A lot has been written about the hidden Nazi networks in Europe and South America. What many investigators have missed, however, is the true extent of this network in the United States. While we have all heard of former concentration camp guards being arrested in America and deported to stand trial abroad, we have not learned of the underground support systems that existed in the United States before the war, and how many individuals offered covert support to war criminals after it.
American Reich
“Between 1933 and 1941, at least 120 anti-semitic groups were founded in the United States, and that figure excludes most of the ethnic fascist movements.” — Philip Jenkins, Hoods and Shirts, 1997
The story of Jörg Haider is not an isolated one. Austria has been struggling with Nazi and pro-Nazi groups since long before Anschluss made the land of Mozart and kaffee klatsches a part of the Third Reich. Hitler, after all, had been born and raised in Austria. Many of the Reich’s most notorious and violent Nazis were Austrians, such as Ernst Kaltenbrunner. Haider’s parents had been Nazis in Austria when it was still an illegal political party, risking their liberty and reputations in support of Hitler’s ideology. Revelations in the 1980s concerning Kurt Waldheim’s Nazi past made headlines all over the world, calling into question his role both as the head of the Austrian government as well as his tenure at the United Nations.