Guide to the Abraham Shoenfeld (1891-1977) Papers,
1892, 1920-1978, 2010 (bulk 1927-1964)

P-884

Series I: Personal, undated, 1920-1978, 2010.

Arrangement:

Arranged alphabetically.

Scope and Content:

Series I consists of Shoenfeld's memoirs, manuscript drafts of novels, poems and plays, correspondence, oral history transcript, address books, passport, last will, and certificates.

His memoirs, New York Crime Buster, cover his childhood through 1921, zeroing in on his crime busting years with the Kehillah. He writes of his work for Kehillah: “Walking in to this assignment I found crime and corruption rampant, procurers, stuss houses, pimps, tenement madams, district leaders, killers, gangsters on a rampage, pickpockets, crooked judges, a corrupt police system, men in varied high places and other law enforcement agencies tied together in an alarming combine” (Box 4, Folder 5). By the end of what he calls his “ten years crusade” to eradicate the Jewish crime world, he reflected, “…a considerable portion of my original assignment had been accomplished, -- a wholesale and beneficient cleansing and purification of the Jewish name and standards” (Box 4, Folder 5). Shoenfeld details his encounters with major Jewish gangsters such as Big Jack Zelig, Dopey Benny and Arnold Rothstein. He describes monitoring and raiding various bars, saloons, and gambling and prostitution establishments throughout the city. He writes about his meetings with Judah Magnes.

Historian Arthur Goren conducted the oral history interview included in this series. In the interview Shoenfeld goes into details about Jack Zelig, Jonah Goldstein, Mayor John Purroy Mitchel, Judah Magnes, Edward Greenbaum, Henry Moskowitz, Harry Newberger, Mayor William Gaynor, Henry Klein, Jacob Schiff and Elias Goodman. He explains the workings of the relationship between Mayor Gaynor, the police department, Magnes, Schiff and himself. He also gets into subjects such as the Herman Rosenthal murder, the East Side Civic Club, and the ethnic breakdown of crime in the 1910s. He describes his methods of getting information himself and via undercover investigators.

Shoenfeld’s great niece, Ellen James, writes out the family history and family impressions of Shoenfeld in “Uncle Abe” (Box 6, Folder 13).

In 1927 and 1928, Shoenfeld’s The Joy Peddler was published amidst considerable controversy for its provocative content and language, and copies of the book were confiscated from bookstores by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. Much of it is based on his experiences in the criminal world.

Correspondents include Morris Ernst, Eddie Greenbaum and Oscar Chapman. Also of interest may be holiday greetings written by FBI Special Agents (Box 5B, Folder 1) and a letter written to Ellen James by an “M. Dowd” (Box 5B, Folder 3) who says he had worked for Shoenfeld as an undercover investigator starting in 1959.

Series II: American Jewish Committee Investigations, 1943-1964.

Arrangement:

Arranged into four subseries.

Scope and Content:

This series contains materials generated, received or collected by Shoenfeld in his role as Chief of Investigation for the American Jewish Committee’s Legal Division (also known as the Investigative and Fact-Finding Division and the Legal and Fact Finding Division). Under the direction of former U.S. district attorney George Mintzer and later George Kellman, the Legal Department conducted surveillance of ultra-conservative, anti-Semitic groups and individuals, monitoring their activities, their financial backing, their membership, and their interrelationships.

The series provides an interesting glimpse into trends in 1950s and 1960s anti-Semitic propaganda (especially the heavily used tactic of linking Communism and Jews), the inner politics of the observed anti-Semitic organizations, and the linkages between Middle Eastern and American anti-Semitism. Illuminated too are some of the inner workings of the intelligence community at the time – for example, ways in which the FBI, CIA, AJC and the Anti-Defamation League intersected and collaborated.

There are daily investigative reports Shoenfeld wrote from 1948 to 1964, based on information gathered by his detectives and other sources. His first decade of AJC work is not represented in this series. There are subject files of organization literature and miscellaneous research materials from the final years of his AJC work. His investigators passed along originals and photostats of correspondence received and sent by two major disseminators of anti-Semitic literature, Frederick Charles F. Weiss and Conde McGinley; that cache of correspondence can be found in Subseries 2.

Subseries 1: General , 1943-1964.

Arrangement:

Arranged alphabetically.

Scope and Content:

This subseries includes a few anti-AJC publications, loose reports that weren’t in binders (whereas the reports in upcoming Subseries 3 were in chronological binders), and AJC-authored publications likely based on the information provided by Shoenfeld’s investigative work.

Subseries 2: Frederick Charles F. Weiss, Conde McGinley and Common Sense, 1946-1962.

Arrangement:

Arranged alphabetically.

Scope and Content:

In the late 1940s and early 1960s, either Shoenfeld or his agents got a hold of originals and photostats of correspondence to and from Weiss, McGinley and/or in relation to McGinley’s Common Sense. Frederick Charles (Chas) F. Weiss was a member and major propagandist of the National Renaissance Party. His pen name was “XYZ,” and he also wrote for Common Sense. Weiss wrote and self-published “Germania Delenda Est?” in 1947. There is a lot of response to this particular work among his correspondence. Weiss’s correspondents are very international. They include Arthur Koegel, Theodor Kessemeier, G.F. Green, Adrien Arcand, Jamal Husseini, Oscar Pfaus, Oswald Pirow, Robert H. Best and James Madole. Also in these folders is the correspondence of Michael Conde McGinley, editor of Common Sense and founder of the Christian Educational Association.

