Hello everybody.
@Aelita and
@Mr.E gave me permission to post my chilling Free American State post from the old fanfic thread. For those who haven't read it, prepare to be...chilled.
The Free American State: The Grim Story of America's Nazi Collaborators
History Magazine
March 10, 2017
Two names have become synonymous with treason in American culture: Benedict Arnold and Henry Ford. The latter has become a quintessential example of capitalism and bigotry taken their most extreme points. But the greatest extent of Nazi collaboration by Americans, one can look at the terrifying story of the Free American State.
The birth of the Free American State, though established during the uncertain years of the Second World War, was already being forged in the reactionary political environment of the 1920s. Its two founders , William Dudley Pelley and Virgil Effinger, like many men of the period, developed a sharp aversion to big three forces they believed to be menacing the American way of life: socialism, Judaism, and Catholicism.
Effinger, nicknamed Bert by his followers, expressed his personal hatred, first by joining the Ku Klux Klan, and then by becoming the leader of the Black Legion, a quasi-terrorist organization that by 1932, had thousands of members scattered throughout the Midwest. The Legion was little more than a collection of hoodlums who harassed minorities and Communist organizers.
William Dudley Pelley's transition to his own fascism, however, was more gradual than Effinger's. His childhood as the son of a Southern Methodist had planted seeds of fascism, but Pelley only developed an antipathy toward Communism and Judaism while serving as a volunteer to the reactionary forces of the Soviet Revolutionary War. During the 1920s, Dudley had a mostly respectable career as screenwriter. But after a near death experience in 1928, Pelley's bigotry took on increasingly deranged and spiritual levels. His imagined himself as a mighty spiritual leader, and his beliefs also saw Jews and Communism being lumped into one malicious evil.
It was not until the dying days of Old Republic, however, the two men would be able to join together, and act the name of their sick and twisted cause.
MacArthur's anti-democratic coup and short-lived military government would provide a temporary opportunity for the American fascists. During the civil war, Effinger and Pelley found their skills would be put to good use, bankrolled by the corporate conspiracy that had decided to trade its ideals to maintain control of its capital.
Effinger and his Black Legions would, ironically serve the White faction of the civil war. Effinger and his followers were sent to purge socialists in Detroit and other Midwestern cities, and were part of the offensive that nearly brought the city of Chicago to its knees. Pelley would spend of the Second Civil War in North Carolina, running pro-MacArthur magazines that pushed his highly reactionary ideals.
With the collapse of the White war effort, Effinger and Pelley, two obvious enemies of the proletariat, were forced to flee to Cuba. But the conflicts had given them the demented skill set that would prove useful to the Nazis.
Effinger and Pelley became eager supporters of MacArthur's Cuban regime. The former used the skills of torture and murder to hunt down Cuban freedom fighters, while Pelley created a short-lived newspaper,
Truth, that was popular among the American fascist community in Havana. But within a few years, Effinger and Pelley would run afoul of MacArthur.
Effinger and Pelley, deluded about the strength of American communists, believed that MacArthur ought to launch an invasion of mainland America, and became bitter once MacArthur's promise of "retaking American soil" would not materialize. The two men became increasingly critical of the man, and joined separate fascist parties that called for MacArthur's removal.
The MacArthur government disliked these men almost as much they disliked communists. MacArthurite agents, not known for their mercy or patience, were said to be disturbed by Effinger's clear psychosis.
By 1937, both Effinger and Pelley would finally have the book thrown at them. Effinger would dismissed from MacArthur's forces, and Havana censor boards would shut down Dudley's newspaper. With the loss of their livelihoods, both men turned to a growing specter on the European continent as a nation that would rescue their country from "Jewish-Bolshevik collectivization".
In 1938, Germany's successful annexation of German-Czechoslovak lands inspired a wave of immigration to the Third Reich by sympathizers. Thousands of Cuba American exiles would also end up in the 3rd Reich, among them Dudley and Effinger. Both Dudley and Effinger would meet on a steamship headed to Hamburg. Effinger was impressed by Dudley's intellectual and oratory power, while Dudley admired Effinger's passion and fanaticism. The odd pairing of pseudo-intellectual and mad dog would come together to create one of the most malevolent forces of the Second World War.
