Henry Ford and Secret Nazi Activities

One of the Chief Nazi propagandists in the United States recently ran in the United States Senate primaries in Kansas and was almost nominated. He is Gerald B. Winrod, who poses as a Protestant minister but has no affiliations with any reputable church.

Winrod, even before he tried to get into the Senate, was one of the most brazen of the Nazis’ Fifth Column operating in this country. He has held secret consultations with officials in the German Embassy in Washington and carries on his propaganda under Fritz Kuhn’s direction.

Shortly after Winrod returned from a mysterious trip to Germany and held an equally mysterious long consultation at the Nazi Embassy in this country (1935), he organized the Capitol News and Feature Service, with offices at 209 Kellogg Building, Washington. The “news service” supplied smaller papers throughout the land with “impartial comments” on the national scene. The Service was edited by Dan Gilbert, a San Diego newspaperman, and the material was sent free of charge (as is the material sent to the Latin American countries from Germany and Italy). It was of course, deliberately calculated to spread pro-Hitler sentiment and propaganda.

Few who read Winrod’s publications realize the extent of his activities. On March 1, 1937, Senator Joseph T. Robinson addressed the United States Senate on what appeared to him to be “unfair propaganda” carried on by Winrod against President Roosevelt’s proposed reorganization of the judiciary system. The Senator stated that he could not understand why the issues should be deliberately falsified by a gentleman of the cloth that it reminded him of the old Ku Klux Klan tactics.

The Senator did not know that Winrod’s propaganda against Roosevelt was only part of a propaganda campaign cunningly and brazenly organized by Nazis in this country in an effort to defeat a man who, they felt, was not friendly to them. In this campaign, Nazi agents worked openly and secretly with a few unscrupulous members of the Republican Party in an effort to defeat Roosevelt.

Several years ago Winrod was a poverty-stricken man living at 145 N. Green Street, Wichita, Kansas. He called himself a minister but all church bodies have repudiated him. Without a church, he did a little evangelistic preaching and lived off collections made from his audience. It was a precarious livelihood and often the “Reverend” did not have enough money to buy even ordinary necessities.

Records in several Wichita department stores tell the story of the evangelist’s poverty before an angel came to visit him. All the storekeepers with whom Winrod dealt requested that their names be withheld, but signified their willingness to present their records to any governmental body which might be interested in the sudden wealth he acquired after he became an intense Hitler propagandist. In the days of his poverty Winrod, the records show, could afford to buy only the cheapest furniture, the cheapest clothes, and pay for them on the installment plan in weekly payments ranging from fifty cents to two or three dollars a week.

I am reproducing with this chapter several of the installment cards. The reader will notice that as late as 1934 Winrod was paying at the rate of one dollar a week. It was in this period that Nazi agents in the United States were carrying on their intensive campaign, and it was also in this period that Winrod began to harangue his audiences about the “menace of the Jews and the Catholics.”

Then one day, the Reverend Gerald B. Winrod suddenly found himself possessed of enough money to go to Germany. When he came back in February, 1935, he had new suit cases, new clothes and a fat check book. The records in the Wichita department stores where he had been getting credit for clothes and furniture show that after his return from Germany he paid all his debts in lump sums by check. Then he became a publisher.

In his newspaper, The Revealer, he published a report on his trip to Europe, but did not mention where he got the money for the jaunt. The report (February 15, 1935) told of his discovery that the German people loved Hitler and that only “Jewish influence in high circles of certain governments is making it impossible for Germany to carry on normal trade and financial relations with other countries.”

In this period of his new-found prosperity he established contacts with Nazi agents and pro-fascists like Harry A. Jung of the American Vigilant Intelligence Federation, Colonel Edwin Emerson, James True and a host of other patrioteers.

Before the Presidential election he made another trip to Germany. When he returned, he enlarged his distribution apparatus and was apparently important enough for high Nazi officials visiting the United States to meet with him. One of these was Hans von Reitenkranz, who came quietly to the United States as Hitler’s personal representative to arrange for oil purchases oil which Germany needed badly for her factories and especially for her growing war machine.

Von Reitenkranz is a friend of Professor Kurt Sepmeier of the University of Wichita. He introduced Winrod to the Professor. They became friendly. When I was in Wichita making inquiries about the Reverend Winrod, I constantly came across the Professor’s trail. Both he and Winrod had been meeting regularly but with an effort at secrecy.

In January, 1937, after several meetings with Professor Sepmeier, Winrod went to Washington. I also went to Washington and found that the Reverend was calling at the German Embassy. On one of his visits he remained inside for an hour and eighteen minutes. Whom he saw or what he discussed I do not know; but immediately after this long visit, the News and Feature Service was organized with money enough to send its items out free of charge to the papers that would accept them.

Gilbert, who headed the Service, was for many years the personal representative of William Dudley Pelley, leader of the Silver Shirts. The Nazis had been trying to get the Silver Shirts to cooperate with them in a fascist “united front” and the appointment of Gilbert was the first indication that a friendly cooperation had been established.

Winrod had been in constant communication with Pelley, and Pelley had conferred several times with Schwinn. The Nazis were eager to get a native American body into the organization so they would have an American “front.”

