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World War II: American Nazi Propagandist Douglas Chandler Treason Investigation and Trial Documents

World War II: American Nazi Propagandist Douglas Chandler Treason Investigation and Trial Documents

4,957 pages of court documents, trial transcripts, Justice Department files, newspapers and an audio recording related to the treason trial of Nazi Propagandist Douglas Chandler.
           
Douglas Chandler was a World War II "radio traitor," known as the American "Lord Haw-Haw," he was an American who broadcasted Nazi propaganda to Americans over Berlin Radio. Using the pseudonym "Paul Revere," he signed in over a soundtrack playing "Yankee Doddle Dandy" and the sound of thundering hoofs on cobblestone streets, announcing, "From the heart of Hitler Germany, your messenger Paul Revere greets you again." This would be followed by denouncing American leaders or pronouncing Americans thinking that they would win the was as illusions.

 

Douglas Chandler was born in Chicago in 1889. He served as an officer in the U. S. Navy during World War I. After the war he wrote for newspapers in the Baltimore area. He married into a prosperous family, however failed business ventures and the Wall Street Crash of 1929 left him in financial trouble. In 1929 he moved to France, then to Germany.

Beginning in April 1941, Chandler broadcasted Nazi propaganda from Berlin for the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft, German State Radio. When Germany declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941, American citizens were repatriated by the U. S. Government, but Chandler chose to stay in Germany. He continued his anti-Roosevelt and anti-Semitic broadcasts until February 1945.

Chandler was detained by the U.S. Army after being taken into custody at his home in Durach, Bavaria in May 1945. The Army released him on October 23, 1945. At the request of the U.S. Department of Justice, he was picked-up by the US Army in March 1946 and flown back to the United States. Previously on July 26, 1943, Chandler along with other propaganda broadcasters Fred W. Kaltenbach, Jane Anderson, Edward Delaney, Constance Drexel, Robert Henry Best, Max Otto Koischwitz and Ezra Pound had been indicted in absentia by a District of Columbia grand jury on charges of treason.

Chandler's trial began on June 6, 1947 in Boston Federal District Court. This trial established the principle that participation in psychological warfare against one's country is treason. The National Archives played a major role in the trial. The National Archives provided wartime reports on the effect of enemy-broadcast propaganda, scripts, and transcribed recordings of the actual broadcasts, which were played in court.

Chandler's lawyers entered a defense of insanity, due to paranoia about Jews. The prosecution mainly relied on the evidence provided by recordings of Chandler's wartime broadcasts from Germany recorded by the Federal Communications Commission station at Silver Hill, Maryland, to show his active participation in propaganda activities against the United States. Chandler was found guilty of all ten counts of treason on June 28, 1947. The prosecution argued for death by hanging. Prosecutor Oscar R. Ewing said Chandler, "gave his heart and soul to Hitler."  Judge Francis J. W. Ford sentenced Chandler to life imprisonment, a $10,000 fine and loss of U. S. citizenship.

Chandler’s life sentence was commuted by President John F. Kennedy on condition he immediately leave the United States. He was released from the federal penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania on August 9, 1963 and returned to Germany. His whereabouts after returning to Germany are unknown.

This collection includes:

U.S. v. Douglas Chandler Court and Trial Documents

This 4,829-page file unit consists of the U.S. Attorney's copies of the stenographic record of trial and other printed materials pertaining to criminal case number 17,667, U.S. v. Douglas Chandler in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts and its appeal.
 

Ezra Pound Department of Justice File Excerpts

44 pages of files excerpted from Department of Justice files on Ezra Pound, the American poet who was accused of treason for his wartime pro-fascist broadcasts made from Italy. Pages of material covering Chandler and the problems and prospects of prosecuting American pro-Axis propagandist broadcasting in foreign nations.

 
Audio Propaganda Broadcast by "Paul Revere”, 9/9/1941

This is a 14 minute and 45 second sound recording of a propaganda broadcast on September 9, 1941 by "Paul Revere" (Douglas Chandler, an American citizen) from Nazi Germany on the eve of the third anniversary of the Axis Pact. In the broadcast, Chandler lauded the Axis victories and castigated the "opponents of world progress led by 'Churchill the Charlatan' and 'Roosevelt the Renegade.' "
 

Newspaper Articles

37 full size newspaper pages with articles covering Chandler from July 26, 1943 to March 26, 1945. Most articles are from the Washington Evening Star.


The Military Law Review - "Treason and Aiding the Enemy" (1965)

An article titled "Treason and Aiding the Enemy," by Captain Jabez W. Loane IV, in the Military Law Review Volume 30, October 1965. The Military Law Review was published by The Judge Advocate General of the Department the Army. The article makes several mentions of Chandler.






 

 

 

 

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