On the eve of the Second World War and during its first year, both Virgil Effinger and William Dudley Pelley had well integrated into Nazi life, or at least as much as anybody non-German could've. Effinger had become an auxiliary officer of the Gestapo, and used the gruesome skill set he obtained in the Second American Civil War to torture and weed out German communists. Dudley worked as both an English translator at a Nazi book publisher and as an editor of
Security, an English language newspaper read by British and American expatriates. Both men had become good friends, with Effinger giving interviews in
Security often on how to be a good Aryan. They were among the most prominent figures of the American exile community, even enjoying meals with Henry Ford.
The early successes of the Nazi Reich in the Soviet war would give fascists ground for their twisted beliefs, and Effinger and Dudley would prove to be no exception to the rule.
When instant victory proved to be out of reach, the war effort in Germany became all hands on deck. Effinger, Dudley, and their thousands of American expatriate followers became eager to join the war effort that sought any able bodied male. Seeing the dedication shown by American expatriates, Heinrich Himmler authorized the creation of the 39th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, better known Schwarz Legion (German for black, a throw back to the Black Legion), in April of 1941.
William Pelley joined the Legion as a war correspondent, and wrote optimistically about "the eventual reversal of the Red Tide, not just in Russia, but in America".
Schwarz Legion was used mainly for the murder of partisans and civilians throughout Belarus, and often sought to match the cruelty of their Nazi masters. Many rank and file of the SS were impressed by the efficiency of Schwarz Legion and their dedication to the cause. At the same time, victory in Southern Russia and the Caucasus seemed certain, so Himmler pushed for the creation of a pro-Nazi American government in Belarus.
Hitler, who despite still fighting the war on the Soviets, was still imagining and preparing for the eventual war on the UASR. He thought the creation of an American government-in-exile would be useful in grooming the leadership of a potential collaborationist government that would be established once America fell to his armies. Goebbels knew the policy could have tremendous propaganda value, and optimistically believed that it could convince mainland Americans the "benefits" of Reich rule.
"By showing the bounty our Aryan Americans cousins enjoy under the Reich," wrote Joseph Goebbels, "we can convince Americans in Debs to rid themselves of Bolshevism without firing a shot on their land."
On July 7, 1941, the Free American State was established in the Belarusian town of Maly Trostenets, the site of an extermination/concentration camp. Pelley would become its first "President", living and governing in the home of a murdered commissar, while his good friend and Amerika Korps commander Virgil Effinger would serve as Secretary of War.
Pelley and Dudley, with the guards and legions, worked to recreate their evil version of the former United States.
The Old Constitution, amended of course, to support racial oppression, was used to govern this community. On paper, The Free American State actually had a representative government (the only thing that the Nazis ever truly objected too), but the franchise was very much an illusion. The 20 man congress, which met in a recreation of the Capitol Building, that supposedly checked the power of the President was composed of Dudley's appointed puppets, many of them too corrupt or feeble-minded to not rubber stamp any of his policies. Pelley, however, was able to maintain an illusion of governance.
The Free American State was described as "a micronation with teeth", because the community itself was unusually developed for a micronation. It had a radio station, post office, newspaper, library, and local police. There was even a small studio where Dudley made his propaganda films about the wonders of Maly Trostenets (only a few films have survived, and most of them are studied in film history as an example of propaganda).
A school was set up for the children of Schwarz Legion members, to indoctrinate the "future leaders of a restored America." Many of the kids would be trained, not only in math and science, but in the art of torture and murder, with many lessons consisting of Spartan-style attacks on Belarusian prisoners and civilians. History lessons convinced these children that George Washington was a "true Aryan."
In the community, a demented, outwardly clean version of Old Republic had been recreated in Maly Trostenets.
Men and women walked around wearing the more conservative fashion of the 1920s. The old Stars and Stripes hung over the town, albeit a Swastika in place of the stars. Much of the land was covered with white-fence homes reminiscent of pre-Revolution bourgeois suburbs. But even less wholesome things were recreated, like the racist minstrel shows.