Gilbert opened offices in Washington and, fearful lest their location become known, rented Post Office Box N, Ben Franklin Station, for use as a mailing address. After the first issue had been sent out, Winrod and his agents canvassed prominent industrialists for donations to support the “news service” on the grounds that it was furthering religious activities and fighting Communism. The money collected was actually used to carry on anti-democratic propaganda. A number of industrialists contributed. I have a list of them, but since there is no conclusive evidence that they knew the money was being spent by Nazi agents, I shall not publish the names. I mention it merely as an illustration of how wealthy men are victimized by racketeers with pleas of “patriotism” and “public service.” Harry A. Jung did the same thing by getting money from rich Jews “to fight Communism” and from rich gentiles “to fight the menace of the Jew.”

With the first issue of the Capitol News and Feature Service, the following announcement was mailed to the editors of rural weeklies:

“Good Morning, Mr. Editor! Capitol News and Feature Service herewith delivers three priceless articles, fresh from the Nation’s capitol. Use them without cost. You will hear from us each week. Watch for these interesting articles.”

An examination of the “priceless articles” showed that they were designed primarily to attack American democracy.

Since his return from Germany and his conferences at the Nazi Embassy, Winrod has made frequent trips into Mexico where he has met with Mexican fascists especially with leaders of the Mexican Gold Shirts which were organized by Hermann Schwinn. Again we discover the tie-up between fascist organizations in the United States and those to the south of us.

When the Nazis reorganized their propaganda machine several years ago and established smuggling headquarters on the West Coast, propaganda taken off Nazi ships docking in San Diego and Los Angeles included material printed in Spanish for the special use of General Nicholas Rodriguez, head of the Gold Shirts.

The Spanish as well as the English material was taken to the Deutsches Haus in Los Angeles and turned over to Schwinn, who forwarded the batches to Rodriguez. The contact man between Schwinn and the head of the fascist movement in Mexico is a native American named Henry Douglas Allen of San Diego. Allen, under the pretext of being a mining engineer and interested in prospecting in Mexico, went repeatedly into the neighboring country with the smuggled propaganda and delivered it to Rodriguez’ agents.

Since native Americans, especially if they say they wish to prospect, can travel across the international boundary into Mexico as often as they please without arousing suspicion, Allen was chosen as the liaison man between Nazi agents in the United States and Rodriguez. As I said earlier, the Nazis tried from the beginning to get an American “front” and to draw as many Americans into it as possible obviously strategic preparation for future work more serious than mere propaganda. Hence Allen was instructed to become active in the Silver Shirt movement. He organized Down Town Post N-10 and established Silver Shirt recruiting headquarters in Room 693 at 730 South Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

In August, 1936, when a lot of Nazi and anti-Roosevelt money was being shelled out in efforts to defeat Roosevelt, Allen became extremely active. While Pelley was out of town, he was instructed to work with Kenneth Alexander, Pelley’s right-hand man. Alexander was formerly a still-photographer at United Artists Studios. The two opened offices in the Broadway Arcade Building and on October 1, 1935, moved to the Lankersheim Building at Third Street near Spring, Los Angeles.

Rodriguez, after he was given assurances of Nazi aid, worked not only with Nazi agents in this country but also with Julio Brunet, manager of the Ford factory in Mexico City.

The earliest documentary record I have of their tie-up is a letter Rodriguez wrote to Ford’s manager on September 27, 1934, on Gold Shirt stationery. The letter merely asks Brunet to give jobs to two “worthy young men” and is written in a manner that shows Rodriguez and Brunet are rather close.

By February 7, 1935, Rodriguez and the Ford executive in Mexico had become sufficiently intimate for the fascist leader to express his appreciation of Brunet’s placing Gold Shirts in the plant. His letter addressed to the manager of the Ford Company follows:

We have been informed by our delegate, Senora N.M. Colunga, that she was very well treated by you and that in addition you informed her that our request for work for some of our comrades who needed it has also been heard. Not doubting but that this will be fulfilled, A.R.M. [the Gold Shirts] sends you the most expressive thanks for having seen in you the recognition of one of the greatest obligations of humanity to Mexicanism.

On November 19, 1935, shortly before the Gold Shirts felt they were powerful enough to attempt the overthrow of the Mexican Government and the establishment of a fascist dictatorship, Rodriguez wrote to the manager of the Ford plant, asking for the two ambulances which had been promised the fascists by the Ford manager. Rodriguez had organized his attempted Putsch carefully, with a women’s ambulance corps to care for the wounded in the expected fighting. The letter, again translated almost literally, follows:

Sr. Manager of the Ford Company No, 1935.
City
Highly Esteemed Senor:

This will be delivered to you personally by Sr. General Juan Alvarez C., who comes with the object of ascertaining if that company would be able to supply two ambulances which they had already offered, for the transportation of the Women’s Sanitary Brigade on the 20th day of this month at 8 A.M.

Thanking you in advance for the references, I am happy to repeat
that I am at your command. Affectionately and attentively, S.S.

