Trudy Gold
Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh and the Rise of Antisemitism in America
Trudy Gold - Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh and the Rise of Antisemitism in America
- Happy, happy New Year to everybody. Let’s just hope that this one’s a little bit better for us all personally. And of course, in all the troubles in the world, it’s been dark. But I do think lockdown, it’s been a huge benefit to me, and I think it has been to a lot of you. It’s like we have managed somehow to create this rather zany worldwide community. It’s wonderful. When I was in Vienna, I bumped in some people who listened to lockdown, and this kind of thing is happening to a lot of my colleagues. So anyway, again, let me wish you a very, very happy New Year. And of course, we are still continue with America. We’re going to be looking at America for the next couple of months, and also we have some exciting new lecturers for you. So let me begin because I’ve given myself the task of looking at Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and the rise of anti-Semitism in America. And if you think about what’s going on at the moment, it doesn’t take much to understand that tragically, anti-Semitism is well called the longest hatred. It is a 2,000-year-old disease. It seems to be incurable, but it does come far more at times of stress. And it’s fascinating when you think of America, on one level, America was the land of immigration. One, of course, has to take into account the treatment of the indigenous population, the treatment of the slaves, but think that so many of the immigrants were escaping either persecution or economic hardship.
And one would’ve hoped with the founding Father’s document and certainly the words of George Washington, that some of the evil have been left behind in Europe. But unfortunately, in times of stress, it came to the fore. And I suppose the first real manifestation of modern anti-Semitism in America is in the 19th century with a great American hero Ulysses S. Grant. Can we see the first slide, please? Yeah. He, of course, became the 18th president of America. It was he who had led the Union forces to victory in the Civil War. Then he became Secretary of War. But in 1862, in the midst of the Civil War, he issued something known as Order Number 11, which in theory was to expel all Jews from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Now, please don’t forget that the Jewish population of America was very small at this stage. In fact, at the time of the War of Independence, there were under 3,000 Jews living in America. By this period, there’s about 150,000. So this is before the huge influx. Now, the cause that led to this happening was the black market in Southern cotton, although there’s a war on, the north and the south are still economically dependent on each other. And the Union army used Southern cotton for both its tents and its uniforms. Abraham Lincoln, who was a pragmatist, he understood this, and he allowed a limited trade in Southern cotton. Now, as army command in Tennessee, grant had the issuing of trade licences. Cotton prices are soaring in the north. Unlicensed traders were bribing union officers to allow them to buy Southern cotton without a permit. Now, it has to be said, some of them were Jews, but certainly not the majority. The ancient prejudices come to the fore. There’s profiteering going on.
I mean, if you look up the word Jew in the Oxford Dictionary in England before 1959, another definition was a Yisre. So Jews are profiteers. Jews are speculators. In the First World War, even though 100,000 Jews out of a whole population of 500,000 fought in the German army, nevertheless, there was a motion in the German parliament. Are the Jews involved in profiteering? It’s an old canard, it’s an old trope. So General Halleck who was really running the area, he talked about the traitors and Jew peddlers. And November 8th, 1892, grant was given an order to sign, and the order was no Jews are to be permitted to travel on the railway southwood from any part nor granted any trade licences. On December the 17th, that is when he actually issued Order Number 11. The Jews as a class violate every regulation of trade established by the Treasury Department and are being expelled from Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee within 24 hours. What happens is the order begins to be enforced. In Paducah, in Kentucky, the military gave the towns 30 families, all of whom were long-term residents, and none of them were involved in cotton speculation. And two of them, in fact, were army veterans. They gave them 24 hours to get out of town. Now, this is where perhaps America is different because a group of merchants actually sent a telegram to Abraham Lincoln condemning the order, and they wrote enormous outrage on all the laws of humanity, the greatest violation of the Constitution and our rights as good citizens.
And Jewish leaders in St. Louis, Louisville, and Cincinnati, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, they actually planned rallies and they enacted rallies. And in the end, Lincoln received a delegation led by Rabbi Wise. They called on Lincoln, he rescinded the order, and he wrote this to condemn a class to say at least to wrong the good with the bad. I drawn no distinction between Jew and Gentile and will allow no American to be wronged. Now, after the war, it must be said that Ulysses S. Grant, he does transcend his anti-Semitic reputation. He said he’d signed the order, which had been prepared by his subordinate without actually reading it. True or not true. But what is certainly true, he carried the Jewish vote in the election of 1868, and he actually did invest several Jews in high office. So there’s something slightly different here that the Jewish community did feel that it had the chutzpah perhaps to call on the President of America and say, “We are equal citizens.” And of course, when you’re dealing with this context, it’s context of white men. But having said that, in the context of its time, this is the Jew asking for equality before the law with any other citizen. And you could make the case Jews are profiteers. This is a trope that is so tragically ingrained in Western civilization. And the more it’s being thrown at us, I think really it’s interesting to look at countries that are completely free from it. And I do think that it’s a disease of the world of monotheism. It’s something that we can talk about at another time. But I think that’s where the roots are. And it’s also fueled by economic, social, or political unrest. And of course, there was a civil war.
There was speculation. And later on the carpet baggers, it’s a time of great change. And ironically, Jews as a group seemed able to deal with change more than any other group. And I think this has got a lot to do with their history. Let’s have a look at the next slide, please. Now, Mary Elizabeth Lease, a great heroine, a populous leader of both suffrage and prohibition of alcohol. She was a great one for women’s rights. She’s very active in the labour movement. She was one of the leaders of the crusade against corporate monopolies and banks that demanded the American… She said, “It’s the banks, it’s the monopolies that dominate the American global economy.” She fights for the small man, for the farmers from Kansas. And she said to them, she was a brilliant speaker, in one of her great rallies, she said, “Raise less corn and more hell.” The problem was that her speeches were full of anti-Semitic tropes. And this is what she wrote, “This is a nation of inconsistencies, puritans fleeing from oppressors. We fought England for our liberty. We put chains on 4 million Blacks.”
