemitism and Judeophobia we just heard Leon reference. Basically, from the Second Temple's destruction and subsequent diaspora onward, mixing with

• 25:07Greg Jackson?

  the 19th century's nationalism. It's Jewish nationalism. Leon is only a proto-Zionist, though. He tees up the idea, "Sure, but someone else will take the hard swing." That someone is Theodor Herzl. A handsomely-bearded Austro-Hungarian, Theodor is terrified by the catastrophic uptick he sees in late 19th century Europe's antisemitism, and not just in the East but the West. To him, the only solution is the "restoration of the Jewish state."

• 25:41Greg Jackson?

  He first lays this out in his 1896 essay, "A Solution to the Jewish Question", which argues that with the "profound barbarism" of antisemitism in Europe, the continent's Jewish problem is a political one and therefore requires a political solution. He further develops this idea of a Jewish state in a subsequent pamphlet called "The Jewish State", and is convinced that nations the world over will love the idea too. And why would, Theodor think, that nations would gladly part with their Jewish citizens, even their best and brightest? Well, it's hard not to think otherwise after witnessing one of the most traumatic incidents for newly emancipated Jews in the Western world: France's Dreyfus Affair.

• 26:26Greg Jackson?

  Let me give you a little background. Alfred Dreyfus was born on October 9, 1859, in a small town in the far eastern reaches of France, known as Azaz. Descended from an observant Jewish family, Alfred was among the first to be fully immersed in French culture through school. But after their homeland was ceded to the German Empire at the Franco-Prussian Wars' end in 1871, the Dreyfus family faced a choice: Do they surrender their French nationality, the country that first emancipated Jews in 1791, or go over to Germany, only then completing the gradual emancipation process? They choose France, and in 1880, Alfred joins the French Army. The family business was solid enough

• 27:11Greg Jackson?

  that Alfred could live well and travel back across the French-German border to visit his loved ones. And his military career was similarly successful. In 1893, Alfred began working for the General Staff of the French Army. It's quite the achievement. He's one of the first Jews to do so. But then, on Saturday, October 13, 1894, a summons arrives at his home, calling the young officer to appear before the Ministry of War that Monday. And in civilian clothes. Huh. Nonetheless, Alfred doesn't think much of this. After all, he's a good, honest, respectable soldier. What is there to fear?

• 27:55Greg Jackson?

  It's 9 o'clock on a cool foggy morning, Monday, October 15th, 1894. Dressed down but still donning one of those thin mustaches so in vogue in belle époque France. Capitaine Alfred Brefus is at l'Hôtel de Brienne, en Rue Saint-Dominique, in Paris, the home of France's Ministry of War. He's shown into the office of the Chief of the General Staff, where the wiry, mustachioed, uniformed Commandant Armand Dubaty de Clame and a few others greet him. Now, Commandant Dubaty makes an odd request of Alfred. The General is coming. While you are waiting, as I have a letter to write and a sore finger, will you kindly write it for me?

• 28:37Greg Jackson?

  Bizarre, but the 35-year-old captain sits down at the prepared desk and follows the instructions of his superior. Halfway through the disjointed letter, that, quite frankly, makes no sense, le Commandant exclaims at Alfred. You are trembling! Alfred isn't. Confused but trying to be polite, he replies: My fingers are half-frozen. Le Commandant interrupts again: Pay attention, it is a serious matter! Finally, the exercise comes to an end. Almost ceremoniously, Commandant Dubaty places his hand on Alfred's shoulder and cries out: In the name of the law, I arrest you!

• 29:20Greg Jackson?

  You are accused of the crime of high treason! Commandant Hubert Joseph Henri emerges from his hiding place behind the curtains of the office to take our confused accused to military prison in the old convent on Rue de Cherche-Midi. Bewildered, Alfred begs: Mon Commandant, this is terrifying! I am accused of something horrible! I am not guilty! I understand that the Ministry would not have acted if it didn't have proof. It must be convincing for them and devastating for me, but it is false! I don't understand any of it! I demand justice!

• 30:02Greg Jackson?

  Capitaine Alfred Triffus ne verra pas la justice pendant très longtemps. L'écriture française d'Edward Truman, "La France juive", "La France juive", qui réhashe les déclarations anti-semites antématiques pour prouver que le cabaret de Juifs français est derrière tout le mal au monde, a aidé à créer un pic de l'antisématisme français. Même Adolf Hitler regarde plus tard le texte pour l'inspiration. C'est contre ce contexte que l'évidence émerge d'un spy dans l'office du chef d'armée français, et qui est-il mieux à blâmer que le capitaine juif de la Tâche allemande Alsace? Alfred a été fait écrire la lettre pour que l'on puisse prétendre que sa écriture correspond à l'espionneuse inconnue. En même temps, la narration de l'arrestation d'Alfred, de la procédure de procès,

• 30:47Greg Jackson?

