Rachel Maddow on "Prequel" and fascism in America

Rita braver is in conversation with Rachel maddow   who shares a story most of us  never learned from our history books it may be hard to Fathom that some 20,000  Americans would gather under an image of George   Washington for a pro-Nazi rally in Madison Square  Garden in 1939 so this is just a tiny sample of   what you've amassed yeah my got it's a real it's  a real mess of this stuff at this point but Rachel   Maddow has spent the last few years sifting  through a ream of sobering stories for her   new book prequel an American fight against fascism  it's a cautionary tale about threats to democracy   set in the era of World War II not only were there  lots of Americans who didn't want us to fight but   there was a lot of them who wanted us to fight on  the other side with the Nazis maddow who of course   hosts a show on MSNBC first explored the story  in a series of podcasts focusing on surprising   connections between Americans and Nazi interests  the organizational diversity of people who were   on that side of the calculus ahead of World War  II is shocking to me some of the most unsettling   stories Maddow tells are of a nationwide network  of underground pro-nazi anti Semitic groups like   one exposed by Arnold Eric Sevareid who would  become a renowned CBS news commentator Eric   Sevareid was a very young reporter when he  uncovered what the silver shirts there was   a group of very far-right extremists that were  meeting secretly all over Minneapolis they were   forming themselves into armed cells all across  the country to mount a war against the Jews and   to set up a Hitler style dictatorship here this  little Bookshop is the California headquarters of   the silver shirt movement and Friends of the new  Germany and Sevareid infiltrated this group and   basically decided yes they're crazy but they're  also serious and this New York Armory essentially   became a Supply Depot for another anti-semitic  militia the Christian front they had a captain   on the inside in the 165th infantry unit that  was willing to give them all this ammunition   and cordite and hand grenade explosives and they  used it to stockpile bombs what did they plan to   do with it that is why the FBI arrested them in  mid January 1940 the FBI they thought they were   only about 7 days ahead of the Christian front  plan to murder a bunch of congressmen to firebomb   and bomb a bunch of sites in New York City that  they thought would be sensitive enough that they   would set off essentially a race war 18 people  were charged with seditious conspiracy and theft   of government property and what happened they  got off either a hung jury or an acquital for   all of them the way it was received was that was a  Brooklyn verdict for some Brooklyn Boys that they   were seen as being sort of Hometown Heroes and  being rabidly anti-semitic even violently so was   seen as a form of sort of patriotic anti-communism  and long before the internet became a conduit for   disinformation the harmonie Club where Maddow  and I sat down to talk figured into a Sinister   attempt to demonize Jews the harmonie Club is the  second oldest private club in New York City it was   specifically a club for Jews who were restricted  from entering the other private clubs and in 1939   some unsavory characters including a former Army  General claimed to a congressional committee that   they learned of a plot being hatched here at  the harmony club that might involve prominent   Jews affiliated with the Roosevelt administration  including Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter   and treasury secretary Henry morganthau house  Un-American Activities Committee which had just   started heard from a pair of witnesses who brought  them a story about this place these guys came to   Congress and said those Jews are plotting a  takeover of the United States to destroy the   United States and put the Jews in charge and  we're here to blow the whistle on it and it   was all fabricated completely fabricated and this  conspiracy theory they hatched about this place   this room was part and parcel of trying to turn  Americans into feeling about the Jews the way   Hitler was making Germans feel about the Jews  so this address right and Hitler had plenty of   tentacles in the US including right on Riverside  Drive in Manhattan so George Sylvester Vierek   lived here in a beautiful 10 room apartment  he was very well off and the reason he was so   well off is because he was the highest paid and  most senior Nazi propaganda agent in the United   States he was known for being a spy during World  War I and then in the runup to World War II he's   at it again he's at it again actually convicted  of spying Vierek gets off on legal technicalities   and goes on to run an operation directly linked  to Capitol Hill they'd get Nazi propaganda into   the United States they'd persuade a member of  Congress or a senator to put his or her name on   it insert it into the Congressional Record once  it's in the Congressional Record they can send   it out in bulk all over the United States Maddow  calls out World War II era Senators like Ernest   Lundeen of Minnesota and Burton wheeler of Montana  as well as House member Hamilton Fish III of New   York as being in cahoots with Vierek us indicts  its top fascists but when the federal government   finally indicts some two dozen people including  George Sylvester Vierek and several Congressional   staffers in a seditious conspiracy why are none of  the members of Congress indicted good question a   lot of pressure was put on the justice department  by members of Congress who are implicated in this   scheme and even that case sputtered the trial is  chaos bedlam a circus the prosecution is actually   presenting a pretty compelling case and seven  months into it the judge dies that's right the   judge dies from a heart attack and after hemming  and hawing for a few years the justice department   decides not to spend time retrying the case and  the American people start to turn their attention   to the war rather of into any sort of fight like  this at home in 35 US cities Bund headed by local   gruppenfuhrers though maddow's book takes  place 3/4 of a century ago there's a reason   it's called prequel after all it was written  in the wake of the attack on the United States Capitol do you think we are now seeing Resurgence  of fascism in our country I think we are seeing   another iteration of the ultra right and it has  a lot of the elements that are the most worrying   things that you look for when you're looking  at a democracy that's in trouble of yielding to   authoritarianism we see violence intruding into  the political process we see the scapegoating   of minorities and dangerous conspiracy theories  about Rising anti-Semitism Rising anti-Semitism   is an absolute red flag anti semitism almost  always goes with the rise in fascist ideation   and it's just something that we can't ignore  there's a history here that we ought to learn   from Americans before us just as smart just as  resourceful just as funny just as clear-minded   as any of us could ever hope to be fought those  fights before us we can learn from what they  did

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 467,157

Keywords: Nazi, Sunday Morning, U.S.

Id: uocsL3kfvAg

Length: 7min 55sec (475 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 08 2023