You see, she fought for the freedom of the Blacks. “Wall Street owns the country. It’s no longer a government of the people by the people for the people, but a government of Wall Street by Wall Street and for Wall Street.” You see, she’s fighting for the rights of women, she’s fighting for the rights of Blacks, but she won’t see Jews as an oppressed group. And this is a fascinating issue that we are witnessing again today in 2022, 2023, 2024, I should say, we’re witnessing it again because one of the issues of anti-Semitism is that Jews are thought to have power. They control Wall Street. The reality, I don’t have to tell you, three quarters of world jury are living in dire poverty in Eastern Europe. Yes, you do have the glitz of a few incredible capitalistic families. You also have the glitz of a few radical families punching above their weight in every sphere. But the reality is the poor downtrodden masses of Eastern Europe. She accused the vice president of being a London banker who had ties with the Rothschilds. And when she gave a lecture to the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, she said, “the government is at the bidding of Wall Street and Repudiates its control with the people. It is in the interest of Shylock.” XX in her book, “the Problem of Civilization,” She wrote this in 1895 when the Jewish immigrants are teaming \through Castle Garden, And then of course Ellis Island, XX hunger, haste and pressing necessity alike would have to wait the pleasure and interest of the Jews. She described Rothschild as hooded noses, harpies of the house of Hebe and accused president of Cleveland of being Grover the First, the agent of the Jewish bankers.
So this is fascinating because a woman on the side of injustice, on the side of those who are suffering, the small farmers, farmers, the Blacks, the women, she cannot see the Jew as part of the suffering. But as early as the 1880s, Congress is already beginning to impose qualifications on the American tradition of asylum. For example, in 1891, all immigrants suffering from, quote, “loathsome and contagious diseases.” Can we see the next slide, please? This is the 1907 Act of Congress. It raised at the tax to $4 per immigrant and forbade entry to, and I’m quoting, imbeciles, idiots, criminals, anarchists. Later, I think next week or the week after, I’m going to be talking about a woman who the American police said was the most dangerous woman in the world, of course the anarchist, Emma Goldman. And this is also, as I’ve already mentioned, this is where the trope comes from, a Rothschild and an Emma Goldman, an anarchist and a capitalist. You see, this is the issue. Jews who had the ability and the wit to contact President Lincoln and say, “This is wrong. We are Americans.” They are seeing themselves as Americans, but others see them as a group. So if it’s a Jew with money, if it’s a Jew in poverty, if it’s a Jew who’s a capitalist, a Jew who’s a communist. it’s all about being a Jew. It’s extraordinary. It’s not allowing the Jew to be an independent citizen. So going on. Prostitutes, persons with contagious diseases, contract labourers and persons likely to become a public charge. The last clause was quite a problem, but Jewish philanthropic organisations stepped in and they convinced the authorities that Jewish indigents only needed a minimal transition period before they would earn their own living.
And we’ve already looked at so many of those incredible organisations that were providing help. In 1917… Can we go onto the next slide please? President Wilson took a long time… Well, he passed the literacy test and it took a long time for the Jewish organisations to persuade the authorities that Yiddish was an authentic tongue because, of course, the majority of Eastern European Jews who are flooding into America, Yiddish is their language. And not only that, let’s see the next slide I’ve already covered with you the Frank Case. When Leo Frank, who was a Northerner, a German Jew from the north running a pencil factory in the south, he is accused of the blood libel. He’s actually accused of murdering a young Christian girl. In fact, it was completely trumped up charge and he was sentenced to death. The governor decided he was worried that there was an injustice. There’s many films and documentaries on this and you can get my own electron if you want it. And what they decided to, he decided to sentence him for life imprisonment. He is then taken out by a lot of very important characters, including people who later entered the Senate and he is hanged. And what is extraordinary is it coincides with the Bayless case, a similar blood libel case in Russia. And in this case, a Russian jury acquit Bayless under the appallingly anti-Semitic Czar Nicholas II. But with Leo Frank, he is in fact executed. But what is fascinating is both he and Bayless are buried in the same cemetery in New York. And then of course… Can we go on, please.
Let’s see the next slide. Here you see the Daughters of the American Revolution. These are women who want to emphasise the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant background. They’re in favour of temperance. They are Protestant, they are incredibly conservative. And this was the group that I’ve already mentioned that Lease spoke to. But you can imagine how conservative they were. And they also, later on, were going to have a lot to say about Hollywood. And then let’s go on please. Here you see the American Senator, Thomas Heflin. He drew a distinction between the earlier types of immigrants who built America and some of the miserable hordes that is coming in now. From about the turn of the century, if you look at some of the American magazines, you begin to see a turning. Look, after the American Civil War, America was advertising for immigrants. America becomes one of the most important industrial powers in the world, the gold rush, the West coast opening up, or the farmland that needed to be cultivated. They needed a population. But now the White Anglo Saxon Protestant group are looking at the others and saying… And remember, it ties in with the growth of race theory in Europe. America’s not exempt from it, the notion of the pyramid of the races. And in America, who are the superior races? Those who are descendants from the British, basically the English and the Scots. The Irish Catholics have a much tougher time. And also the Scandinavians.
