Fix v. United States, 12094.

• Decision Date: 05 August 1949
• Docket Number: No. 12094.,12094.
• Parties: FIX v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

176 F.2d 746 (1949)

FIX v. UNITED STATES.

No. 12094.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

August 5, 1949.

Eugene H. O'Donnell and Charles Schroth, San Francisco, Cal., for appellant.

Frank J. Hennessy, U. S. Atty., and Edgard R. Bonsall, Asst. U. S. Atty., San Francisco, Cal., for appellee.

Before DENMAN, Chief Judge, and ORR and POPE, Circuit Judges.

POPE, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment of denaturalization. The proceedings and issues are the same as those in the case of Bechtel (Bechtel v. United States, 9 Cir., 176 F.2d 741), a general summary of the district court's findings is set forth in that court's opinion. United States v. Holtz, 54 F. Supp. 63.

Fix was born in Germany. In 1928, when he was 23, he migrated to the United States. He filed his declaration to become a citizen in 1929, filed his petition for citizenship September 27, 1935, and was admitted to citizenship by an order of the United States District Court at San Francisco on January 6, 1936.

The Government's case against him disclosed the following facts. Prior to his naturalization Fix attended a few meetings of the German-American Bund, or of its predecessor organization, the Friends of New Germany, but he did not join either. In 1937 he made a trip to Germany where he stayed about six months. On his return to this country, he stated that on this trip he had become sympathetic to the "Party" in Germany, apparently referring to the Nazi party. In 1938 he joined the Bund, but he claimed to have quit it after about three months.

A number of witnesses told of unpatriotic, disloyal or pro-German remarks made by Fix. The earliest of these occurred in late 1937, shortly after he had returned from his visit to Germany. At that time he told a Mr. Howard, who had been a witness for Fix at his naturalization proceedings, that Hitler was doing a fine job for his people, and that "we may need a Hitler here to change our conditions." He told the witness, who was a flour salesman, and who sold flour to Fix, who was a baker, that he did not want any Jewish salesmen waiting on him. The witness thought that Fix had been a worthy candidate for citizenship when he was naturalized, but that his trip to Germany had changed him.

In 1940 Fix roomed with a Mrs. Levick. He had in his room a German army rifle, a German tear gas gun, and a loaded .22 rifle. While he roomed there he received postal card notices of Bund meetings, and some newspapers printed in German. He told his landlady that Germany was going to take over America, that the people of German descent here were armed and ready to take over at a given signal, and when they did they would break the unions, that they were going to dispose of the Jewish people and General Mosley would then be the head man, the dictator in this country. After he left, and while his effects were still in his room, the witness played one of the records which he had in his room on his record-player. It was a German march, and in the chorus the persons making the recording were singing "Heil Hitler."

After February, 1942, Fix had employed one William McClure in his bakery. To McClure he said the bombing of Pearl Harbor served this country just right, that President Roosevelt and his cabinet were warmongers, that the soldiers he saw marching past were going off to slaughter, that he would not buy any war bonds, that Germany would win the war, and the bonds would be no good and the gold stored at Fort Knox would be melted into German marks. The witness said that Fix, with much profanity, refused to cooperate with government rationing and salvage programs, and that Fix told him that if called for army service he would refuse to serve. The witness also related anti-Jewish remarks made by Fix and reported these statements to the FBI.

In 1943 Fix had gotten into a controversy with a Mrs. Lally, a state humane officer, because he had shot a dog. In the course of a series of arguments about the matter, during which Mrs. Lally called Fix "a dirty German rat", Fix told her that Hitler would take over this country and then she "would be taken care of".

To a Captain Montgomery, United States Army, retired, Fix said some time after Peal Harbor, that if President Roosevelt "had kept his big mouth shut the United States would not have been in the war."

The Federal Bureau of Investigation obtained from Fix a statement in writing, the material portion of which was as follows: "I was born January 26, 1905, in Germany, entered the United States in 1928 and was naturalized at San Francisco in 1936.

"From 1934 to 1937, when I took a trip to Germany, I attended one or two affairs of the Friends of New Germany and may have made a donation to the organization.

"From the time I returned from Germany in the later part of 1937 until the later part of 1939 I attended affairs of the German-American Bund at least on the average of twice a month. At these affairs I heard numerous lectures on the merits of National Socialism. I recall seeing the German swastika flag displayed, the outstretched arm salute given, and the Horst Wessel Lieb sung. I have read many times the German-American Bund newspaper, the Dcutsches Weckruf and Beobachter, and the Free American, which was distributed at meetings. I recall seeing the Ordnungs Dienst in uniform. I recall seeing Herman Schwinn and Fritz Kuhn, national leaders, at meetings in San Francisco and Los...