  et de l'imposée des secrets militaires français à la Allemagne confirment tous les pires craintes de la France. Les Juifs conspirent pour détruire le pays. Après une procédure rapide et biaisée, Alfred est condamné à la prison d'espionnage à l'Isle des diables en 1894. Deux ans passent. Le colonel Georges Picquen découvre que l'évidence contre Alfred était forgée, et que l'espionneuse était probablement Ferdinand Wallstern-Esterazi. Mais l'armée veut le couvrir. Ferdinand est interrogé, mais est rapidement éloigné. L'acclamé auteur et journaliste Aimé Zola est vivant. Il publie une lettre ouverte au président de la République française intitulée "J'accuse", dans laquelle il séparera systématiquement la nightmare

• 31:31Greg Jackson?

  qui était la procédure d'Alfred et la conviction suivante. Aimé appelle Alfred "la victime de l'imagination lourde de Major Dupati de Colbe", "le cercle religieux qui le circonscrive, et l'obsession juive sale qui est la scourge de notre époque". Après avoir conclu la lettre, Aimé liste ses huit accusations directes, appelant les individus et les groupes qui ont autorisé cette maladie de justice. Aimé est jugé libelé, mais reste inquiets, en le voyant comme un devoir de français et d'être humain de se défendre contre telle erreur. Son éditorial dévastant met tout le pays dans un débat sur l'innocence ou la culpabilité du capitaine. C'est la Dreyfus Affaire.

• 32:13Greg Jackson?

  In 1906, our Jewish friend and France loyal captain is finally exonerated. Nonetheless, this horror show leaves the Jewish community shaken. Alfred was an emancipated Jew, a faithful soldier for his country even. Does that mean nothing? Theodore Herzl's political Zionism, or call for a Jewish state free from antisemitism, is sounding like a great idea to Jews across France and the rest of Europe as they wonder, "Could this happen again? Could their status as citizens ever be in jeopardy?" Oh, it can. The coming Great War will clear a path to all their worst fears and more, particularly one nation over, in neighboring Germany.

• 33:00Greg Jackson?

  History That Doesn't Suck is sponsored by Quince. Quince makes high-quality staples from premium materials. My wardrobe now has Quince linen shirts for summer, commuter pants for year-round comfort, and of course, my Mongolian cashmere shawl collar cardigan, which is perfect for crisp fall weather. And increasingly, Quince is taking over my wife's wardrobe. Just last night, she opened up her latest order and showed me a beautifully crafted sweater. She was thrilled to see it was every bit as professional and sharp as it looked online. More than that, it's durable, yet soft. She was thrilled. Everything is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands because Quince works directly with ethical factories to cut out the middlemen.

• 33:43Greg Jackson?

  And it's not just clothes: fine jewelry, leather bags, hotel-quality bedding, chef-grade cookware, and five-star luggage. Give the gift of quality this holiday season. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers, or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. And when Quince asks where you heard about them, let them know it was History That Doesn't Suck. It's the best way to support the show. HTDS is sponsored by BetterHelp. Thanksgiving looks different for everyone. For some, it's travel, turkey, family and football. For others, it's just another Thursday. Whatever your tradition or none at all, I think it's worth pausing to make a little room for gratitude in our busy lives.

• 34:28Greg Jackson?

  And maybe giving ourselves permission to rewrite a few of the holiday rules that may actually add to your stress. If the season's expectations and emotions are weighing on you, talking it through with a professional can help. BetterHelp therapists are licensed, experienced professionals with at least three years and 1,000 hours of hands-on experience. A short questionnaire helps BetterHelp match you with a therapist who fits your needs and preferences. And if you're not happy with your match, you can switch to a different therapist at any time. BetterHelp is now in-network with more than 125 health plans, with many copays as low as $15 for eligible members. And if you don't have eligible insurance or live outside the US, you can still get 10% off your first month.

• 35:12Greg Jackson?

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• 35:35Greg Jackson?

  On September 16th, 1919, less than a year since the Great War's end and only a month since his first meeting with the German Workers' Party, Adolf Hitler writes a letter explaining his position on the Jewish question. The Jews are definitely a race and not a religious community. Anti-Semitism stemming from purely emotive reasons will always find its expression in the form of pogroms. But anti-Semitism based on reason must lead to the systematic legal combating and removal of the rights of the Jew. Its final aim, however, must be the uncompromising removal of the Jews altogether.

• 36:20Greg Jackson?

  Both are possible only under a government of national strength, never under a government of national impotence.

• 36:29Greg Jackson?

  Flash forward nearly fourteen years, to early 1933. As we know from our last episode, Adolf's used his brand of fascism, a German nationalism, naming the Jews as the ultimate cause of all of Germany's problems, known as Nazism, to navigate his way to the position of chancellor, a position he further empowers that march with the creation of the first concentration camp for political enemies on the 22nd and the Legislative Power Stealing/Enabling Act on the 23rd. With that new power, he also sets out immediately to live up to his 1919 letter, systematically and legally removing the rights of Jews, with the ultimate goal of "the uncompromising removal of the Jews altogether."

