United States v. Wurzenberger, Civil Action No. 985.

Decision Date04 May 1944
Docket NumberCivil Action No. 985.
Citation56 F. Supp. 381
CourtU.S. District Court — District of Connecticut
PartiesUNITED STATES v. WURZENBERGER.

Robert P. Butler, U. S. Dist. Atty., of Hartford, Conn., and Thomas J. Dodd, Jr., Sp. Asst. to Atty. Gen., for the Government.

Thomas R. FitzSimmons, of New Haven, Conn., for defendant.

SMITH, District Judge.

Defendant was born in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, in 1906. He came to this country in 1928 and has resided in the United States since that date with the exception of a period of four months in the year 1937, spent by him in a visit to Germany. He filed his declaration of intention May 7, 1932, in the Superior Court at Bridgeport, Connecticut, filed his petition for naturalization in that court on September 5, 1935, and was naturalized by decree of that court February 8, 1936. He sought naturalization because it was the conventional thing to do and because he thought he was required by law to do so. During the year 1935, defendant became interested in the activities of the German-American Bund, and traveled to meetings in New York on several occasions for the purpose of learning about its activities and program. A unit of the Bund was started in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1935 by the defendant and about five other men. In 1936, defendant was appointed as treasurer of the Stamford unit of the Bund, and continued to act as treasurer until at least sometime in late 1939, and continued thereafter, sporadically at least, to collect and forward some money to the national headquarters of the Bund as cashier of the Stamford unit, until June, 1941. The Stamford unit consisted of a maximum of approximately thirty-five members, but apparently lost membership and ceased to function as an effective organization some time after the conviction of national Bund leader Kuhn for misappropriating Bund funds. The defendant took part in numerous activities of the Bund, including collection of money for the sale of the Bund song books and other publications, for the so-called Winter Relief Fund, and the distribution of the Bund newspaper which was carried on by the defendant both at Bund meetings in the hall of the Turner Liedertafel and at outdoor picnics. Defendant had in his possession a copy of "Mein Kampf", a German history, sketches of Hitler drawn or colored by defendant, a book by Goebbels, the Nazi Propaganda Minister, as well as various buttons designed for distribution to contributors to various activities of the Bund. Defendant attended several Bund meetings at Camp Nordland in New Jersey, Camp Siegfried on Long Island, and the Bund camp at Southbury, Connecticut. On several occasions, he attended meetings in New York in a makeshift uniform of the O.D., the strong arm group, organized to "protect" the meetings of the Bund against disturbance by hecklers. He also took part with others in an effort to organize a Bund unit at Norwalk, Connecticut. There is little direct evidence as to defendant's own interpretation of the policies and purposes of the Bund other than his statements to Lieutenant Helliwell during 1939 and 1940, which indicated that he believed that Hitler was a great leader of the German people, that his attacks on other nations were justified, and that his treatment of the Jews was necessary and proper.

On August 17, 1942, defendant was drafted into the army and has served, in this country, since that time. On two occasions, in interviews, he has expressed an unwillingness to fight against Germany, and on one of these occasions, an unwillingness to fight abroad at all. Aside from these statements, his service appears to have been satisfactory to his superiors, although at one time, in a letter to a friend, he indicated that he was becoming proficient on the rifle range, and intended to miss more often to avoid being made use of.

It sufficiently appears from the evidence that the Bund itself was an agency for the promotion in this country of the Nazi theories of leadership, blood, and race; that the following of these theories would necessarily involve a continued allegiance, by all those of German blood, to the German Reich and to Hitler. The spread of these theories among those of German blood was undoubtedly a part of the official propaganda policy of the German government during the period here involved, and German government officials cooperated in Bund meetings to assist in the spread of this propaganda, although it may be said that there is, running through the evidence, an indication that the official German propaganda agencies at times distrusted the Bund leadership, perhaps fearing that the official position might be compromised by revelation of the undercover fifth column work of the experts by overenthusiastic and irresponsible amateurs. However this may be, there is no doubt that the national Bund leaders acted throughout from a purpose to assist the Nazis, first in their effort to control Germany and later in their program for world domination.

This purpose is plain enough from a review of the Bund's activities and propaganda. It was not, however, made plain, at least during the early years of this defendant's membership in the Bund, to all whose enlistment in the organization was sought. Claims of patriotic American purpose were put forth again and again, and unquestionably many members were obtained by playing upon sympathy for the Fatherland, under what was represented to be a Jewish-inspired and unwarranted boycott of all German industry in retaliation against allegedly justified measures taken to break an illegal control over German institutions by the Jews. This anti-Semitic poison was spread most...

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