Douglas Chandler (May 26, 1889 [1] – unknown) was an American broadcaster of Nazi propaganda during World War II. He was convicted of treason in 1947, sentenced to life imprisonment and released in 1963.
Biography[]
Chandler was an officer in the U. S. Navy in World War I and later worked as a newspaperman in Baltimore.
He was ruined in the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and "fed up to the chin with the Depression and the miasma that was enveloping Washington" .[2] He moved from the U.S. to France and then to Germany in 1931. There he worked as a journalist showing Nazi Germany in an ideal light and contributing on this theme to the National Geographic Magazine.[3]
Propaganda for Nazi Germany[]
From April 1941, Chandler broadcast Nazi propaganda from Berlin for the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft, German State Radio, working as a commentator in its U. S. A. Zone. When the United States declared war on Nazi Germany on December 11, 1941, American citizens were repatriated by the U. S. Government but Chandler chose to stay on.
Chandler broadcast to the United States under the pseudonym "Paul Revere".[4] His programs began with the sound of clattering hooves and the song Yankee Doodle and were mainly anti-Roosevelt and anti-Semitic in content. He appealed to Americans to 'throw off tyranny' and to isolationist sentiment. He also asserted that government in Washington was under the control of Jewish advisers.
Chandler became known as America's Lord Haw-Haw due to his cultivated American voice.[5][6] Though he had become a convinced Nazi, his activities were not motivated by idealism alone. He was paid $3,200 a month as a broadcaster, putting him in the top six on the RRG’s payroll.[7]
Towards the end of 1943, due to the increased Allied bombing of Berlin, Chandler was relocated first to Vienna and then to Munich where he made his last broadcasts sometime in February 1945.
Arrest[]
Chandler was taken into custody by the U.S. Army at his home in Durach, Bavaria, in May 1945, but he was released on October 23, 1945. He was then rearrested by the US Army on or about March 12, 1946, at the request of the Department of Justice.[8]
He was then flown to the United States to stand trial, arriving on December 14, 1946.
Trial[]
On July 26, 1943, Chandler along with 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.[9]
Chandler stood trial at the Boston Federal District Court on June 6, 1947. He entered a defense of insanity[10] due to paranoia[11] and did not testify at his trial. 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.[12]
Chandler was found guilty of all ten counts of treason on June 28, 1947.[13][14][15][16] He was fined $10,000 and sentenced to life imprisonment by Federal Judge Francis J. W. Ford.[17] On conviction for treason, Chandler also automatically lost his U. S. citizenship.[18] "Death by hanging had been demanded by Special Government Prosecutor Oscar R. Ewing who characterized the tall and gray-haired defendant as a black-hearted traitor who 'gave his heart and soul to Hitler' because he wanted Germany to win the war."[19] His subsequent appeal was denied.[20][21]
Release[]
After 16 years’ imprisonment Chandler’s 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[22] and returned to Germany. Later reports placed him on the Canary Islands in the 1970s.[23]
See also[]
- Jane Anderson (Nazi collaborator)
- Robert Henry Best
- Herbert John Burgman
- Donald S. Day
- Edward Leo Delaney
- United States Penitentiary, Lewisburg
References[]
- ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=U3rJxPYT32MC&pg=PA53&lpg=PA53&dq=%22DOUGLAS+CHANDLER%22+treason&source=bl&ots=oofh98BELZ&sig=ZDXpJ3l3ehUnvwO_In5jI066Glg&hl=en&ei=6I6KTIXzJoSQjAfc4Y2rBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CCQQ6AEwBDgK#v=onepage&q=%22DOUGLAS%20CHANDLER%22%20treason&f=false
- ↑ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,795376-1,00.html Radio: Hi-Yo, Chandler! – TIME Magazine, Jun. 09, 1941
- ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=EYtCuqAb_boC&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58&dq=%22DOUGLAS+CHANDLER%22+GERMANY&source=bl&ots=TYfWJhPRUc&sig=4NiFcZsCGB7dqZo74E37swKLNs4&hl=en&ei=oG6KTLPjCpGUjAfEzoywBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CCUQ6AEwBDgK#v=onepage&q=%22DOUGLAS%20CHANDLER%22%20GERMANY&f=false