• 37:14Greg Jackson?

  Five days after the Enabling Act's passage, March 28th, Dr. Joseph Goebbels announces that, in response to reports of American Jews boycotting German goods, there will be a one-day boycott of Jewish businesses on April 1st. On that day, Jewish businesses are marked with the Star of David, while brown shirts, which have already taken to viciously attacking Jewish businesses, synagogues, and civilians, gladly enforce the boycott. This is the first outwardly anti-Semitic, Hitler-endorsed policy of the Nazi regime. On April 4th, Jewish newspaperman Robert Velch responds with his article, "Wear the Yellow Badge with Pride." He encourages German Jews to answer this new persecution with inner strength.

• 37:59Greg Jackson?

  The article reads: "April 1st, 1933 can become the day of Jewish awakening and Jewish rebirth. If the Jews will it so, that the boycott committee ordered shields showing on a black background, a yellow spot to be attached to the shops in question, is a terrific symbol. For this shield was supposed to brand us, and to render us contemptible in people's eyes. Very well, we accept the shield and shall make it a badge of honor. They meant to dishonor us. Jews, take it upon yourselves, that shield of David, and honor it anew." Sounds like Robert still has confidence in the promise of the modern Western European nation-state project. If only he knew what's coming.

• 41:12Greg Jackson?

  Es ist 15. September 1935. Deputee und andere Offiziere sitzen und reden, warten auf den Start einer besonderen Sitzung des Reichstags im Kultur-Assoziationengebiet in Nuremberg, Deutschland. Besonders. Die letzte Zeit, als das Reichstag außerhalb von Berlin gesprochen hat, war vor fast vier Jahrhunderten, 1543. Das Lied hat sich aus der tiefen Nationalsozialistischen Gründen der Bavarian Stadt gewählt. Und heute hat Adolf Hitler ein großes Erheben zu machen. Könnte es sein, wie berühmt, eine Gesetzgebung über den Status der Juden im Land? Nun, Adolf wird jetzt die Sitzung nehmen. Es scheint, als ob es Zeit ist, diese Puppentorstenung herauszufinden.

• 41:55Greg Jackson?

  Deputee und Männer des deutschen Reichstags! Unwahrscheinlich erscheint es, dass dieser weltweite Furcht in der Welt zwischen den Juden in Deutschland die Idee hat, die nationalen Interessen der Deutschen im Reich zu manifestieren. Wir haben keine Wahl, sondern zu den Problemen mittels legislative Maßnahmen zu verhalten. Der Staat des deutschen Reichs ist in diesem Hintergrund geführt von der Idee, dass es trotzdem möglich sein kann, mittels der Aktion eines definitiven sekularen Lösung eine Basis zu schaffen, auf der das deutsche Volk eine tolerable Beziehung mit den Juden kann.

• 42:41Greg Jackson?

  Wenn diese Hoffnung nicht erfüllt wird, und der Judenverbot innerhalb und außerhalb ihrer Grenzen fortsetzt, wird die Situation überprüft. Diese Gesetzgebung ist ein Versuch, eine legislative Lösung zum Judenschutz zu finden. In dem Fall, wenn dieses Versuch scheitert, wird es notwendig sein, das Problem mittels Gesetz dem Nationalsozialistischen Parteien zu überweisen, um eine Schlusslösung zu finden. Ich frage Sie, diese Gesetze zu adoptieren.

• 43:17Greg Jackson?

  Now what are these laws? They're the Nuremberg Race Laws. There are two. First, the Reichs Citizenship Law. This restricts German citizenship to those of German or related blood, and states that the Reichs Citizen is the only holder of full political rights. Second is the Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor. This bans intermarriage and sexual relations between so-defined Germans and Jews. Forbids Jews from employing German women under 45 in the home, and even prohibits Jews from displaying the Reichs and national flag. In other words, German Jews are not German citizens.

• 43:58Greg Jackson?

  All of the progress that Jews had made towards citizenship through emancipation has just been stripped. Given the massive implication of these laws, Adolf clarifies what it means to be a Jew in November. First, anyone descended from three or more entirely Jewish grandparents is automatically Jewish. Second, “Michlings,” or people with two Jewish grandparents, are Jewish if: A. They are religiously Jewish. B. They are married to or will marry a full Jew. C. They are the offspring of a relationship from option B.

• 44:39Greg Jackson?