The members of this community even had their own church set up by Dudley, calling it Silver Christianity. It combined Nazi Positive Christianity with Dudley's own spiritual beliefs.
For a period of time, this community enjoyed a disgustingly high standard of living, eating on average almost 15 times the calories allowed to Soviet and American POWs. The streets were orderly, and there was no ounce of crime or disorder.
In exchange for their bounty, the members of the Free American Republic would be party to some of ghastly crimes of the war. Almost all the Americans would work at the nearby concentration camp. Like the Croatian fascists, the so-called Free Americans would exceed their Nazi captors in terms of the violence they unleashed upon their enemies. Many Jews, Soviet civilians, and POWs are often savagely tortured. Mutilation became a disturbingly common punishment at the hands of Effinger's cronies.
Life was no easier for Soviet citizens who were forced to work in the American community itself. They were confined to housing not even suitable for cattle, and received just enough to be at starvation level.
Many Belarusian women found themselves conscripted into a brothel for Schwarz Legion leaders.
Even those who were given relatively light domestic jobs were at the mercy of their American masters, who were at best condescending and paternalistic, and at worst sadistic and predatory. Effinger was reported to have beat a servant to death at breakfast for accidentally spilling coffee on his lap, and to have raped up to 30 women.
But one group in particular was singled out by Dudley and Effinger: American POWs. Blacks, Jews, and Trinitarians (who the anti-Catholic Effinger considered "worst than Papists") were often murdered on the spot for "selling out America to Bolshevik slavery." Female soldiers were often subjected to savage beatings and rape for "violating their place in life," in the words of Pelley. Pelley himself used black POWs as slaves to recreate the antebellum South.
Male American POWs considered to be of "Aryan or Nordic stock," however, were given the choice of "throwing of Bolshevik chains and embracing true America." Pelley considered his Faustian bargain "an act of true repentance by true Americans." In order to convince them to switch sides, they were paraded around the American part of Maly Trostenants, and made to look at the "true beauty of a restored America", fed large meals, and subjected to propaganda, and eventually brought before Dudley himself, who would use his oratory powers to manipulate the POWs.
There were some instances of POWs becoming turncoats. One tragedy was when an American POW had been convinced to not only switch sides, but rape and murder his female comrade.
But the vast majority of these "Aryan" POWs did in fact refuse. But those that did were often subjected worse tortures than their female and non-Aryan comrades. In Effinger's words, "these men are worse than Jews. Jews make no light of their greedy, backstabbing ways. But an Aryan betraying his own kind is even worse." Effinger would take these ill-fated men into the basement and let his dogs maul these "Aryan traitors to death."
The Free American State, while claiming to be virtuous and clean, became a microcosm of the evils of old America. In the words of Edward Murrow, "Maly Trostenants is the closing thing to Lucifer we've seen on Earth. Like the Prince of Darkness, it hides a twisted psyche underneath a tempting image of wholesomeness and cleanliness."
For three years, it remained one of the most peaceful places on the front. The 5,000 Americans who settled their, Schwarz Legions and wealthy American exiles, enjoyed excellent standards of living.
By the end of 1943, the Nazi Reich found itself on the defensive as Comintern forces and Allied armies began to turn the tide against the once unstoppable fascist horde.
For many Germans, it meant tightening their belts, as the bounty they had enjoyed, often on the backs of Europe's proletariat was now being cut back as the situation turned from hopeful to desperate.
The Free American State, whose service was mainly propaganda, was deemed a drain on resources in an area that had long been supposedly pacified, and faced major cuts in its food supply.
William Dudley Pelley, the self-proclaimed president, was horrified by the news. He understood the luxuries enjoyed by the American expatriates kept them on the Soviet front, and feared any cut in rations would lead to the ruin of the whole project.
Pelley and Effinger took a step worthy of the most craven of capitalists: instead of cutting their own rations, they forced the cuts on Belarusian laborers who maintained the expatriates' quality of life, and raised rations for the Schwarz Legion and its followers. Pelley reasoned that the recent reversal of fortunes on the Eastern Front were merely a minor speed bump, and he believed that Aryan superiority would inevitably triumph. So the subhuman laborers would have to do with less.