These are the acceptable ones. Other groups, Catholics, the Chinese, other groups coming from Southern Europe, Catholics, they are beginning to be seen as a problem. So who are the early types of immigrants who built America? Who are the brave? So this is very much becoming part of the American dialogue, that America is developing its own class system, its own race system. And then of course, World War I erupts and let’s have a look. Yes, that appalling war that America enters into very late and what happens in that war? I cannot overemphasise to you how much the preponderance of people of Jewish birth in the revolutions that swept Russia, of course, Russia, there was a successful revolution. But please don’t forget, there was also a revolution in Hungary led by the Jew, Béla Kun. There were three revolutions in Munich, one after the other. The majority of the leaders were born Jewish. In Berlin, it was Rosa Luxemburg. In Vienna, it was Adler from country to country to country. Even though revolution was never the majority Jewish response, the majority of the leaders of the revolutions were people who were born Jewish. And we talked about this in previous lectures. They’ve left their Jewishness behind. Just think Marx, religion is the opium of the people. It is something used by the ruling classes to keep the population down.
They were internationalists. They dreamt of a world without prejudice. They dreamt of a world without race, without distinction. And of course, the revolution erupts. and the domino theory, the common term, they dreamt of international revolution from country to country to country. Of course, these ideas were completely perverted by Stalin. But this was Trotsky, who was of course was the commander of the Red Army and number two to Lenin. His real name was Lev Davidovich Brustein Of the 11 who took control in Russia, six were born Jewish. And of course popular media, think press. The Russian Revolution was seen as a threat to America. And it spreads the notion that communism can spread in America and it becomes a terrible thing. And in March 1921, President Warren Harding called an extra session of Congress to rewrite American immigration laws. They began to repatriate over 40,000 Eastern Europeans, the majority Jewish were actually repatriated to Russia. And I will talk about that in a separate session. Can we see the next slide, please? This is the Immigration Act, the Johnson Act for Senator Magnus Johnson of Minnesota. The quota is reduced now to 2%. And after 1927, immigration is only going to be at 150,000 per annum. Ironically, you’re going to see later on different quotas for different people, for different peoples in different parts of Europe, depending on whether they were White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestants, et cetera. And this is going to set a precedent for other nations. Canada inaugurated a closed door policy against all Eastern Europeans except agriculturalists, Britain, Australia, Argentina, Brazil.
They all follow quickly. Can we see the next slide, please? Oh, this is interesting if you think on what’s going on at the moment. In 1924, Harvard introduced a quota of the number of Jewish students who were allowed in. Ironically, the number was at 24%. And if you think of how quickly so many of the Eastern European Jews had scaled the heights, but they introduced the quota. And of course, I don’t have to tell you the issue of Harvard today. Now, can we see the next slide, please? There was one man who was one of the richest men in the world, one of the most, I suppose, innovative and one of the great changes of history, Henry Ford. And one of the problems with this extraordinary man, he was violently anti-Semitic. He develops, of course, the first automobile that middle class American could actually afford. And I’ve said this to you before, this is the 20th century. And isn’t it fascinating? I’m sure I’ve mentioned to you what my tutor used to say. Imagine you were born in 1900 and you died in 2000, what would you see in your life? You can say that from 18 to 19 and 19 to 20, if you live in the west, before that, the world would’ve moved much more slowly. But we’re going to see, and the two of the characters I’m talking about today, Henry Ford at the forefront of the motorcar and Lindbergh, of course, with his incredible flying skill, the aircraft movement, change, change, change.
How many people really like it? Anyway, he is the man who transfers the car from an a very expensive curiosity of the wealthy to a practical conveyance. And of course, the introduction of the Model T is going to transform the 20th century. Can we have a look at it, please? That, by the way, is The Dearborn Independent. So could you look at the next slide and then go back to this one? Yeah, there’s the modern thought and of course the assembly line, beginnings of the assembly line. This is modernity. Please watch Fritz Lang’s brilliant film “Metropolis” about what happens in the modern world. Fritz Lang, the extraordinary German filmmaker who dominated the German film scene and then of course came to America. So the assembly line. And it’s also echoing in mass consumption, the production of inexpensive goods. Also, Henry Ford was very good to his workers, decent wages. It’s going to give them more leisure time. He also set up a franchise system dealerships throughout America and major cities on six continents. So he had an incredible vision. He is modernising. He’s modernising, really, the western world. His background, his father was Irish, but his mother’s family originally came from Somerset. Sorry, his father’s family originally came from Somerset. His mother was Belgian. But as his mother died young, he was raised by an Irish aunt. He was a very strong churchgoer. He walked four miles to an Episcopalian church every Sunday.
So he’s a religious Christian. He’s also a brilliant technician. His father wanted him to take over the family farm, but instead he apprentices as a machinist in Detroit. He also studied bookkeeping. This is the American dream. He’s clever. It’s unrivalled opportunity for the young and the brave and the clever. And can we go back to the last slide? Go back to The Dearborn Independent. In 1918, he’s already hugely successful. He’s employing thousands and thousands of people. His closest aid and private secretary published an obscure weekly newspaper for Ford. It’s called The Dearborn Independent. And it ran from 1919 to 1927 with a man called Earnest Liebold as an editor. Now, every Ford franchise had to carry the paper and distribute it to its customers. Now, bearing in mind, his company was one of the few that hired Blacks and women, also people with disability. But Ford is violently anti-communist, and he’s violently anti-Semitic. And it has to be said that the Russian revolution and the preponderance of people of Jewish birth, even though they’ve thrown away their Jewishness, was one of the factors that led to a huge rise in anti-Semitism. Now, I’m going to give you a few details about Earnest Liebold because he’s a fascinating character. Can we see his face, please? There he is, Ernest G. Liebold, 1884 to 1956. Now remember, he becomes Ford’s personal private secretary. He was born in Detroit. His parents were German Lutheran immigrants.