  Or D. They are the offspring of an affair between a Gentile and a Jew. By 1936, Nazi persecution and violence against Jews has led to so many fleeing to the British mandate for Palestine, local Arabs revolt against the British administration. 1937 is no better. In March 1938, Adolf Hitler's annexation of Austria, a tell I will fully tell with the rest of his expansionism in a later episode, I assure you, makes Austrian Jews subject to Nazi race laws too. In fact, Austria is even worse. Overnight, Austrian Jews experience brutal violence with no intercession from the police,

• 45:24Greg Jackson?

  are forced to sell their businesses to Aryans, and dismissed from civil service, government, school, legal, medical, and many other professions. Meanwhile, Adolf Eichmann, a soon-to-be-confident of the Führer and architect of the Holocaust, opens the Central Office for Jewish Immigration in Vienna. By the end of 1938, these latest and harsh measures, tested in Austria, are implemented in Germany. Now, Jews cannot leave the expanded Nazi Reich unless they pay an outrageously high “atonement” tax. They cannot practice law or medicine, except for treating Jewish patients, teach, be a

• 46:06Greg Jackson?

  part of the civil service, attend university, or travel as a salesman. Meanwhile, hundreds of Jewish businesses are shut down or become Aryan-owned. Violence continues. With countless Jews trying to flee the nightmare, Western leaders gathered to discuss the Jewish refugee crisis at the Evian Conference in July 1938. In short, these nations, including the United States, all agree it’s a terrible situation, but won’t change their immigration policies, not in the current anti-immigrant climate. After the Munich Agreement of September 1938, allowing Germany to annex the Sudetenland, Germany’s Polish-born Jews are shipped back to the Polish border to live in makeshift camps.

• 46:50Greg Jackson?

  And yes, if you’re thinking back to young Gisela from this episode’s opening, this is what happened to her father. Meanwhile, another Jewish teenager of Polish descent, former German citizenship, and separated from his refugee family, Herschel Grinchpan is furious. On his own in Paris, France, the seventeen-year-old gets his hands on a revolver and heads to the German Embassy on November 7, 1938. He’s trying to find the German ambassador to France, Johann von Welschek. Instead, he’s directed to a junior diplomat, Ernst von Rat. Herschel fires five times, hitting Ernst twice, declaring: “You are a filthy boche, and here, in the name of twelve thousand persecuted Jews,

• 47:34Greg Jackson?

  is your document!” Upon his arrest, Herschel declares: “Peeing a Jew is not a crime. I am not a dog. I have a right to live, and the Jewish people have a right to live on this earth!” But the young diplomat Ernst doesn't live. Two days later, at 4:30 PM on the 9th, he dies, and now it's the German people who are furious. Dr. Joseph Gobels informs Adolf Hitler of the situation around 9:00 PM. Adolf approves of their rage. Dr. Gobels will later know in his diary that the Führer decides to let the demonstrations continue. "Withdraw the police, for once the Jews should fear the rage of the people."

• 48:19Greg Jackson?

  Dr. Gobels approves too. Later that night, he gives a speech endorsing violence against Jews. In his book, "On the Jews and Their Lies," 16th-century reformer Martin Luther encouraged the synagogues be "set on fire, and whatever does not burn up should be covered or spread over with dirt, so that no one may be able to see a cinderstone of it, and this ought to be done for the honor of God." Four centuries later, Martin's call to action isn't far off from the actual events of November 9th and 10th, 1938. It's a night of organized, targeted violence and systematic cruelty against the Jewish population across Nazi-controlled territory.

• 49:04Greg Jackson?

  It's the largest pogrom any country has ever seen. It's nighttime, November 9th, 1938. We're in Berlin, Germany, and 10-year-old Miriam Litka is terrified. Living in a first-floor apartment in a building that she describes as shaped like the Hebrew letter "het," kind of like an upside-down U, she has a clear view of the structure's courtyard, in the middle of which are other buildings, including her synagogue, or Schule, Beth Zion. And right this minute, it's being desecrated. Peering through their blanketed, blacked-out windows, Miriam, her mother, and her brother can only watch helplessly as neighbors turned Nazis, to quote Miriam's later recollection,

• 49:49Greg Jackson?

  "threw the contents of the synagogue into the courtyard. The benches, Torah, scrolls, prayer books, etc. were all piled up on the ground. We could hear the Nazis speaking to each other, yelling, shouting. We heard: 'Da oben wollen, ach, noch Juden!' There are still Jews living up there. We were afraid they would come up and hurt us. However, they left after doing their destruction."

• 50:16Greg Jackson?

  They likely would have set Beth's eye on a blaze too, but with a chemical factory nearby, the Nazi-minded Berliners don't take this step.

• 50:25Greg Jackson?

  The following morning, November 10th, Miriam is asked by her uncle, Gershon Falcher, to visit his furniture store on Castonianale, Chestnut Boulevard, allegedly to see that the employees don't steal. Reflecting decades down the road, Miriam will note her later realization that he and his adult sons would be targets if they go. Thus, as she tells us, "They sent me a fair-skinned, light-haired, blue-eyed girl with pigtails." Miriam watches the "show" as the crowd enjoys looting Jewish businesses, done in part by Hitler Youth. But as she looks on, Miriam overhears a lady whisper to a friend, "This is a Jewish child." Frightened, little Miriam turns around and scurries back home.

• 51:14Greg Jackson?

