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FATHER COUGHLIN: NOT ANTI-SEMITISM BUT
ANTI-COMMUNISM (RADIO)

Summary

One in this series of weekly "sermons" by Father Charles E. Coughlin, Pastor of The Shrine of the Little Flower at Royal Oak, Michigan, on the political and social issues of the day, usually laced with Father Coughlin's crypto-Fascist, anti-Semitic rhetoric. This program begins with introductory comments by the announcer, who remarks on the large amount of critical press and letters Father Coughlin received following his last two addresses, and says that today's program will be Coughlin's response to this criticism. Next, a performance of Schubert's "Ave Maria" by the Shrine of the Little Flower Choresters is followed by Father Coughlin's address he calls "Not Anti-Semitism, But Anti-Communism." He begins by recalling the substance of his previous two addresses, including the following topics, among others: the passionate American response to the treatment of German Jews by the Nazi government, which he suggests was stirred by the American news media; Nazism as a defense mechanism against communism; his wish to eliminate communism from the face of the earth; his belief that "atheistic Jews" are too prominent in furthering the causes of Trotsky and Lenin -- a belief for which he feels he has been falsely assailed as pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic; and the dishonesty of a controlled U.S. press which has called attention to Nazi atrocities rather than arousing emotion against communism. Coughlin then begins today's address, saying he must take up "the sword of factual proof" against his attackers, lest his silence be perceived as surrender. His topics include the following: his case for the existence of a German Jewish international banking cartel which, he says, financed the Russian Revolution and now controls the American news media; Rabbi Leo M. Franklin, whom he says spoke to Henry Ford about hiring refugee Jews from Europe and then published a falsified interview in the Detroit Free Press which said Ford would welcome the refugees, which a Ford executive denies; the failures of Russian revolutionary Alexsandr Kerensky -- who came out in print against Coughlin the previous week -- in the Revolution of 1917; the death of millions of Christians in the Russian Revolution of 1918, for which he holds Leon Trotsky accountable; his belief that New York banker Jacob H. Schiff and the banking firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. helped finance the Russian Revolution; international bankers as a "fraternity with no flag," who finance war for their own gain; "the German Bolshevik conspiracy"; "international-minded Jews" as war-mongers responsible for the "holocaust of 1914-1918" and the domination of imperial Germany; the influence of the Jews in U.S. government; the majority of Jews as "religious Jews," -- who, he says, play no part in his above allegations; his wish for "the humble Jew and Christian alike" to join him in the battle against communism, suggesting that the "Jewish influence" in banking, press, and radio can ultimately be used against communism.

Details

  • NETWORK: WHBI-Radio (Newark)
  • DATE: December 4, 1938 Sunday 4:00 PM
  • RUNNING TIME: 1:00:29
  • COLOR/B&W: N/A
  • CATALOG ID: R78:0299
  • GENRE: Radio - Religious
  • SUBJECT HEADING: Anti-Semitism; Communism - 1938; Judaism and politics; National socialsim
  • SERIES RUN: Syndicated - Radio series, 1926-1942
  • COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

  • Franz Schubert … Composer, For "Ave Maria"
  • Emil Cote … Conductor
  • Shrine of the Little Flower Choresters, The … Choir/Chorus
  • Cyril Guthrill … Instrumentalist, Organist
  • Franklin Mitchell … Announcer
  • Charles E. Coughlin … Speaker
  • Henry Ford
  • Aleksandr Feodorovich Kerensky
  • Jacob H. Schiff
  • Leon Trotsky
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