NAZI SPIES
AND AMERICAN
93
"PATRIOTS"
took it over, they ripped out several of the front rooms and
turned it into a barn-like affair with a skylight overhead and a
raised platform from which speakers sing the praises of Hitler
and fascism. In the rear part of the hall is a combined bar and
restaurant where the German-Americans drink their beer
and
whiskies and plot the smuggling of propaganda from Nazi ships
and the carrying on of espionage against American military and
naval forces.
for precisely what it means. From this
American citizens and native Americans direct
house, naturalized
espionage and propaganda activities paid for by a foreign govern
ment and designed against the peace and security of the United
I
use the
word
"plot"
States.
The
leader of this group,
Hermann Schwinn, was appointed
in Germany and is the
by Minister of Propaganda Goebbels
recipient of personal letters of praise from Adolf Hitler for his
is a naturalized citizen,* a
comparatively young
work. Schwinn
man in his early thirties, ruddy-faced and with a thin, quivering
mustache on his upper lip. This little Fiihrer s office is just off
the meeting hall and adjoins the small bookstore where the pur
chaser can get pamphlets, books, and newspapers attacking
democracy.
When I called upon Schwinn at the Nazi headquarters and
introduced myself, he smiled amiably and granted my request
for an interview. The German-American Bund, he explained im
mediately (the reorganized Friends of the New Germany) is
now a patriotic organization, consisting only of American
,
citizens.
The German-American Bund, Schwinn continued as we seated
office, was now a "patriotic organization striving
to create among Americans a better
understanding of Nazi Ger-
ourselves in his
*
As
this
book went
revoke Schwinn
false statements.
s
to press, the U. S. Government had just begun action to
citizenship, claiming that he had obtained it by making