  The damage done on this single night, or 24-hour period of November 9th and 10th, 1938, frankly, words fail. But we'll try. Miriam's story is but one of countless of vandalized storefronts, burglarized homes, desecrated sacred objects, incinerated synagogues, as well as violence against and arrests of Jewish people themselves. To be specific, roughly 1,000 synagogues were set on fire, of which some 270 are completely destroyed, nothing but cinders and ash. Thousands of Jewish-owned shops are vandalized, essentially beyond repair. 91 Jews are killed. Contributing to the media coverage sharing this horror with the world, Daily Telegraph correspondent Hugh Green writes that,

• 51:59Greg Jackson?

  "I have seen several antisemitic Jewish outbreaks in Germany during the last five years, but never anything as nauseating as this." Eugene Lehman writes to his son in Britain, lamenting, "It is now 6:30, and I can hardly think clearly. What happened to us Jews in Germany since 4:30 this morning is indescribable. In the whole of Germany, there exists no synagogue that is not burnt or still burning. There are no more store windows that are not broken." It's true, between stores, synagogues, and homes, there is so much broken glass. And that's why this night is known as Kristallnacht, or "The Night of Broken Glass."

• 52:44Greg Jackson?

  After Kristallnacht, many remaining German Jews are realizing that this isn't the typical antisemitism that they've endured in Europe for two millennia. This is worse than medieval blood libel. This is worse than the Dreyfus Affair. Nazism is something far more sinister. Something that they can't wait out. Something so terrifying that, as we saw in this episode's opening, it will push 15-year-old Gisela's mother to do whatever it takes to save her children, even if it means leaving her husband behind and getting rejected by Cuba and the United States. And speaking of the United States, why doesn't President Franklin Delano Roosevelt or Congress do more in the face of this Jewish refugee crisis?

• 53:29Greg Jackson?

  Why does the US hold to its quotas like so many other nations, even as the news reports on the horrors of Kristallnacht? Well, seeing as this is an American history podcast, let's hit pause on the tale of the Holocaust and save it for future episodes so that we can get those answers. But of course, that means a little background, and you know what that means: rewind.

• 53:56Greg Jackson?

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• 54:41Greg Jackson?

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• 55:33Greg Jackson?

  Hello, my friends. Professor Jackson here, and I want to tell you about a podcast hosted by a friend of mine, the 11th archivist of the United States, Colleen Shogan, and it's called "In Pursuit Podcast." On this podcast, Colleen explores what we call "the American experiment" and how, over the last 250 years, we've learned a lot about what's worked and what hasn't. It dives deep into the lessons that we can learn from America's past to write the history of America's future. This season, Colleen and her guests explore the trials and triumphs of America's former presidents and first ladies. You'll discover why George Washington willingly gave up power at the end of the American Revolution, how Mary Todd Lincoln had to fight with her own independence in the wake of the Civil War,

• 56:17Greg Jackson?

  and what their stories can tell us about America today. New episodes are available every other week. "In Pursuit Podcast" by More Perfect is brought to listeners by PRX. Learn more at their website, inpursuit.org.

• 56:41Greg Jackson?

  By the time of the revolution, Jews are a part of the American experiment. Between the Constitution's Sixth Article and First Amendment promises on religious freedom, American Jews simply are not in the same boat as their Eastern or even their Western European counterparts. These constitutional promises make it far less threatening for them to reduce their Judaism to a religion and embrace Americanism. Nonetheless, the federal constitution can't force complete societal acceptance, as evidenced by some early state laws on religion that, though not constitutional in the eyes of later interpretations of the First Amendment, are permitted in the early republic.

• 57:21Greg Jackson?

  So a social or popular tension remains, a tension that we can even see in George Washington's August 18, 1790, letter to the Jewish community of Rhode Island after his recent visit, as he assures them that the United States, quote, "gives to bigotry no sanction," close quote, yet also notes that those who enjoy these protections, to quote again, "should demean themselves as good citizens," close quote. In other words, specifically, the words of American Jewish historian Jonathan Sarna, quote, "Jews realized they could win equality in popular eyes only by demonstrating that being Jewish in no way conflicted with being American." Close quote.

• 58:04Greg Jackson?

  And so Jewish Americans move forward using their American political freedom to respond to their precarious social state. They celebrate America, but always look over their shoulder. A paradox exists for Jewish political engagement. They have opportunities, yet they use them to secure societal acceptance and shore up anxiety more than to comfortably contribute to the American project.

• 58:31Greg Jackson?

  Continuing through the 19th century, the idea of a Jewish race is playing out quite differently in the United States and Europe. And this isn't just an intriguing note. It's important for us to get because, as we know, the Nazis will obsess over race. In 19th century Europe's nation-states, Jews are told they are a separate race, one that maybe can emancipate to citizenship. Race is about othering Jews. But in the United States, Jews actually turn to the idea out of an anxiety over assimilation. They see it as a way to preserve a distinctiveness or sense of group identity.