- ↑ https://research.archives.gov/description/2188111 Propaganda Broadcast by "Paul Revere", 09/09/1941 - National Archives Online Public Access
- ↑ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,934617,00.html#ixzz0z9H08f66 TREASON: American Lord Haw-Haw – TIME Magazine, Jul. 07, 1947
- ↑ https://www.archives.gov/research/military/ww2/sound-recordings.html
- ↑ https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/courant/access/874989362.html?dids=874989362:874989362&FMT=CITE&FMTS=CITE:AI&type=historic&date=Jun+07%2C+1947&author=&pub=Hartford+Courant&desc=%27Paul+Revere%27+Got+%243200+Monthly+For+Nazi+Broadcasts&pqatl=google 'Paul Revere' Got $3200 Monthly For Nazi Broadcasts - The Hartford Courant, June 7, 1947
- ↑ http://www.loislaw.com/livepublish8923/doclink.htp?alias=F1CASE&cite=171+F.2d+921
- ↑ http://www.justice.gov/criminal/foia/records/ezra-pound-p4.pdf
- ↑ https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=sdcKAAAAIBAJ&sjid=3k4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=4205,862855&dq=douglas-chandler&hl=en Psychiatrists Claim Treason Suspect Insane - St. Petersburg Times, Jun 25, 1947
- ↑ https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=KUUpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9WYFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3362,7236207&dq=douglas-chandler+paranoia&hl=en Testify Chandler Insane - Lewiston Evening Journal, June 21, 1947
- ↑ https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4EhPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7U4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=5422,919325&dq=douglas-chandler&hl=en Chandler Radio Broadcast Used At His Treason Trial - St. Petersburg Times, June 12, 1947
- ↑ https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50D1EF83E58147B93C5A9178DD85F438485F9&scp=11&sq=%22Douglas%20Chandler%22&st=cse TRIAL OF CHANDLER FOR TREASON OPENS; 17 Germans, Former Members of Nazi Radio Office, Will Testify Against Him – NY Times, June 07, 1947
- ↑ https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20815FF3F5E17738DDDA00A94DE405B8788F1D3&scp=17&sq=%22Douglas%20Chandler%22&st=cse CHANDLER GUILTY IN TREASON CASE; Baltimore Writer, Convicted by U.S. Jury at Boston, Faces Death by Hanging - NY Times, June 28, 1947
- ↑ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,934617,00.html#ixzz0z9H08f66 TREASON: American Lord Haw-Haw – TIME Magazine, Jul. 07, 1947
- ↑ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,795376-1,00.html Radio: Hi-Yo, Chandler! – TIME Magazine, Jun. 09, 1941
- ↑ United Press, "Chandler Given Life Sentence: Convicted Traitor Also Receives Fine", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Thursday 31 July 1947, Volume 53, page 4.
- ↑ https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=tCIaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-iMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6571,2132122&dq=douglas-chandler&hl=en Treason Case Judge Levies 10,000 Fine. Loss Of Citizenship... - The Milwaukee Journal, March 25, 1949
- ↑ United Press, "Chandler Given Life Sentence: Convicted Traitor Also Receives Fine", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Thursday 31 July 1947, Volume 53, page 4.
- ↑ https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=aIkwAAAAIBAJ&sjid=eOEFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3013,5424071&dq=douglas-chandler&hl=en Court Won't Review Case - Tri City Herald, February 28, 1949
- ↑ http://www.loislaw.com/livepublish8923/doclink.htp?alias=F1CASE&cite=171+F.2d+921 CHANDLER v. UNITED STATES, 171 F.2d 921 (1st Cir. 1948)
- ↑ https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/boston/access/1908449892.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Aug+10%2C+1963&author=&pub=Boston+Globe+%281960-1979%29&desc=JFK+Pardon+Frees+Nazi-Voice+Chandler&pqatl=google JFK Pardon Frees Nazi-Voice Chandler - Boston Globe, August 10, 1963
- ↑ http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/04/lost-found-douglas-chandler-nazi/ The Nazi Who Infiltrated National Geographic - National Geographic online news - May 7, 2017
External links[]
- Courtroom Battle of World War II (Part 1 of 3). contains information on the careers and fates of some of the Nazi broadcasters and other collaborators.
- Courtroom Battles of World War II (Part 2 of 3).
- Courtroom Battles of World War II (Part 3 of 3).
The original article can be found at Douglas Chandler and the edit history here.