Fighting fascism is in our bones

This newspaper was forged in the fight against fascism; born to serve as a soldier in the endless battle of freedom against totalitarianism.

It’s a good story. In 1941, with war raging across Europe, the mighty Chicago Tribune was a voice for xenophobia and isolation. It was more than happy to let Hitler — whom the paper admired — keep Europe (as were, it should be remembered, the vast majority of Americans).

So Marshall Field III begat the Chicago Sun, as a newspaper that would have President Franklin Roosevelt’s back as he tried to prepare a reluctant nation for the ordeal he could see looming ahead. The Sun rose on Dec. 4, 1941, and three days later, the Japanese attacked the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, drawing the U.S. into the war.

The bad timing — the paper lost its primary purpose 72 hours into its existence — is a reminder that newspapering was always a struggle. That is why, in late 1947, the flickering Sun joined forces with the Chicago Daily Times, which I usually identify as a scrappy, photo-packed, sports-obsessed tabloid begun in 1929. And leave it at that.

But there was more to the paper. I did not realize until this week that the Times also went after fascism in a big way. Not until my attention was drawn to “Nazi Town, USA.” The latest installment of the PBS American Experience series dropped this week (You can watch free online). It looks at the German American Bund in the 1930s, a nationalist organization ready to remake the country.

Library of Congress

“The Bund’s vision was an America ruled by white Christians,” historian Bradley Hart says early in the program. “And they thought that Nazism was entirely consistent with American ideals.”

Americans who aligned with Hitler tried to build an active support network for Nazism, drawing in families with a national string of wholesome-seeming summer camps. All the while vigorously denouncing Jews. Preparing an organization of eager traitors, ready to facilitate takeover when the Germans finished with Europe and decided it was our turn to bear the yoke.

“They were against democracy,” says historian William Hitchcock, “and thought that America would be a kind of star in a constellation of pro-Nazi governments around the world.”

The rise of the American Bund is shown hitting a roadblock — a bold piece of journalism by the Chicago Daily Times, which sent a pair of German-speaking reporters, brothers John C. and James J. Metcalfe, to burrow deep into the Bund.

“SECRETS OF NAZI ARMY IN U.S.A.” blared the front page of the bombshell Sept. 9, 1937, edition. “By TIMES men who joined it!”

The first story begins dramatically:

“The regimented tread of marching men under the flaming nazi swastika resounds from coast to coast in the United States today. In uniforms strangely suggestive of those worn by Adolf Hitler’s nazi storm troops a relatively small but rapidly growing army is preparing ... to seize control of the United States.”

The coverage dominated the paper that month — eight parts during September covering nearly 100 pages. (You can access the entire series online on the NYU Library’s Undercover Reporting database.)

“These stories came out one after the other,” historian Steven Ross says on the program. “These exposés of how the Nazis in America are trying to undermine the American people, the American government and the American way of life.”

”The Metcalfe scoop really galvanizes public opinion against the Bund,” says Hart. “And Congress begins to enter the discourse about what should be done about subversive groups in the United States.”

But outrage has a way of fading. And indifference to rising fascism is something of an American folk ailment, a chronic condition that requires constant treatment. Some are always eager to abandon our ideals.

“We assume that democracy is something that all Americans embrace,” says Leah Wright Rigueur, professor of history at Johns Hopkins University. “But in the 1930s, there were people in the United States who were ready to try something different.”

As there are today — I almost added “needless to say,” but it really does need to be said, loudly and continually. “Nazi Town, USA” is all too relevant.

“There’s a resonance in the film with today’s fractured times,” said producer and director Peter Yost. “I hope the story can serve as a reminder of the fragility — and resilience — of American democracy.”

So far. But you bend and bend and bend something, and eventually it may break.