• 59:11Greg Jackson?

  Thus, Professor Eric Goldstein at Emory University's Tamm Institute for Jewish Studies argues that 19th-century American Jews turned to race as their closest approximation for a sense of nation or peoplehood. He goes on to point out that this actually shows how comfortable American Jews are becoming, as it's safe enough for them to be visible as a race. Not that this means everything is rosy, particularly as the American concept of race has its myriad of problems and complexities, but it's 180 degrees from the experience of European Jews. In short, the majority of non-Jewish 19th-century Americans do not see Jews as a threat to American society simply because they are Jewish.

• 59:56Greg Jackson?

  But that changes as we enter the 20th century. For one thing, some small-town Americans dislike the increasing visibility of Jews in popular media. They worry that Jews are destroying core aspects of what they see as American Christian civilization. This thinking is what leads a resurgent Ku Klux Klan to add Jews to their literal hit list, as we saw in episode 152. Likewise, many organizations begin subtly, and not so subtly, barring Jews from entry. Hospitals refuse to allow Jewish doctors to treat patients, law firms avoid hiring Jewish attorneys, and universities work to limit the number of Jewish professors and students. Meanwhile, Europe's brand of antisemitism is traveling across the Atlantic.

• 1:00:41Greg Jackson?

  As American Jewish historian Hasya Diner puts it, "There's an influx of 'European-inspired race theory,' which understood the Jews as a separate race whose distinctive phenotype they associated with certain inherent depravities." And so, Americans begin to question the position of Jews in society. Ah, this European concept of a Jewish race is supplanting America's more benign concept. And how is this European-inspired race theory getting around the nation? Well, few fan this flame more efficiently than the Detroit-based car tycoon, Henry Ford.

• 1:01:22Greg Jackson?

  Ah, yes, Henry Ford. I trust to recall him from a few episodes, particularly the story of his Model T and mass production innovations in episode 121. Well, as we touched on in that same episode, Henry acquires his hometown newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, and uses it to promote antisemitism. On May 20, 1920, the newspaper runs its first of a 91 series of articles on Jews called "The International Jew." The Independent claims to make "no attack on the Jews as Jews," implying that it is not attacking the Jewish faith, but rather criticizing the Jewish race, people, nation,

• 1:02:05Greg Jackson?

  etc., for their monumental shadowing, money-making conspiracies, and so on. In short, the newspaper acknowledges its antisemitism while downplaying it, which only makes its antisemitism more effective. Perhaps the most damning contribution of The Independent is its publication of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. First seen in a Russian newspaper back in 1903, the hateful text spread the world over and pretends to be the minutes from a meeting of a cabal of Jews, the Elders, making their plans for worldwide domination. There was no such meeting, of course.

• 1:02:44Greg Jackson?

  The Protocols is a forgery, a hoax, no more real than Nosferatu up on the silver screen. In a word, it's fiction. But the average reader doesn't get that, and Henry Ford's mass dissemination of the Protocols introduces the European version of the Jewish question to the American public, effectively importing this version of antisemitism that had not crossed the Atlantic to America. And, oh, does it take root. I mean, the great Henry Ford published it. For many starstruck Americans, his greatness gives this European antisemitism legitimacy.

• 1:03:23Greg Jackson?

  Now, Henry eventually repudiates the international Jew, after the Anti-Defamation League sues for libel, that is. He does so in 1927, and receives praise from many American Jews for doing so. One New York rabbi writes: "I am happy that the feelings of my brethren will henceforth cease toward a man who has done so much for a country beloved by all of us." But the damage can't all be undone. Damage so extensive that, over in Weimar, Germany, Heinrich Himmler describes Henry as: "One of our most valuable, important, and vitifitis." And so, it's hard not to see a connection in the following decade, as the Third Reich presents the famed Michigander with the birthday present of a lifetime.

• 1:04:12Greg Jackson?

  It's the afternoon of July 30th, 1938. Henry Ford's 75th birthday. And we're in Dearborn, Michigan, in the septuagenarian birthday boy's private office of his engineering laboratory for his Ford Motor Company. Wearing a white suit, Henry stands in between two representatives of Adolf Hitler's government: Fritz Heiler and Karl Kapp. Fritz opens a red leather box, illuminating the gold Maltese cross with four white swastikas nestled in between the prongs. Karl carefully lays a red satin sash across Henry's right side and pins the metal to his left breast pocket. Karl then reads a proclamation to the small group assembled in this office. Signed by the Führer himself,

• 1:04:57Greg Jackson?

  it declares that Henry is receiving this award because of his "humanitarian ideals and loyalty, quote, 'through many years to the cause of peace, like their Führer and Chancellor has done,' close quote." Henry is officially the first American to receive the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, the highest honor for Nazi allies abroad. Benito Mussolini himself was presented with the cross just last year.

• 1:05:27Greg Jackson?