He grew up in Detroit’s German community. And it has to be said, he was really imbued with Jew hatred from quite an early age, but very bright. He goes to work at a bank in Michigan. He goes up from messenger to bank officer. He had very good skills. His financial acumen drew him to the attention of a man called James Couzens, who was the VP and general manager of the Ford Motor Company. By 1910, Ford employs him as his personal secretary. Quote, “He’s the best financial mind in the country.” He’s very important to Ford, who gave him personal power of attorney over him and his family. And he takes over the publishing of The Dearborn Independence. And Ford had his own page for his thoughts. And beginning in 1919, remember this is two years after the revolution, he begins to publish anti-Semitic articles. Many people believed it was he who was behind Ford’s hatred of Jews. Can we see the next slide, please? Yeah. He becomes a great admirer to of Adolf Hitler. And in May, 1920, The Dearborn began to publish The Eternal Jew. Can we see the next slide? Also, it’s a kind of text based on the protocols. It was estimated that over 300,000 copies were of The Dearborn were sold, carrying this notion of the protocols of the Elders of Zion.
And you see it is the Every Patriot… Every Patriotic American Must Read These Protocols, the protocols of the learned Elders of Zion. This is the warrant for genocide. And the next slide, please. And this is The Eternal Jew, another version of it published by The Dearborn Publishing Company and Jewish activities in the United States. A selection of articles in The Dearborn Independent, hundreds of thousands of copies spewing out anti-Semitism. Now, Liebold, it must be said though, he was by the thirties, he’s going to be under suspicion, is he in fact a spy? Now, there are articles in the papers talking about Jewish control of the New York banks. They’re holding Texas cotton farmers ransom financially. And more than anything, they named names and they talked about a man called Aaron Sapiro. They cited Jewish figures as Elders of Zion, Bernard Barak, Albert Lasker, Eugene Meyer, Otto Kahn, Julius Rosenwald. But primarily, the paper had its main target was Aaron Sapiro. Already, Ford was blaming the Jews for all the problems of the world. Now, who was Aaron Sapiro? Can we see him please? Now, he’s an interesting character. He’d been born in Oakland, California. Immigrant parents. Originally, he wanted to be a rabbi, very poor, but again, very clever. He took a law degree and then took a position on the Californian market board staff, which is an agricultural co-op. He’s a socialist, he’s a man of the people. He rises to leadership. In fact, in an article about him, he was described as one of the greatest agricultural movers of modern times.
The Dearborn Independent is going to be constantly attacking him. He’s saying that he, the Jew, is exploiting the poor agricultural workers. In fact, he is working for them. The paper is ranting and ranting and ranting. And finally in 1927, Sapiro files a lawsuit against The Dearborn Independent and Henry Ford personally. Now, during the trial, the new editor, there’s a new editor now who replaces Liebold. William Cameron testified that Ford had nothing to do with the editorials, even though they were under his byline, Ford’s own page. He claimed he never discussed the pages with Ford. Friends actually testified that Ford probably never read them, claimed he only read the headlines. But James Miller, a former Dearborn employer, swore under both that Ford had told him he intended to expose Sapiro. And he said, this employee, “I don’t think Mr. Cameron ever wrote anything without Mr. Ford’s approval.” And what happened was the trial prompted a coalition of Jewish groups led by the Anti-Defamation League, which you will remember had come into being as a response to the trial of Leo Frank on the upswing of the Ku Klux Klan. And what they did, they organised a boycott of Ford’s products. And not only that, they were supported by liberal Christians.
And I think this is very much an American thing at this period, that the American Jewish community, despite everything I had said, they still felt that they were strong and secure enough to actually make protests. We’re going to find that as the thirties unroll, this is going to dissipate. But certainly at this stage, a group comes together. And it’s interesting. I mean, history never repeats itself, but people do. That’s a nice little truism for you. And at the moment, I would suggest to you that regardless of our politics, Jewish communities worldwide are actually very united. Tragedy. It always takes a tragedy to bring us, but anyway. There’s so much protest and boycott, particularly by liberal Christians that Ford capitulates and stops the paper. He also wrote a letter of apology to the ADL in which he recanted his anti-Semitic views. This is January 1937, a false statement to the Detroit Jewish Chronicle. I disavowed any connection whatsoever with the publication in Germany of a book known as The Eternal Jew. Now, his book, it first appeared in The Dearborn Independent, the sort of version of the protocols. And of course it was taken up by Hitler. But he was still an American hero. And this is Time Magazine in 1927, an industrialist, Henry Ford, has made one of the greatest contributions ever made by man. That is mass production. It amounts to first rate genius. But just as I am colorblind, Henry Ford has a blind spot on his intellect. He is mentally unsound on certain questions of race and religion. He has a streak of bigotry on that side of his mind that is totally foreign to his industrial ability. Let me repeat that because I think it’s very important.
And it’s so true of so many people, we are complicated. So this is Time Magazine of 1927. It’s called Smart Money. An industrialist Henry Ford has made one of the greatest contributions ever made by man, that is mass production. It amounts to first rate genius. But just as I am colorblind, Henry Ford has blind spots on his intellect. He is mentally unsound of certain questions of race and religion. He has a streak of bigotry on that side of his mind that is totally foreign to his industrial ability. I should mention because I want to continue a little bit with Liebold, that what happens with Liebold, he visits Germany. And in September 1938, by the way, Ford received the Grand Cross of the German Eagle. And two months later, Liebold was awarded the Order of the German Eagle. And the second, this is the second highest diplomatic honour of the Third Reich. And declassified documents from the US National Archives. They’re cited in a book, “The American Axis,” by Max Wallace, that as early as 1918, Liebold was actually being investigated for being a German spy. Don’t forget, in 1918, America was at war with Germany. A later investigation that showed that he had ties to aspiring, which was a network of Nazi spies dismantled in 1941. And I’ll be talking about that later on. Now, the next important individual I want to talk about is, of course, Charles Lindbergh. Can we have a look at him? Yes, the great American hero. Just as Ford in his way was an American hero, so was Charles Lindbergh. And of course, what’s going to happen to him personally is going to make him an even greater hero. He was born in Detroit, Michigan.
