Nazis of Copley Square: The Forgotten Story of the Christian Front by Charles R. Gallagher

Abstract

Reviewed by: Nazis of Copley Square: The Forgotten Story of the Christian Front by Charles R. Gallagher Sean Brennan Nazis of Copley Square: The Forgotten Story of the Christian Front. By Charles R. Gallagher. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2021. 313 pp. $29.95. During the years leading to and during the Second World War while the U.S. military engaged in combat with the Axis powers, within American society there was also the threat of far-right organizations who were sympathetic to—if not openly supportive of—Hitler’s regime, its aspirations of European conquest, its desire to defeat, and the threat of “Judeo-Bolshevism.” This is the subject of Charles Gallagher’s impeccably researched study of the activities of the Christian Front from the mid-1930s to the early 1940s, in New York City and Boston, two of the centers of their activities. While the temptations to make constant comparisons between the supporters of this organization and more recent historical events, Gallagher, for the most part, maintains his focus on the historical context of this organization, avoiding the easy trap of presentism. Gallagher spends his first two chapters establishing the historical and theological foundations of the Christian Front, how its name [End Page 91] emerged in opposition to the Popular Front governments in Mexico in the 1920s and Spain in the 1930s, the communist members of which were notorious for their persecutions of the Catholic Church, as well as the specter of the militantly atheistic Soviet regime. He then provides a deeper explanation of the theology of the Mystical Body of Christ, which argued that persecution of Christians anywhere was an assault on Christians everywhere, as well as the idea of “Judeo-Bolshevism,” a form of anti-Semitism that viewed Jews in America and Europe as inherent supporters of Communism, a view that led some to advocate and even prepare for the overthrow of the American government to purge it of Jewish and Communist agents, who were often viewed as one and the same. While he is not the main figure of the book, the notorious Detroit-based radio priest, Father Charles Coughlin, with his message of anti-Semitism, anticommunism, social justice, and hatred of Franklin Roosevelt’s administration, was an enormous spiritual inspiration to many of the unsavory yet complex figures depicted by Gallagher. The author convincingly demonstrates how the insular Irish Catholic communities of New York and Boston were fertile ground for recruitment into the Christian Front’s various organizations, not only due to the belief of many in “Judeo-Bolshevism” but also a hatred of Great Britain for its long and cruel rule of Ireland. In later sections of the book, Gallagher discusses how the Christian Front expanded its supporters to include Protestants, women, and even some African Americans. Nor does he reduce the support of Catholic clergy for the Christian Front to just Coughlin, pointing at numerous members of the Catholic clerical hierarchy were openly sympathetic to its goals and worked to protect its most notorious members when they could. The main figure in the first third of the book is John Cassidy, a failed applicant to the FBI who then turned to transform the Committee of American Christians Against Communism, which he led, into a paramilitary organization with recruits and weapons from the New York National Guard. Although Cassidy’s organization was eventually raided by the FBI and he and other leaders were placed on trial, their acquittal following the suspiciously botched prosecution gave second life to the cause of the Christian Front. The focus of the book then shifts to Boston and a failed businessman named Francis Moran, who became a disciple and then agent of Father Coughlin’s Union Party, which attempted in 1936 to challenge both the Republican and Democrat parties for the loyalty of American voters. While rejecting the paramilitary tactics of Cassidy, Moran became a constant propagandist throughout Boston and the northeastern United States advocating American neutrality in any future European conflict, and eventually a tacit alliance with Hitler against the Communist threat. This led to a relationship with a sinister character named [End Page 92] Herbert Scholz, an SS officer who served as the director of the...