  A few days later, Jewish War Veterans of the US publicly call for Henry to renounce the award, saying, “This act on your part can only be interpreted as an endorsement by you of the barbarous, indecent, and irreligious Nazi program and philosophy.” Henry doesn’t. He keeps the Nazi medal. Henry Ford isn’t the only American embracing Nazification. This same year, another American hero we just met in episode 181, Charles Lindbergh, receives the Service Cross of the German Eagle for his aviation feats. It’s awarded by none other than Hermann Goring. Also this same year, Reverend Charles E. Coughlin republishes the Protocols of the Elders

• 1:06:10Greg Jackson?

  of Zion in his weekly periodical. Regretfully, late 1930s America’s antisemitism is only getting stronger, and that, combined with a general anti-immigration attitude in the midst of the Great Depression, is all part of why Congresswoman Edith Rogers and Senator Robert Wagner won’t succeed with their bill to accept 20,000 Jewish children as refugees, and why the US government will send the MS St. Louis back to Europe, where hundreds of its passengers will later die in the Holocaust.

• 1:06:42Greg Jackson?

  Ah, we’re back to our starting point. I guess you could say we’ve come full circle. That’s no small feat. We’ve traced Jewish history from the Roman Empire to modern Europe to the rise of the Third Reich. We’ve witnessed the violence, persecution, and stripping of rights from Jews that marked the start of what you and I will know as the Holocaust. And yet, we’ve only scratched that evil surface. Unfortunately, we have much systematic death and genocide yet to come. And of course, we’ve looked across the Atlantic to see America’s reaction in real time. Regretfully, it isn’t everything we might want it to be. In fact, we'll close our story today with the tale of a Nazi-allied organization in

• 1:07:27Greg Jackson?

  the United States. Organized by German WWII veteran Fritz Kuhn, this is the German-American Bund. Fritz is its leader, or Bundesführer, and by the late 1930s, it boasts nearly 25,000 dues-paying members from nearly every state, all of whom have sworn that they have no Jewish or black ancestors. Basically, this Bund is ideologically aligned with Nazi Germany, but with an American twist. Kind of like the book/TV show “Man in the High Castle,” except this isn't fiction. They're vehemently anti-Semitic and partner with other like-minded organizations across the country, one of which is run by Reverend Charles Coughlin.

• 1:08:10Greg Jackson?

  And they're holding a rally in NYC to prove to America once and for all that Nazism is supported here. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia reluctantly allows them to organize. After all, as much as we might disagree with the hatred they espouse, they are protected by free speech.

• 1:08:30Greg Jackson?

  It's just after 8:00 PM, February 20th, 1939. Just two days shy of George Washington's birthday. We're in New York City's Madison Square Garden 3, on 8th Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets. Seventeen thousand or more policemen are crowding the 100,000 people gathered outside, some here to protest, others wishing they could get into the sold-out rally. Inside, nearly 20,000 people are packed into the venue, waiting for the rally to start. Looking toward the speakers' platform, they see an impressive 30-foot banner depicting the nation's first president, flanked by American flags. And next to the Stars and Stripes? Swastika banners. Huh.

• 1:09:14Greg Jackson?

  Now, the leaders of tonight's rally had previously agreed not to display any blatantly anti-Semitic paraphernalia. Seems they've broken that promise. I wonder what else is at stake then? Finally, the rally begins. Men in black slacks, brown shirts, military-style belts, and garrison caps strut down the aisle. They're followed by a drum line with flags, American and swastika flags. A few speakers give remarks. One of them, James Wheeler Hill, says that our soon-to-be birthday boy, George Washington, quote, “would be a friend of Adolf Hitler just as he was of Frederick the Great,” close quote.

• 1:09:58Greg Jackson?

  Huh, I'll let you think on that one. Anyhow, the crowd isn't here for these mid-level speakers. No, they're waiting on Fritz Kuhn. It's now just about nine thirty. Standing at the front of the platform in his dress uniform, the Bundesführer himself, Fritz, faces the roaring Nazi-saluting crowd. With a slight German accent, Fritz begins: Ladies and gentlemen, fellow Americans, American patriots, I am sure I do not come before you tonight as a complete stranger. You will have heard of me through all the Jewish-controlled press as a creature with

• 1:10:40Greg Jackson?

  horns, a cloven hoof, and a long tail. The crowd laughs, clearly approving of this anti-Semitic joke. He continues on. After a particularly horrific statement about Jews, a blue-suited 26-year-old former merchant marine and current plumber's assistant from Brooklyn named Isidore Greenbaum isn't having it. He charges toward Fritz, yelling, “Down with Hitler!” The microphones onstage amplify his voice in quick footsteps. Remembering the incident later, Isidore will say that he did it because, “They talked so much against my religion, and there was so much persecution, I lost my head and felt it was my duty to talk.”

• 1:11:23Greg Jackson?