He was brought up in Little Falls, Minnesota. His father was a Swedish background. His parents separated when he was seven. His father, Charles Augustus Lindbergh was a US congressman and one of the few congressmen to oppose American entry into the war. He comes from an isolationist family. His father wrote a book called “Why Is Your Country at War?” And it was seized by federal agents under the Comstock Act in the war. It was later posthumously reprinted in 1934. With a changed title, “Your Country at War and What Happens to You After the War.” So he’s brought up in a background where his father’s an important politician. He’s an isolationist, he is a congressman, and also Swedish Christian. Now, Lindbergh attended more than a dozen schools in his youth, living sometimes with his mother, who was a chemistry teacher and sometimes with his father. So he had a relatively unstable background. He enrolled at College of Engineering. Let’s have a look at Madison, Wisconsin. That was the campus he enrolled in. He dropped out and went to Lincoln, Nebraska to begin flight training. He was always crazy about the aeroplane. Think this is the beginnings. It’s very important. He was also, from a child, fascinated by mechanics of mobile of any kind of transportation, including the families, Saxon Six automobiles.
So he goes to college already mad about flying. He’s a daredevil, he’s a risk taker. He’s a very physical man. He takes his first fly flying lesson, but he wasn’t allowed to fly solo because he couldn’t afford the prerequisite bond. You had to put up money before you were allowed to fly solo. And to gain flight experience, he spent the next few months travelling across various states as a wing walker and also as a parachuter. These are daredevils. They go to fairs. They are flyers, they walk on wings. They are daredevils. Also, briefly, for a while, he worked as an aeroplane mechanic in Billings, Montana, which was the municipal airport. And in May 1923, his first solo flight in a plane, he’d made enough money doing the circuit that he put down $500 for his own plane. He becomes more and more famous. He’s known as Daredevil Lindbergh. He threw from Georgia to Montgomery, Alabama, 230 kilometres solo across country. He’s still barnstorming in long… This is what they called these sort of flying circuses. On two occasions, he’s brave. He flew a local doctor across the Wisconsin River because there was a flood and they couldn’t get to a woman who was giving birth. And of course that makes him very famous. 1924, he does a year of military training. Only 18 students grad out of 104 graduate. He graduates first. He gets his wings and he’s a second lieutenant in the Air Service Reserve Corps. He returns to civilian life again as a barnstormer, playing the circuit. But he’s a flight instructor now. And he’s hired by the Robertson Aircraft Company to serve as its chief pilot. Now, in 1919… Can we see the next slide please?
There’s Alcock and Brown. They won the Daily Mail prize for the first nonstop transatlantic flight. The Aviation Club of America put up a $25,000 award for the first successful nonstop transatlantic flight to New York City and Paris in either direction. Many great flying aces tried. None were successful, including there were a few deaths. Lindbergh was determined to try, but he wasn’t famous enough. He’s famous, but not famous enough. And he had difficulty with funding. And then in the end, a couple of St. Louis businessmen eventually put up $15,000. He managed to raise 2, 000 himself. And can we see the next slide please? May the 20th, 1927, he took off from Long Island to Le Bourget, which is seven ks from Paris, several thousand assembles for the take up. You can’t imagine the press interest. It was a very difficult flight. 32.5 hours, he arrives in Paris. He circles the Eiffel Tower. He becomes the most famous man in the world. A crowd of some 150,000 people stormed the aircraft. They drag him out of the cockpit. They carry him above their heads for about half an hour. Unprecedented acclaim. He’s the world’s hero. New York Times, the headline, Lindbergh does it. He is an international celebrity with invitations from all the European capitals. He received marriage proposals from all over the nation. At least 200 songs were written in tribute to his flight. On the balcony, he sees the crowd on the balcony of the American embassy in Paris.
The French foreign office actually flew the American flag. The first time, it saluted someone who was not a head of state. He’s awarded the Legion of Honour. Also, he then made flights to Britain and to America and to Britain and to Belgium. In Brussels, he placed a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier. He’s invited to the palace by the king. He’s given the order of Leopold. And Reuters, 1 million Belgians today greet Lindbergh, the greatest welcome ever accorded a private citizen. When he flew to Croydon Airport in just outside London, 100,000 people greeted him. He visited the Prime Minister, then Buckingham Palace, where George V awarded him the British Air Force cross. The crowd again extraordinary. In America, he’s back. He gets a ticket parade with over 200,000 people at a ceremony in New York. And at the final rally, it’s believed that 4 million cheered him that day. He’s promoted to the rank of colonel in the American Army Reserves. Special Act of Congress awards him the Medal of Honour, presented by Coolidge. Time Magazine’s Man of the Year. He’s age 25 and he’s on the cover of Time Magazine. The youngest, by the way, until Greta Thunberg in 2019. He publishes his autobiography. He embarks on tours of America and abroad. He uses his fame to promote basically air service and to promote the mail service. And then he marries. Can we see the next slide, please? He marries Anne Spencer Morrow Lindbergh. She is the daughter of a partner at JP Morgan. He marries into the WASP establishment.
