Silver Legion of America
The Silver Legion of America was a well-known also under the name of Silver Shirts anti-Semitic group in the United States in the 1930s.
History
The Silver Shirts were formed in early 1933 by William Dudley Pelley. Pelley, a journalist and writer, had in 1928 in an article in American Magazine reports on a supposedly took place in 1925, out of body experience in which he ascended into heaven and God and Jesus Christ is encountered him with the rescue America from communism had commissioned. As a result, Pelley called a Bible school, the. Foundation of Christian Economics ( " Foundation for Christian Economics " ) and the publisher Galahad Press in life that should spread his views The subscribers of Pelleys publications were grouped in an association called Galahad Extension Fellowship. At the same time, Pelley founded the first time an openly political occurring organization. League for the Liberation ( " League for the Liberation " ) or League of the Liberators ( " League of Liberators " ), which was reorganized in 1933 for the Silver Legion of America
Model for the Silver Shirts were the Blackshirts in Italy and the Sturmabteilung in Germany. The headquarters of the hierarchical organization was located in Asheville ( North Carolina). It saw itself as a "Christian militia"; its members had to belong to a Protestant denomination and make at entry into the organization an oath, as " True Christian soldiers " to behave. The uniform of the Silver Shirts consisted of a silver shirt with a red letter L on the chest, which stood for the English words love ( love), loyalty ( loyalty ) and liberation (liberation).
Pelley was communicating with the scattered about the U.S. local groups of the Silver Legion across a variety of journals and pamphlets, which were read at meetings of each group. He also gave as the official organ of the movement, the magazine Liberation out ( previously under the title The New Liberator published ) reported calling in Pelley to reading of Henry Ford's anti-Semitic journal The International Jew and spiritual messages that were given to become him to supersensible way. With the publication of another magazine in Oklahoma City, which was entitled The Silver Ranger, Pelley wanted to win the support of affected by the Great Depression farmers of the Midwest. The hoped-for support did not materialize, and Pelley moved the editorial office of the Silver Ranger to Los Angeles. There he made contact with Nazi sympathizers circles what the displeasure of a nativist movement within the Silver Legion excited that tried subsequently to withdraw Pelley the editorial influence over the Silver Ranger. The American Jewish Committee believed that the Nazi sympathizers were partly responsible for the financing of the Silver Shirts.
In the years of its existence, the Silver Shirts radicalized increasingly. Pelley called on his followers to stockpile food and ammunition and to acquire military skills. The influence of Jews in public life was to eliminate by any means. A local leader of the organization in Cleveland called for an armed uprising to prevent an impending " red revolution ". The Silver Shirts Group of San Diego held military exercises off, stole weapons from a nearby naval base and was planning a siege of the city. End of the 1930s had Pelley before the Committee for Un-American Activities of the House of Representatives to testify. While Pelley claimed that his claims were not to be understood as a call for violence, witnesses said from before the committee, Pelley plan the forcible removal of the U.S. government and his organization was " revolutionary and militant " set.
1934, the Silver Shirts had about 15,000, mostly originating from the middle class members. Thereafter, the number of members declined until 1938 they still comprised about 5000 people. During the Second World War, the movement disintegrated.
Ideology
Pelley claimed that a Jewish world conspiracy, follow the plan, "Christian" governments to overthrow and replace it with Communist regime. The conspirators controlled the U.S. Federal Reserve and the government were behind Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had set the United States Constitution repealed. The rise of Hitler pointed Pelley as a sign of the imminent return of Christ, which he predicted on 17 September 2001. The Nazis contributed According to Pelley, the " groundwork " for an event which should arrive in the United States to its completion: an apocalyptic battle between the " Christian militia " and the " international Jewry ", should in the latter, a " terrible fate " be granted.
For the Silver Legion Pelley worked a program, according to which a state system should be established in the United States, the Pelley referred to as "Christ Democracy ": After the elimination of Jews, socialists and communists of the State should be conducted as a business enterprise whose participants belong to citizens were. All legislative initiatives were presented to the entire citizenry to vote. Political offices are reserved solely for members of the " Christian militia ".
Effect
Pelley and the Silver Legion took many ideas anticipate that were later represented by the Christian Identity movement and the survival movement. Ideological and personal overlap existed with the representatives of the Anglo-Israelism. The Anglo- Israelite author David Davidson, himself a member of the Silver Shirts, influenced by his ideas Pelleys worldview. Also, the later founder of the Posse Comitatus, Henry Lamont Beach, belonged to the Silver Shirts.