  Within moments, brown-shirted guards are upon him. They rip his pants from his legs, but thankfully, this is New York, not Berlin. The police are able to save the brave young man from his SA wannabes. And yet, here was an honest-to-God Nazi attack on a Jewish man in New York City, in Madison Square Garden. And it doesn't stop the rally. Fritz finishes his speech as the crowd roars in unison, "Free America, free America", with their arms outstretched and the Nazis salute.

• 1:12:03Greg Jackson?

  History That Doesn't Suck is created and hosted by me, Greg Jackson. Episode researched and written by Greg Jackson and Riley Nivower. Production by Airship. Sound design by Molly Bog. B-music composed by Greg Jackson. Arrangement and additional composition by Lindsey Graham of Airship. For bibliography of all primary and secondary sources consulted in writing this episode, visit htdspodcast.com.

• 1:12:28Greg Jackson?

  History That Doesn't Suck is supported by Vistaprint. This podcast is a small business passion project, and seeing our vision come to life offline is cool, too, thanks to our expert partner, Vistaprint. On my recent book tour, we were able to order custom, high-quality banners for book readings. It also added a nice professional polish. It also made the events more memorable because readers and I could pose together in front of the banner for selfies to post online. And that's just one of the countless premium products Vistaprint offers to elevate your brand identity. From postcards and posters to tumblers and t-shirts, Vistaprint makes high-end, custom printing accessible to everyone, giving you exceptional quality and results that make every single dollar go further. With real people on standby and seamless tools, Vistaprint guides you through every

• 1:13:11Greg Jackson?

  step of the process so you always look completely polished. There's a reason over 17 million small businesses trust Vistaprint to elevate their vision. Vistaprint: Print Your Possible. Right now, new customers get 20% off with code NEW20 at Vistaprint.com. That's 20% off at Vistaprint.com using code NEW20.

• 1:13:40Greg Jackson?

  HTDS is supported by fans at htdspodcast.com/membership. My gratitude to you kind souls providing funding to help us keep going, thank you. And a special thanks to our patrons whose monthly gift puts them at producer status. Adam Goran, Ahmed Chapman, Amy and Ross Hensman, Andrew Nissen, Andrew Sherwin, Anna M. Huta, Art Lang, Baby Nico, Bob Stinnet, Bonnie Brooks, Brian Gavigan, Brian Boils, Brian Goodson, Bruce Hibbert, Kayden Hallitz, Charles Clanden, Charles Starkey, Charlie Majes, Christopher Merchant, Christopher Lyle, Christopher Pullman, Christopher Young, Cody Brown, Colleen Martin, Colin Ferris Pennington, Connor Hogan, Craig Burrhost, Dan G., Daniel Beecham, Daniel Lucana, Darren Chambers, Daryl the Kid Lovell, David Rifkin,

• 1:14:25Greg Jackson?

  Dean Heiser, Donte Spencer, Donald Moore, Eli Edwards, Elizabeth Chris Janson, Ellen Stewart, Ernesto Franco, Ernie Lomaster, Ethan Lowery, Ethan Thompson, G2303, Jeffrey Nelson, George J. Sherwood, Gareth Griffin, Gina Johnson, Gordon Garwood, Henry Brunges, Holly Hamilton, Jake Gilbreth, James Bledsoe, James Blue, James Schlender, Jarrett Zangora, Jeffrey Moots, Jennifer Minjioni, Jennifer Ruth, Jessica Poppin, Joe Dobis, John Booby, John Frugal Dugal, John Huber, John Messmer, John Oliveros, John Riddleyvich, John Schaefer, Jonathan Schaff, Jordan Corbett, Joseph Curry, Joshua Steiner, Julian Wright, Justin Tolman,

• 1:15:06Greg Jackson?

  Karen Bartholomew, Carl Friedman, Carl Romer, Ken Culver, Kim R., Kimberly Pruitt, Kristen Kraft, Kyle Decker, L. Paul Goringer, Laura Norman, Lawrence Newbauer, Linda Cunningham, Mark D. Worrell, Mark Ellis, Marcia Smith, Mason Glenn, Matt Siegel, Michael Longus, Michael Sullivan, Nick Caprell, Nicholas Powell, Owen W. Sedlak, Paul Huguenroth, Philip May, Randy Keane, Rich Ruckel, Rick Brown, Rob Dravovic, Robert Shelton, Rock Gay, Ryan Fogelman, Sam Holzman, Sarah Prescott, Sarah Traywood, Scott Hurst, Shane Smith, Shannon Hoagland, Sharon Feasen, Sean Baines, Sean Collins, Stacy Ritter, Steve Williams, The Creepy Girl, Thomas Churchill, Thomas Matthew Edwards, Thomas Sabbath, Tim and

• 1:15:51Greg Jackson?

  Sarah Turner, Todd Curran, Tom Bestafka, Travis Cox, Walter M. Ames, Wesley McKee, William Durham, William Curry, William Thompson, and Zach Jackson. Join me in two weeks, or I'd like to tell you a story.