They were his financial advisors and he’d also been the American… Her father had been the American ambassador of Mexico. And he had actually met Anne whilst on a goodwill tour in Mexico. And they went to live on the Family estates at Englewood, New Jersey before moving to the western part of the state. And they’re going to have six children. Now, they are the most famous couple in America, the beautiful American dream. Now, March the first 1932, 20-month-old Charles Lindbergh Jr., his eldest son was abducted from his crib. A ransom demand of 50,000 pounds was demanded and paid. And on May the 12th, the Charles remains were discovered in a wood. Can we see the next slide, please? It becomes known as the crime of the century. It was also described by the New York Times as the biggest story since the Resurrection. Congress, as a result, made kidnapping a federal offence if the victim was taken over the state lines. And in the end, a German immigrant, a man called Richard Hauptmann. Can we see him please? Richard Hauptmann. He was a 34-year-old immigrant. He was a partner, a carpenter, beg your pardon. And he was found paying with one of the ransom bills. The trial was a complete circus. He’s charged with kidnapping, murder, and extortion. And finally, he is sentenced to death. And he’s electrocuted on April the third, 1936. Now, there are many people who doubt the justice of this particular case. This is just to give you a smell of the media coverage. This is probably the most famous family in America. And their eldest child has been kidnapped and murdered. And the latest rather bizarre ‘cause his wife always proclaimed he’s innocent. She died age 95, not long ago, but obviously he had no children. But there were many who believed he wasn’t guilty.
And there were many who believed it was an inside job. And there are now those who believe that, in fact, Lindbergh himself might have been implicated. This is very bizarre, but I’ll talk about it a little later on. Now, the attention of the kidnapping, it made him and his wife really fear for the safety of their family. They’re too famous. So this is real celebrity now. So they sailed secretly from Manhattan to Liverpool. There were only three passengers on the ship. They’re sent by the American government. They travelled with diplomatic passports under assumed names. They eventually rent in Kent, where another son was born. And then the family moved to an estate off the Breton coast in France. He estate extensively travelled through Europe, and they’re only going to go back to America in 1934 after a request from the head of the American Army to help establish the Air Corps in readiness for any future war. Now, he’s also very interested in scientific activities and wanted something that could make navigation easier for pilots. And he worked with… Can we see the next slide, please? This is Alexis Carrel, he authored a book with him, “The Culture of Organs.” He was involved in paving the Way for transplants. He’s a fascinating man, a Nobel Prize winner. And this is one of the reasons that Lindbergh settled on the coast. He wants to be close to him. And his wife’s sister had recently suffered a heart attack. And he came and it was Lindbergh who came up with the idea of a heart pump in collaboration with Carrel. But Carrel was also a eugenicist.
He said there’s no way of escaping the fact that men are not created equal. He wanted to, by selective breeding, eliminate the criminals, the insane, and others who, in his view, weakened civilizations, foundations. And Lindbergh said of him, he has the most stimulating mind I ever met. And it’s important to remember that tragically, eugenics was a very important science in Sweden, in America, in Europe, the notion that certain groups have a more of a right to live than others. To quote George Orwell, some people are more equal than others. So he’s already interested in eugenics. And believe it or not, there is a theory being pedalled by an American professor, that Lindbergh’s child, the one that was kidnapped, might have in fact had a deficiency and he was prepared to sacrifice the child. We will never know. But I’m just quoting, I actually read the article yesterday. Anyway, what about his politics? Well, he’s a eugenicist and he also admires Hitler, does our friend Lindbergh. And in July '36, shortly before the opening of the Olympics, William Shirer recorded the Lindbergh… Remember William Shirer was the American columnist in Nazi Germany, who wrote the brilliant book of the “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reitsch.” And he said, “The Lindberghs are here in the Nazis led by Goring are making a great play for them.” They made many visits, evidently of the request of the American military to find out exactly what Germany was up to. And he becomes very friendly with a German woman. Let’s have a look at her. Hanna Reitsch. Now, Hannah Reitsch was one of Germany’s greatest test pilots, also a daredevil.
She was also one of the last people to meet Hitler alive in the Führerbunker. She went to the bunker to try and persuade him to leave. Hers was the last plane out of Berlin. Her family had taken refuge in Salzburg. And when there was a rumour that all families were to be taken back to their original homes and theirs were in the Soviet zone, so Reitsch’s father shot and killed her mother, her sister, and her sister’s three children before killing himself. And this is the family she came from, there she is giving the Hitler salute. When she met Lindbergh, she demonstrated the wolf helicopter to him. And he was the first American to inspect Germany’s newest former and Germany’s frontline aircraft, the Messerschmitt. which he was allowed to pilot. And at a US embassy dinner in 1938, Germany’s air chief, Goring, presented him with the order of the German Eagle. And of course he’s there for Kristallnacht. And there were groups in America who said, “You must return.” And he said, “It seems to me that the returning of decorations, which were given in times of peace and as a gesture of friendship, can have no constructive effect. It would be an unnecessary insult.” On Kristallnacht, he said, “I do not understand these riots. It’s contrary to the German sense of order and intelligence. They have undoubtedly have a difficult Jewish problem. But why handle it so unreasonably?” In fact, Lindbergh planned to move to Berlin. He was looking at villas, believe it or not, in Vance. But Nazi friends discouraged him from buying it because it had previously belonged to Jews.