NICHOLAS RODRIGUEZ C.
Supreme Commander.

In the street fighting that followed the attempted fascist Putsch a number were killed and wounded. It was after this fight that Rodriguez was exiled.

I am reproducing some of these letters from carbon copies, initialed by Rodriguez, which were in his files. Why he initials carbon copies I don’t know, but I have a stack of his correspondence with Nazi agents and almost all of his carbons are initialed.

On October 4, 1936, Allen wrote to the exiled fascist leader. Ostensibly the letter invited him to address the Silver Shirts. Actually it was for a special conference about “matters of vital importance to us both.” This letter was written when Schwinn was holding conferences with Pelley to merge forces in a fascist united front, and when Schneeberger was preparing to leave for Japan on a training ship ordered up from the Canal Zone by the Japanese to take him on board. The letter follows:

Dear General Rodriguez:

Upon receipt of this letter will you kindly communicate with me and advise me whether it would be possible for you to come to Los Angeles in the near future to make an address to our organization here. We shall be glad to defray all expenses which will include airplane both ways if you desire it. We shall also offer you bodyguard for your protection if you deem it necessary. Your fight is our fight and it is our desire to have you come to Los Angeles especially to confer with us relative to matters of vital importance to us both. I would suggest that if you can arrange to come, you telegraph me (charges collect) upon receipt of this letter so that I may make arrangements without delay.

Fraternally yours,
HENRY ALLEN.

When I went to Mexico to look into Nazi activities, I gave a copy of this letter to the Minister of the Interior. At that time Allen was again in Mexico under the pretense of looking into his mining interests, but a check showed that he had actually gone there to confer secretly with a Mexican army man, General Iturbe. At my request the Mexican Government looked into Allen’s movements and learned that he had entered Guaymas, center of Japanese activities, with Kenneth Alexander, Pelley’s chief aid.

The connection between Ford’s Mexican manager and General Rodriguez might be considered an unfortunate incident for which Ford could not be held responsible. This would be a reasonable assumption if the Nazi-Rodriguez-Ford tie-up in Mexico were an isolated case. The facts, however, show it is not.

The national leader of the Nazi propaganda machine in this country has been on the Ford pay roll. Kuhn was supposed to work for Ford as a chemist, but while on Ford’s pay roll he traveled around the United States conferring with other secret Nazi agents and actively directing Nazi work in this country.

Ford has a highly developed and exceedingly efficient espionage system of his own which, among other things, watches what his employees do even to their home life. Kuhn’s activities were known to Harry Bennett, head of the Ford secret service or “Personnel Department,” as it is called, and Bennett reports to Ford. Furthermore, Kuhn’s Nazi connections had been publicized in both the American and the Nazi press and were no secret. Jews and Christians alike protested to Ford about his employee’s anti-democratic work while on the motor magnate’s pay roll, but Kuhn was left undisturbed to travel around organizing Nazi groups. In 1938 Ford was given the highest medal of honor which Hitler can give to a foreigner. No statement was ever made as to just what Henry Ford had done for the Nazi Fuehrer to merit the honor.

Simultaneously with Kuhn’s intensified work, Ford’s confidential secretary, William J. Cameron, became active again. Cameron was editor of Ford’s Dearborn Independent when that newspaper published the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” after they had been proved to be forgeries. When a nation-wide protest arose from Jews and Christians who were shocked at seeing one of the richest and most powerful men in the country use his wealth to disseminate race hatred, and when the protest grew into a boycott of his cars, Ford apologized and discontinued the newspaper. But instead of easing his editor out or giving him some other job, he made him his confidential secretary.

When Kuhn went to work for Ford, the national headquarters of the Nazi propaganda machine was moved to Detroit, and the anti-democratic activities increased in intensity. Employing Nazi anti-semitism as the bait to attract dissatisfied and bewildered elements in the population, a new organization made its appearance: The Anglo-Saxon Federation, headed by Ford’s private secretary. Headquarters were established in the McCormick Building in Chicago, Room 834, at 332 S. Michigan Ave. and in the Fox Building in Detroit.

In July, 1936, Cameron, obviously because Ford was violently anti-Roosevelt, stepped out as head of the organization and became its Director of Publications. When Winrod was raising money from American industrialists to support the Capitol News and Feature Service, Cameron was among the contributors.

The Anglo-Saxon Federation began to distribute the “Protocols” again. I bought a copy in the Detroit offices of the organization, stamped with the name of the organization. The introduction quotes Ford as approving of them. It states:

Mr. Henry Ford, in an interview published in the New York
World. February 17, 1921, put the case for Nilus tersely
and convincingly thus:

“The only statement I care to make about the ‘Protocols’ is that they fit in with what is going on. They are sixteen years old, and they have fitted the world situation up to this time. They fit it now.”

When Ford was on the witness stand in a libel suit some fifteen years ago and admitted his ignorance of matters with which even grammar school children are familiar, the country laughed. His ignorance, however, is his own affair, but when he takes no step to curb his personal representative from working with secret foreign agents to undermine a friendly government, it becomes a matter, it appears to me, of importance to the people of this country and the Government of the United States.