"The God-fearing Aryans have stumbled, but not fallen. Until they get back up, the Godless Judeo-Bolsheviks will have to get less slop."
The conditions that Belarusians had endured at the peak of the Free American State were already the quintessential example the utter decadence and cruelty of Nazism. While the parasitic traitors enjoyed champagne and heated homes, the thousands of indentured Belarusians were forced into filthy stables deemed not worthy of horses. While the American puppets had enjoyed meat and oranges (once a luxury), the Belarusians were forced to subsist on little more than stale loaves of bread and watery cabbage soup. Even the house servants and sex slaves of Schwarz Legion received little food.
The cuts to their already meager rations turned their situation from unbearable to deadly, and would also mark the beginning of the Free American State's horrific decay.
Before late 1943, the Free American State was a Versailles, a place where the elite could be insulated from misery. The men and women there knew no discomfort or want, unlike the innocent Slavic civilians. The foul smell of burned bodies from the nearby concentration camp did not reach the parasites, which only eased their ability to ignore suffering.
But by cutting the rations of the Slavic civilians, the so-called Free Americans now began to be exposed to the true horrors of the war.
By January 1944, the slave laborers of the community began dropping dead from hunger and cold as they went from malnourished to famished. Many would abruptly lose consciousness in the middle of a task, like a robot that had lost its power source. One witness would declare that Maly Trostenets "resembled a village in the time of the Black Death: one would see more corpses in the street than people."
By December, dozens of people were dropping dead everyday. As more laborers died, the quality of life declined as well. Not just because the constant dying created labor shortages, but the sight of dead bodies horrified the civilians whose only motivation for living in Maly Trostenents was simply the excellent standard of living it offered to those deemed of Nordic stock. Soon, American civilians began trickling out of Maly Trostenants, as extra rations could not enjoyed in what was becoming a living graveyard.
The reaction of Effinger and his Schwarz Legion to this random dying was what one expected of a military force that had declared genocide to be a holy act: brute force. Punishment for "falling down on the job," which is what Effinger had declared those collapsing of starvation doing, was beyond cruel. The dying were brutally beaten and tortured, as were their comrades as a form of coercion. If one Belarusian person dropped dead, his living comrade would be butchered. In one murderous tantrum, Effinger executed 50 personally with a machine gun in the town center. Effinger's motivational tactics, however, did not stop the death, and only added to the increasingly horrific atmosphere. The smell of blood, once rare in Maly Trostenents, was now frighteningly common as more and more laborers fell victim to Effinger's motivational terror. The trickle of civilians became a flood.
Even worse however, was the smell of burnt bodies. To deal the increasingly massive death rate, a crematorium had been set up near the outskirts of town. While the crematorium relieved the number of dead bodies, the smell it produced was unbearable, driving hundreds away. The residents of the community who had not chosen to leave tried to block the smells by pouring perfume and cologne all over the streets. Soon, the town was coated in an ash.
By May 1944, the conditions of the town only worsened, as even the most basic services crumbled due to labor shortages, the evacuation of civilians, and the extreme Soviet weather. The once picturesque community became both a garbage dump and a graveyard. Trash was no longer being collected, the streets were no longer being cleaned. Even the crematorium no longer performed to peak capacity, as its laborers dropped dead from hunger. The once beautiful homes were beginning to decay as they longer were being maintained in the harsh climate.
Even the children of Maly Trostenents, who were considered the pride of their community, began to suffer. Parents who couldn't target their prized Slavic workforce turned their increasing anger toward their children. Their teachers spent less time on instruction and more time on physical abuse. Children who in 1943 looked like privileged prep school people now looked black and blue, and they walked with the disposition of a beaten dog.
The bad conditions of the Free American State were only exasperated by the deteriorating mental states of its founders, who reacted poorly to the news of successful Soviet-American advances.