And they felt therefore it would be tainted. And they encouraged him to contact Albert Spear, who was prepared to bill for them whatever house they would like anywhere to their own design. His close friend Carrel advised… It was actually Carrel though, who advised him against staying in France. And at the urging of Joseph Kennedy, who I’m going to talk about next week, he wrote a secret memo to the British government, warning them, quote, “That a military response by Britain and France of Hitler’s violation of the Munich Treaty would be disastrous.” He recommended they strengthen their own powers to force his Hitler, I’m quoting, to direct against a Asiatic communism. He’s violently anti-communist, Lindbergh. Remember, he is of Swedish origin. He sees himself as an Arian. He admires Hitler, he admires the Germans, and he hates communism. Following Hitler’s invasion of Czechoslovakia and Poland, he opposed sending aid to the countries under threat. He equated assistance with war profiteering. And you know, ironically, in August '39, Lindbergh was the first choice of Albert Einstein, who had met him years earlier to deliver the Einstein-Szilard letter to President Roosevelt. This is a letter begging Roosevelt to look into America getting the bomb. Lindbergh didn’t even respond. And two days later, Lindbergh made a nationwide radio address calling for isolationism and very much indicating his pro-German sympathies and spoke against the Jews in the media.
He said, “We must ask who owns and influences the newspapers, the pictures and radio stations.” Szilard letter wrote to Einstein, “This is not our man.” Lindbergh, in his book, “Autobiography of Values,” this is what he wrote about Germany, “The organised vitality of Germany was what most impressed me. The increasing activity of the people to create new factories, airfields, and research laboratories.” His wife, who was also very pro-Nazi, “It’s thrilling to see the energy and pride and morale of the people, especially the young people.” Over in October '39, he criticised Canada for declaring war on Germany and driving the Western hemisphere into a European war. And in 1940, he becomes the spokesperson of the America First Committee. And he soon speaking to huge crowds at Madison Square and also millions listening to him on the radio. He becomes the leader of the most powerful isolationist group in the country. 850,000 members from all professions, all backgrounds. Gradually though, his hero status does begin to slip. But I want to finish by reading to you. Let’s have a look at the rally in Madison Square Garden, can we? Yeah, there’s Kristallnacht. I’ll be talking a lot about Joseph Kennedy. America First, I’ll be talking about that next week.
Let me just find… He makes this huge speech. This is the speech. This is the speech which he delivers for the America First Committee rally in Des Moines on September the 11th, 1941. Remember, Roosevelt was helping the British, but America doesn’t enter the war until December 1941 after the Japanese attack. And he makes this speech on September the 11th. And he said, he writes, “It’s two years since the latest European war began. From that day to September '39, until the present moment, there’s been an ever increasing effect to force the United States into the conflict. The effort has been carried out by foreign interests.” He talks about the British, but now I’m going to talk about the Jews. This is what he says, “This is to a huge rally. The second major group I mentioned is the Jewish.” It is not difficult to understand why Jewish people desire the overthrow of Nazi Germany. The persecution they suffered in Germany will be sufficient to make them bitter enemies.
No person with a sense of the dignity of mankind can condone the persecution of the Jewish race in Germany. But no person of honesty and vision can look on their pro-war policy here today without seeing the dangers involved in such a policy, both for us and for them. Instead of agitating for war, the Jewish groups in this country should be opposing it in every possible way, for they will be amongst the first to feel its consequences. Tolerance is a virtue that depends on peace and strength. History shows it cannot survive war and devastation. Their greatest danger to this country, the Jews, lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government. I’m not attacking the Jewish or the British people, both races I admire. But I’m saying that the leaders of both the British and Jewish race for reasons which are understandable from their viewpoint as they are an inadvisable from ours for reasons which are not American wish to involve us in this war. And I’ll stop there and I’ll be picking this up with the America First Committee when I look at Joseph Kennedy next week. So let’s see what questions.
Q&A and Comments:
Oh yes, Sandra. By the way, article in paper suggested Lindbergh might have staged kidnapping his son, but given up for eugenic experiments. Yes. Yes, Sandra. I’d like to see an awful lot more evidence before I believe that.
Susan’s saying, “Looking for the light. Pray the hostages. Come home.” Rhoda, we finally have sun in Toronto. Happy New Year. Sharon, happy New Year.
Shelly says, “Sometimes I think Jewish history is only Jews going out, i.e. Hollywood or Jews being persecuted.” Oh, it’s more than that. Look, we’ve survived it for so many. Look, the cost is always high, but my goodness, we’ve survived. Kingston, happy New Year. Happy New Year.
Q: Philip, didn’t anti-Semitism start with the Amalekites in biblical times, not 2,000 years ago when the Jews were blamed?
A: Well, that’s a huge question, Philip. And I think I couldn’t answer it now. You deserve a much longer answer. And I’m going to be discussing. We’ve been putting on quite a few lectures on anti-Semitism. Remember, that’s a racial term. There certainly was in the Bible. It’s a very interesting story that you are picking up here. And I think I’ll speak to Jeremy Rosen about putting on something on this effect.
Shelly, great expression, still used to do someone down. Yeah. Keeping with the theme of anti-Semitism, please comment on the same from South Africa. Look, we are not seen as victim groups. We are now the white oppressors. It’s that quote also of Rabbi Sacks, first they hated our religion, then our race, now our nation. Maybe it is time to give some more lectures on the history of anti-Semitism. I’ll discuss it with Wendy.
This is from Avro, “Lindbergh was in Toronto, Canada in the 1930s and held a large rally in Maple leaf gardens, our former hockey area with a large artsy banner with the swastika.” Yeah, he did mix in bury unsavoury circles.
Stewart, in his book, when General Grant expelled the Jews, historian Jonathan Sarna maintains this president came one of the greatest friends. Yes, I mentioned that. Yeah, I mentioned that, Stuart. He certainly when he became president, but nevertheless, he did give Order 11. Sylvia’s comfort in her mother’s grace comfort was spies for Leon Lewis at that time. The story of the Nazis in California, believe it or not, is too short, is not too shocking. Leon Lewis is an unsung hero in unveiling the Nazi influence in Congress.
