George Edward Deatherage (November 15, 1892 – March 31, 1965) was an American political agitator and a promoter of nationalism. A native of Minnesota and an engineer by training, he authored several books on construction. He is best remembered for his political activities. Deatherage was the founder of a later version of the Knights of the White Camellia and the American Nationalist Confederation, the latter being an attempt to unify dozens of racist, fascist, and antisemitic groups nationwide.[1] In the 1930s, Deatherage was a central figure in a fascist plot to overthrow the federal government. He described fascism as a "patriotic revolt such as the revolt of the White Russians against Jewocracy."[2]
Deatherage said, "I believe it will take military action to get the gang (Roosevelt administration) out," and proposed persuading officers in the U.S. Army reserve to lead a fascist army, choosing General George Van Horn Moseley, a prominent American supporter of Nazism, as a potential military dictator.[2] In 1938, Deatherage was invited to Germany to attend an international antisemitism conference. At the conference, Deatherage had called the United States the greatest Jew ridden country on earth, and requested support to overthrow the federal government and install a Nazi-like regime.[3] He testified before the Dies Committee in 1939.[4]
Deatherage was an important player in domestic and international anti-Jewish circles in the 1930s and 1940s, including collaboration with the Welt-Dienst/World-Service propaganda agency headed by German Ulrich Fleischhauer. Both were also defendants in the Great Sedition Trial of 1944.[5]
After the war, Deatherage joined the John Birch Society.[6]
- ^ Under Cover, p. 140, by John Roy Carlson, (1943)
- ^ a b "A Look Back". Mountain Messenger. 2022-11-04. Retrieved 2024-09-09.
- ^ "Transcript: The Day". MSNBC.com. 2022-10-17. Retrieved 2024-07-18.
- ^ "In spotlight at Dies hearing. Washington, D.C., May 24. George Deatherage, Chief of the Knights of the White Camellia, today told the Dies Committee Investigating Un-American Activities that he once received a $200 contribution from Howland Spencer at Newport, R.I. Deatherage described Spencer as the 'man who sold Father Devine that property on the Hudson River near President Roosevelt's Hyde Park home.' He also testified that he had dinner on a yacht with Frazier Jelkeo Leomargerine King". Library of Congress.
- ^ Plass, Hanno; Templer, Bill (2013). "Der Welt-Dienst: International Anti-Semitic Propaganda". The Jewish Quarterly Review. 103 (4): 503–522. ISSN 0021-6682.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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