Virgil Effinger's bloodlust and lunacy went from sadistic to psychotic, as he blamed "Bolshevik intruders" for the decline of his prized utopia and the increasingly close Cominern forces. In his rage, he randomly slaughtered his Slavic servants. When he ran out Slavs to kill, he would turn his gun toward recent American red turn coats, blaming their "lingering Redness" for defeat. Those who had not left the decaying town had to due so quietly, as anybody who was discovered would be dragged before Effinger and executed for treason.
Pelley's descent into madness was less obvious, but no less symbolic. The man who preached a demented form of Christianity came to embody the Seven Deadly Sins.
Pelley, despite his delusions, had once been a dedicated administrator and task master. He ensured that the community and its services ran smoothly. Despite the puppet nature of his Congress, he nevertheless attempted to maintain the veneer of Constitutional government by ensuring his policies were approved in "committee" with proper decorum and rules. But as the conditions deteriorated, he began withdrawing himself more and more governing, and spent most of his time in his "Executive Mansion" writing empty promises. He no longer bothered to meet with his puppet senators, choosing to sleep and daydream. With this, Pelley embodied sloth.
As his depression and anxiety worsened, Pelley began overeating, which he could do as a privileged puppet President. This, combined with his increasingly agoraphobic and lazy behavior, caused him to gain enormous weight. By the time of his departure, Pelley had gained 50 kilos. With this, Pelley embodied gluttony.
At his church sermons, Pelley's once organized and practiced sermons, delivered with a devious charisma, devolved into blistering rants. Instead of serving as a guide, Pelley berated his dwindling followers with all matter of obscenities. With this, Pelley embodied wrath.
As Effinger became more and more bloodthirsty, his relationship with Pelley deteriorated. Pelley no longer saw Effinger as a friend, but as a power hungry usurper. With this, Pelley embodied envy.
Pelley, like many declared Christians, abstained from sex as they deemed it immoral. Pelley abstained from the Schwarz Legion brothel, but as he grew desperate, he sought an escape from the reality around him. In a horrific routine, he would rape some of the sex slaves, and once he had finished, loudly quoted scripture to shame the women for their "devilish temptations". With this, Pelley embodied lust.
Despite the impending destruction of his dreamed community bearing down on him, Pelley continued to push his arrogant belief in Aryan superiority. During a cold February day, he forced Schwarz Legion members to march in a pro-American rally, complete with waving American flags. With this, Pelley embodied pride.
While his dreamed of village crumbled and decayed, Pelley used the tax money had collected to maintain the quality of life in his own home. The palatial splendor of the Executive Mansion continued to persist to the final days of the Maly Trostenents community. With this, Pelley embodied greed.
By October 1944, the now triumphant Soviet and American armies were only 25 kilometers from Maly Trostenents. By this time, the community had become an image of hell. Bodies of the dead piled up, some of them Americans who had either dropped dead from hunger or were victims of Effinger's murderous temper. Once picturesque homes were rotting from the elements and neglect. The few civilians that remained were themselves starved and enslaved. Pelley himself was almost permanently confined to his home. The American population of 5,000 had declined to almost 800, with some parts being as quiet as a grave.
When news reached Pelley that the German army could no longer protect to community, he began making preparations for the evacuation, when a sudden blow struck the Schwarz Legion. On October 10, Virgil Effinger was found dead in his quarters, laying in a pool of blood. At the time, his murder was blamed on "Bolshevik infiltrators". Instead of receiving an autopsy, his body was taken to the same crematorium, where it was turned to ash.
Due to the circumstances of the war, the culprit Effinger's death has remained a mystery. Some have also believed that the culprit was Effinger's Belarusian maid, who finally shot the man as he attempted one last rape. Others believe that Effinger had in fact been murdered by members of the SS, as many SS documents declared Effinger to be a "deranged and violent wastrel." Some have speculated that Effinger was murdered on the orders of Pelley and his own Schwarz Legion subordinates. As Effinger's victims expanded to those who wanted to leave Maly Trostenents, some believe that Pelley and his own goons saw Effinger as a maniac and would be obstacle to an orderly evacuation.
