The Plot Against America

HEINRICH HIMMLER (1900-1945) Nazi leader, commander of the SS, which controlled concentration camps, and chief of the Gestapo; in charge of racial 'purification' programs, and second in power only to Hitler. Poisoned himself and died after being captured by British troops in May 1945.

J(OHN) EDGAR HOOVER (1895-1972) Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (originally the Bureau of Investigation, a subsidiary of the Department of Justice), 1924-1972.

HAROLD L. ICKES (1874-1952) A progressive Republican turned Democrat, served nearly thirteen years as Roosevelt's secretary of the interior, making his the second-longest tenure of any Roosevelt cabinet member. A dedicated conservationist and an active foe of fascism.

FRITZ KUHN (1886-1951) German-born veteran of World War One, emigrated to America in 1927, and by 1938, as Bundesleiter who considered himself the American Fuhrer, had established the German-American Bund as most powerful, most active, and richest Nazi group in U.S., with membership of twenty-five thousand. Convicted of larceny in 1939, denaturalized in 1943, deported to Germany in 1945. In 1948, convicted by German denazification court of attempting to transplant Nazism to U.S. and of having close ties to Hitler; sentenced to ten years at hard labor.

HERBERT H. LEHMAN (1878-1963) A partner in Lehman Brothers, banking house founded by his family. Lieutenant governor of New York under Governor Roosevelt; succeeded Roosevelt as governor, 1932-1942. New Deal supporter and strong interventionist. As Democratic senator from New York (1949-1957), early opponent of Senator Joseph McCarthy.

JOHN L. LEWIS (1880-1969) American labor leader. In 1935, as president of the United Mine Workers, broke with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) to form the new Committee for Industrial Organization, which became the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1938. Initially a supporter of Roosevelt's, backed Republican Willkie in 1940 election and resigned CIO presidency after Willkie's defeat. Strikes by UMW during the war led to further enmity between Lewis and the administration.

ANNE SPENCER MORROW LINDBERGH (1906-2001) American author and aviator. Born to wealth and privilege in Englewood, New Jersey; her father, Dwight Morrow, a partner in the investment firm of J. P. Morgan and Co., the U.S. ambassador to Mexico during the Hoover administration, and a Republican senator from New Jersey; and her mother, Elizabeth Reeve Cutter Morrow, a writer, an educator, and, briefly, the acting president of Smith College, where Morrow received an A.B. in literature in 1928. Introduced to Charles Lindbergh the year before, while visiting her family at the ambassador's residence in Mexico City. For details of Morrow's life after that meeting, see True Chronology, Charles A. Lindbergh.

HENRY MORGENTHAU, JR.(1891-1967) Roosevelt-appointed secretary of the Treasury, 1934-1945.

VINCENT MURPHY (1888-1976) Meyer Ellenstein's successor as mayor of Newark, 1941-1949. Democratic nominee for governor of New Jersey in 1943 and dominant figure in New Jersey labor for thirty-five years after his 1933 election as secretary-treasurer of state Federation of Labor.

GERALD P. NYE (1892-1971) Ardently isolationist Republican senator from North Dakota, 1925-1945.

WESTBROOK PEGLER (1894-1969) Right-wing journalist whose column 'As Pegler Sees It' appeared in Hearst newspapers from 1944 to 1962. In 1941 won Pulitzer Prize for expose of labor racketeering. Fierce critic of the Roosevelts and the New Deal, which he characterized as Communist-inspired, and openly hostile toward the Jews. Close supporter and friend of Senator Joseph McCarthy, and adviser to McCarthy's investigating committee.

JOACHIM PRINZ (1902-1988) Rabbi, author, and civil rights activist, served as rabbi of Temple B'nai Abraham, Newark, 1939-1977.

JOACHIM VON RIBBENTROP (1893-1946) Hitler's chief foreign policy adviser in 1933 and minister for foreign affairs, 1938-1945. With Soviet foreign minister Molotov signed 1939 non-aggression pact that included secret agreement to partition Poland. Pact opened way for World War Two. Found guilty of war crimes at Nuremberg and, on October 16, 1946, became first of condemned Nazis to be hanged.

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT (1884-1962) Niece of Theodore Roosevelt, wife of her distant cousin FDR, and mother of their daughter and five sons. As First Lady, made speeches for liberal social causes, lectured on the status of minorities, the underprivileged, and women, spoke out against fascism, wrote daily syndicated column for sixty newspapers, and during World War Two was cochair of the Office of Civilian Defense. As U.N. delegate appointed by President Truman, supported establishment of a Jewish state, and in 1952 and 1956 campaigned for Adlai Stevenson for president. Appointed again as delegate to U.N. by President Kennedy, whose Bay of Pigs invasion she opposed.

LEVERETT SALTONSTALL (1892-1979) Descendant of Sir Richard Saltonstall, an original member of the Massachusetts Bay Company who arrived in America in 1630. Republican governor of Massachusetts, 1939-1944; Republican senator, 1944-1967.

GERALD L. K. SMITH (1898-1976) Minister and famous orator, allied first with Huey Long and later with Father Coughlin and Henry Ford, both of whom supported him in his unrelenting hatred of Jews. His anti-Semitic magazine, The Cross and the Flag, blamed the Jews for causing the Depression and World War Two. In 1942, polled 100, 000 votes in Michigan as Republican nominee for Senate. Maintained that Roosevelt was a Jew, that The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion was an authentic document, and, after the war, that the Holocaust had never taken place.

ALLIE STOLZ (1918-2000) Lightweight boxer from Jewish Newark. Won 73 of 85 fights, losing two title fights in the 1940s; the first, a controversial fifteen-round decision, to champion Sammy Angott; the second-leading to his retirement in 1946-a thirteenth-round knockout, to champion Bob Montgomery.

DOROTHY THOMPSON (1893-1961) Journalist, political activist, and columnist syndicated in 170 newspapers during the 1930s. Early foe of Nazism and Hitler and bitter critic of Lindbergh's politics. Married to novelist Sinclair Lewis in 1928 and divorced in 1942. Opposed Zionism and supported Palestinian Arabs in 1940s and 1950s.

DAVID T. WILENTZ (1894-1988) New Jersey attorney general (1934-1944) whose prosecution of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping case led to the conviction and execution of Bruno Hauptmann. Later, influential in New Jersey Democratic organization and adviser to three Democratic governors of the state.

ABNER 'LONGY' ZWILLMAN (1904-1959) Newark-born Prohibition era bootlegger who was leading New Jersey mobster from 1920s to 1940s. Member of East Coast racketeering's 'Big Six,' among them Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, and Frank Costello. Extensive criminal activities exposed by Senate Crime Committee's televised hearings in 1951. Committed suicide eight years later.

Some Documentation