Secret Armies

Part 1

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+-----------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Note: | | | | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has | | been preserved. | | | | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For | | a complete list, please see the end of this document. | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------+

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+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | The Book and the Author | | | | John L. Spivak comes closer to the popular conception of the | | ace journalist than any other living writer. Combining the | | instinct of a detective with the resourcefulness of a | | reporter, and gifted with a hard-hitting, breezy style, he | | has time and again "scooped the world," "gotten the | | story"--despite powerful opposition and personal danger that | | might well have daunted less hardy souls. | | | | But there is an important difference that sets Spivak apart | | from most other gentlemen of the press. For several years he | | has devoted his bright and sharp pen solely to uncovering | | evidence of fascist activities in the United | | States--evidence that is credited with having set off | | several official investigations exposing un-American, | | foreign-dominated propaganda. | | | | SECRET ARMIES climaxes Spivak's exposures. His sensational | | inside story of Hitler's far-flung, under-cover poison | | campaign in the Americas would seem scarcely credible, were | | it not so thoroughly documented with original letters and | | records, citing chapter and verse, naming names, dates and | | places. His unanswerable, uncontradicted facts should go far | | toward jolting many of us out of our false sense of | | security. | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------+

Books by John L. Spivak

THE DEVIL'S BRIGADE

GEORGIA NIGGER

AMERICA FACES THE BARRICADES

EUROPE UNDER THE TERROR

SECRET ARMIES

The New Technique of Nazi Warfare

JOHN L. SPIVAK

MODERN AGE BOOKS, INC. 432 FOURTH AVENUE NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT 1939 BY JOHN L. SPIVAK PUBLISHED BY MODERN AGE BOOKS, INC. 432 Fourth Avenue New York City

All rights in this book are reserved, and it may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the holder of these rights. For information address the publishers.

First Printing, February 1939 Second Printing, March 1939

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

Preface 7

I Czechoslovakia--Before the Carving 9

II England's Cliveden Set 17

III France's Secret Fascist Army 31

IV Dynamite Under Mexico 43

V Surrounding the Panama Canal 56

VI Secret Agents Arrive in America 73

VII Nazi Spies and American "Patriots" 84

Part 2

VIII Henry Ford and Secret Nazi Activities 102

IX Nazi Agents in American Universities 118

X Underground Armies in America 130

XI The Dies Committee Suppresses Evidence 137

XII Conclusion 155

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Application in the Secret Order of '76 by Sidney Brooks 77

Letter from Harry A. Jung 82

Anti-Semitic handbill 85

Letter from Peter V. Armstrong 89

Letter to Peter V. Armstrong 90

Account card of Reverend Gerald B. Winrod 104

Sample of "Capitol News & Feature Service" 106

Letter from Wessington Springs Independent 107

Letter from General Rodriguez 111

Letter from General Rodriguez 113

Letter from Henry Allen 115

Anti-Semitic sticker and German titlepage of book by Henry Ford 117

Letter from Olov E. Tietzow 125

Judgment showing conviction of E.F. Sullivan 138-139

Letter from Carl G. Orgell 151

Letter from G. Moshack 153

Letter from E.A. Vennekohl 154

Preface

The material in this small volume just barely scratches the surface of a problem which is becoming increasingly grave: the activities of Nazi agents in the United States, Mexico, and Central America. During the past five years I have observed some of them, watching the original, crudely organized and directed propaganda machine develop, grow and leave an influence far wider than most people seem to realize. What at first appeared to be merely a distasteful attempt by Nazi Government officials at direct interference in the affairs of the American people and their Government, has now assumed the more sinister aspect of also seeking American naval and military secrets.

Further studies in Central America, Mexico and the Panama Canal Zone disclosed an espionage network directed by the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo axis and operating against the peace and security of the United States. A scrutiny of the Nazi Fifth Column in a few European countries, especially in Czechoslovakia just before that Republic was turned over to Germany's mercy by the Munich "peace" and in France where Nazi and Italian agents built an amazing secret underground army, has made the fascist activities in the Western Hemisphere somewhat clearer to me.

I have included one chapter detailing events which cannot, so far as I have been able to discover, be traced directly to Nazi espionage; but it shows the influence of Nazi ideology upon England's now notorious "Cliveden set," which maneuvered the betrayal of Austria, sacrificed Czechoslovakia and is working in devious ways to strengthen Hitler in Europe. The "Cliveden set" has already had so profound an effect upon the growth and influence of fascism throughout the world, that I thought it advisable to include it.

Part 3

The sources for most of the material, by its very nature, naturally cannot be revealed. Those conversations which I quote directly came from people who were present when they occurred or, as in the case of the Cagoulards in France, from official records. In the chapter on Czechoslovakia I quote a conversation between a Nazi spy and his chief. The details came to me from a source which in the past I had found accurate. Subsequently, the spy was arrested by Czech secret police, and his confession substantiated the conversation as I have given it.

Much of the material in this volume has been published in various periodicals from time to time, but so many Americans feel that concern over Nazi penetration in this country is exaggerated, that I hope even this brief and incomplete picture will serve to impress the reader, as it has impressed me, with the gravity of the situation.

J.L.S.

FOOTNOTES:

When the Spanish Insurgents were investing Madrid early in November, 1936, newspaper correspondents asked Insurgent General Emilio Mola which of his four columns would take the city. Mola replied enigmatically: "The Fifth Column." He referred to the fascist sympathizers within Madrid--those attempting to abet the defeat of the Spanish Government by means of spying, sabotage and terrorism. The term "Fifth Column" is today widely used to describe the various fascist and Nazi organizations operating within the borders of non-fascist nations.

Czechoslovakia--Before The Carving

It is pretty generally admitted now that the Munich "peace" gave Germany industrial and military areas essential to further aggressions. Instead of helping to put a troubled Europe on the road to lasting peace, Munich strengthened the totalitarian powers, especially Germany, and a strengthened Germany inevitably means increased activities of the Nazis' Fifth Column which is, in all quarters of the globe, actively preparing the ground for Hitler's greater plans.

If we can divine the future by the past, the Fifth Column, that shadowy group of secret agents now entrenched in every important country throughout the world, is an omen of what is to come. Before Germany marched into Austria, that unhappy country witnessed a large influx of Fifth Column members. In Czechoslovakia, especially in those months before the Republic's heart was handed to Hitler on a platter, there was a tremendous increase in the numbers and activities of agents sent into the Central European country.

During my stay there in the brief period immediately preceding the "peace," I learned a little about the operations of the Gestapo's secret agents in Czechoslovakia. Their numbers are vast and those few of whom I learned, are infinitesimal to the actual numbers at work then and now, not only in Czechoslovakia but in other countries. What I learned of those few, however, shows how the Gestapo, the Nazi secret service, operates in its ruthless drive.

For years Hitler had laid plans to fight, if he had to, for Czechoslovakia, whose natural mountain barriers and man-made defensive line of steel and concrete stood in the way of his announced drive to the Ukrainian wheat fields. In preparation for the day when he might have to fight for its control, he sent into the Republic a host of spies, provocateurs, propagandists and saboteurs to establish themselves, make contacts, carry on propaganda and build a machine which would be invaluable in time of war.

In a few instances I learned the details of the Nazis' inexorable determination and their inhuman indifference to the lives of even their own agents.

Arno Oertel, alias Harald Half, was a thin, white-faced spy trained in two Gestapo schools for Fifth Column work. Oertel was given a German passport by Richter, the Gestapo district chief at Bischofswerda on what was then the Czechoslovak-German frontier.

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