Between November 23-27, Pelley and the remaining members of the community began an evacuation. It was complete with the typical Nazi practices of Scorched Earth: buildings destroyed to spite the enemy, evidence of war crimes burned, the fanatical committing suicide and also murdering their own families, and any surviving civilians either shot dead or brought along the retreat to be enslaved or imprisoned in a death camp.
By December 10, when Americans and Soviets arrived, they found little more than mass graves and burnt out homes, a sight that many had sadly become desensitized too. But what disturbed the American soldiers, however, was the uncharacteristic fear that surviving Belarusians had developed for them.
Throughout the occupied Soviet Union, Americans were seen as angels by the Belarusians , as their appearance alongside Soviet soldiers signaled the end of a nightmare. American and Soviet soldiers alike were often greeted by cheering civilians in every town that was freed from Nazi occupation.
But when they entered Maly Trostenents, these soldiers found terror and fear, to their confusion and sadness. An American soldier testified one woman slitting her throat when he tried to offer her some of his food rations. But eventually, the arrival of Soviet soldiers put these shell-shocked civilians at ease, and they told them their horrific story.
The news that a group of Americans had taken over a Belarusian village, brutalized it in the vein of their Nazi overlords, murdered POWs, tried to brainwash some of their comrades into accepting their twisted ideals, and called their policies "a new American vision," filled UASR troops with anger that would not be seen until the discovery of Auschwitz. When these soldiers came across Schwarz Legion running dogs, it was one of the rare moments where Soviets were the ones trying to hold back their American comrades from committing war crimes. The famed journalist and author Vasily Grossman understood the source of this anger.
"These monsters had worn the faces of our American comrades," he wrote in his wartime novel
Red Soil, "and sought to resurrect the demons of America's bourgeois past. Few men or women care to see their demons brought back. It was the evil past that our comrades sought to destroy when they murdered those Free America beasts."
It was in this anger that William Dudley Pelley became one of the most wanted figures of the Second World War. By the end of the war, Pelley, who once enjoyed banquets and visits from Reich leaders, now was living in a small flat in Lubeck, Germany. Once obese, he had lost much of is weight eating smaller rations than the average German civilian. Despite his loss of power and prestige, Pelley still remained devoted to his demented cause. He continued to run the Free American State from his apartment with two surviving "Senators", speaking as if he still controlled an entire community. A common theme in his conversation was his delusional belief that he would "retake Washington from the Reds."
But as Germans cities were pounded by British and American bombers, even his delusions were shattered, especially when his apartment was destroyed by an air raid on September 10, 1946.
With the loss of his home, Pelley attempted his last gambit: he would sneak across the border into Denmark and flee into the Cuban embassy, where he believed his former Cuban comrades would seek out his wisdom in the coming battle against Red tyranny. Pelley proved unusually successful in escaping to Denmark on September 21. However, when he reached the Cuban embassy, he was told to wait by an embassy employee. Unbeknownst to him, the man had called Danish police. Within hours, Pelley would be on a plane back to Red-occupied Germany. When he protested, he learned that his citizenship had been revoked.
Since 1942, MacArthur's government had declared that any Cuban-American citizen who had fought for the Reich would have their citizenship revoked. MacArthur himself also expressed disgust with Pelley and his Free American State regime. Like his communist enemies, MacArthur saw Pelley as a man who had mangled American ideals into a hideous disgrace, proving that even capitalist dictators can have a heart.
On September 29, 1945, Pelley was brought back to Maly Trostenents, where he was hanged by Belarusian soldiers after a short trial.
But even after the death of Pelley, the ghosts of the Free American State would continue to haunt the people of Maly Trostenents for years. The impression of Americans on the villagers was so terrible, it would not be until 2002 that American soldiers would allowed to speak to students in an assembly there, unlike the rest of the Soviet Union which relished visits by American soldiers. But the assembly was ruined when a old woman who had been molested by Effinger suffered a panic attack seeing an American soldier lecture.
The lesson of the Free American State is twofold: not only of the capacity of man toward evil, but how the desire to resurrect the past can itself lead to creation of new evils.