Joan. Hi, Joan, how are you? Happy New Year. Grant had an issue with his father who was involved in the ban trade. His father was using his son’s name and illegal training.
Excellent book on Grant. Grant send you the title. Thanks, Joe. We should call it Jew Hatred because anti-Semite includes Semites who are Middle Eastern Muslim. Yeah, it’s a very bad word. The reason we use that word, it was coined by a German journalist called Wilhelm Marr when he created the league of anti-Semites. And believe me, in Berlin at that time in 1879, he meant Jews. Emma lived in Toronto. She died in Toronto, was buried in Chicago. She lived in my friend’s grandparents. Interesting.
Oh, this is interesting. Emma was my grandfather’s cousin and came to visit the family on Beatrice Street in Toronto, but was not let into the house. She died after, buried in Rochester. Good Lord. I love it, Ronald’s definition, absolutely the definition of anti-Semite is one who hates the Jews more than is absolutely necessary.
Professor Gold. If you are trying to cheer me up to 2024, oy. Look, this is the syllabus. Look, I tell you what I am doing though. For Valentine’s Day, I’m going to do Paul Newman. I’m going to bring in some more Hollywood. I’m going to try, I’m going to do my best. Look, we are not living in the happiest of times. What I advise you to do is not dwell too much on the horror. Those of you who’ve got family, be with your families. If you can go to the theatre, if you can go to a concert, I’ve just got back with a family trip to vent from a family trip from Venice. And with the one mishap of my youngest grandson slipping into the canal, he is fine. But he gave his grandmother a heart attack nearly. But it was a wonderful thing to do to be with the family and the little ones.
Ed Tieger says the current terminology seems to be anti-Jewish hatred. My father’s two brothers were married with children were not allowed into the US or Canada. They finally settled in Argentina. Yeah. Grant by Thank you, Joan.
Our dad would never buy a Ford and my husband would never buy a Mercedes. Small protest, but taught a lesson to the younger ones. Lovely.
Rita says the film “Metropolis” is available on YouTube. It’s a superb film. Adele Ulysses Grants memoirs exceptionally interesting, primarily about the war.
Q: Arthur, I’ve heard and read that Henry Ford’s son was genuinely regret about his father’s venomous anti-Semitism and worked hard to try to undo the damage. Please address this and especially advise the success of the failure of the son in this endeavour.
A: Yes, Arthur, I would do so. Henry Ford’s accountant was my husband, Leo’s father’s cousin. a Lithuanian refugee from Convoluted, I’m sorry, but I’ll try to find out more.
Natasha, I think you better. This is what is so extraordinary about lockdown.
“What you write is true,” says Arthur, “Anti-Semites might include Semites other than Jews and especially anti-Jew. However, there is likely an equal amount of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim.” Yeah. Look, we might have developed amazing technology, but I wonder how much we’ve developed as people. We still hate, don’t we? We still fear. Hitler kept a picture of Ford behind his desk. Ford gave Hitler’s copy of the protocols. Oh yes. He admired him very much, Hitler.
Q: What was the outcome of the Sapiro trial?
A: He won. He got damages. Although US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis was progressive, he also supported eugenics as did many other progressors. In the famous case of Buck v. Bell, he voted with the majority, including fellow Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in favour of sterilisation.
Yes, Paula, it’s a terrible story. And in fact, you’ll be pleased to know that Dennis Davis, lovely judge Dennis will be giving a presentation on Brandeis. And no doubt the eugenics debate will come into it. Look, even Winston Churchill, who’s a great hero of mine at one time, he was in favour of eugenics. What can I tell you? What happened to Liebold? He died in his bed. This is from Herbert, Herbert Hess, See book on Lindbergh by A. Scott Berg called “Lindbergh.” What comes through that? He was not a very educated bar person. He went from world hero to public enemy.
Look, could anyone cope with that kind of fame? Who knows? My great hero, one of my great heroes is Isaiah Berlin. And he was asked late in life, why didn’t he take any political office? He said, “I never wanted power because I knew it would corrupt me.” Is that why good people don’t often seek power? So, Sapiro, no, he won, he won. So you’ve all asked that.
Yes, people should read Philip Roth’s “The Plot Against America.” Yes. And I believe that later on, David Herman will be… As we get further up, remember we’re going to be looking at America for at least a couple more months. And I believe our literary man, David Herman, will be looking at the plot against America. Yes. Yes. Yes. A lot of people want to read that. I do hope you will talk about Father Coughlin.
Yes, Paula, definitely. And next week, next week, I’m actually doing three next week. I don’t know why. I think 'cause everyone else is on holiday. No, I’m going to be doing one on anti-Semitism in America that I’m going to take two great female heroines, Golda Meir and Emma Goldman. And then I’m going to talk again about the rise of Nazism in America. And of course Father Coughlin, anti-Semitism and Nazism here coming into it. You know that the ADL got in touch with Trotsky in Mexico to ask him to go into debate with him. Trotsky turned it down.
Yes, American Pastoral. Yes. Poor Newman, what a wonderful distraction. Yes, I’m looking forward to that. Good Lord.
Joe, “My grandfather was on the grand jury that indicted the Lindbergh baby kidnapper. I have a picture of the Leo Frank tombstone.” Oh my goodness. There could never be a group of people like the one that we have assembled.
Q: Can you talk about the infamous famous New York Times?
A: No, but somebody else will be doing. Ford produced a car called Edsel, named after a family member. He proved to be a gigantic block. Thank you.
Dramatisation of “The Plot Against America” is on HBO. And thank you in advance for the Paul Newman talk. I’m going to be very sexist. I’ll be fascinated to see how many men tune in to watch Paul Newman as our Valentine’s special. Anyway, happy New Year everybody and be safe and I will see you next week. God bless.