In Box 7, Folder 12, there’s a photostat of a dramatic 1941 letter from famous opera soprano Elisabeth Rethberg to famous opera tenor Ezio Pinza regarding an affair they were having and other affairs he’d had. She expresses anti-Semitic views and identifies Pinza as a Fascist. It’s not clear how or why Shoenfeld had this letter, but interestingly Pinza was being watched by the FBI and was jailed as an “enemy alien” in 1942 in the U.S.

Subseries 3: Daily Reports , 1948-1964.

Arrangement:

Arranged chronologically.

Scope and Content:

This subseries comprises more than one third of the collection. Between 1948 and 1964, Shoenfeld wrote daily investigative reports, which were then typed up on a weekly basis and organized chronologically in binders. The binders have been removed, but the integrity of each binder’s contents has been maintained. All reports are Shoenfeld’s copies. The originals were possibly received by the Director of his division, George Mintzer and later George Kellman, and/or potentially by Sylvia Edelman, the Research Analyst of the division. Codes at the top of reports seem to indicate the source of information and/or to whom or to what office they were submitted. Codes include “TAIM,” “GECK,” “DET,” “inside,” “outside,” “europe office,” “ISMS,” and “/a.s./C/” (which likely stands for Abe Shoenfeld using source Investigator C). Shoenfeld received information from a variety of sources; most frequent among them were “Investigator W,” “Investigator C,” “Source B,” as well as a “Z.”

The reports include a wide variety of observations and analysis of the following: diplomatic parties and functions; group meetings; conversations and interviews with group members; summaries of personalities; news media and current events; Shoenfeld’s opinions of his sources; organization plans for publications and propaganda; opinions of the AJC; and group interconnectivity. Reports sometimes end with a weekly list of relevant literature procured. Much of that literature can be found in Series III. The coverage of the reports tends to break down into one of two categories: American or Middle Eastern New York area organizations.

Investigator W seems to have been working undercover among the American Nazi Party (ANP), the Christian Educational Association, the John Birch Society and the National Renaissance Party. Subjects covered include Hungarian-American anti-Semites in New Jersey, James Madole’s "Arab-American friendship Rally," George Lincke of the ANP, and the Communist affiliations of organizations and individuals.

Investigator C concentrated on diplomats and other figures connected to the early League of Arab Nations (Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen), the United Nations, and other international groups, though C also had interactions with George Lincoln Rockwell. Topics addressed include the USSR’s involvement in the Middle East, Palestine, attitudes towards the Congo crisis, President Nasser, King Hussein of Jordan, Prime Minister of Pakistan, political intrigue in Egypt, and connections between Nazis and Middle Eastern governments and figures, black-Jewish relations, and the reading of American anti-Semitic propaganda by members of watched Arab organizations. Interviews reported include those with Merwin K. Hart, Alfred Lilienthal, Yacoub Joury, Akram Midani (a Syrian diplomat to the United Nations and director of the Arab Information Center in the1960s), David Hinnawi, Sami Hadawi, George Houser (of the American Committee on Africa) and Izzat Tannous. Potentially of interest is an investigation Shoenfeld directed for George Mintzer – an investigator paid a 40-day visit in 1949 to Egypt, Lebanon and Syria, which resulted in a report regarding those countries’ political situations and the Jews (Box 9, Folder 4).

Subseries 4: Subjects , 1946-1964.

Arrangement:

Arranged alphabetically. Shoenfeld kept three A-Z accordian files of subjects, organized by letter, and it’s not always clear why a particular item was filed under the given letter. In some cases it’s based on an individual (Rockwell, Yockey) or organization’s name (Christian Educational Association), or for general subject (Anti-Semitism, Arabs, Negroes), and some materials don’t seem to correspond to the file letter in any obvious way. In the folder list below, examples of included subjects are cited in brackets next to the first instance of each letter.

Scope and Content:

This subseries is comprised of propaganda literature, as well as notes, correspondence, transcripts of recordings, cartoons and AJC-authored reports. Many of the items are marked with a date and a “W” or a “C” according to which undercover agent gave Shoenfeld the materials. The propaganda literature filed here attacks not just Jews, but African Americans as well. Notable are an American Nazi Party pamphlet of repurposed photos of concentration camp prisoners called “The Diary of Anne Fink” (Box 24, Folder 4) and a number of Christian Educational Association cartoons and flyers (including an anti-Kosher certification flyer [Box 22, Folder 2]). There were a few photographs filed here, but they have been separated into the Photographs series and their originating place noted.

Series III: Literature, 1892, 1926-1974.

Arrangement:

Arranged alphabetically in two sections: Pamphlets and Printed Ephemera, and Books and Government Documents.

Scope and Content:

This series contains pamphlets, printed ephemera, books and government documents primarily produced in the late 1940s through the 1960s. Most of the pamphlets and ephemera are anti-Semitic propaganda generated or distributed by organizations observed by Shoenfeld and Investigators W and C, and the titles are listed in his investigative reports. In the pamphlet titled, “Open Letter to Congress, Gentlemen: Are You Mice or Men? An Underworld Secret-Police Terror Menaces America” (Box 27, Folder 7), Joseph P. Kamp of the Constitutional Education League makes a spirited attack on the American Jewish Committee, calling Shoenfeld their “Gestapo ‘Chief’.” George Lincoln Rockwell inscribed his book This Time the World as follows: “To: Abe Shoenfeld – A man we hope and believe is one of the very rare patriotic Americans! Heil Hitler!”

Pamphlets and Printed Ephemera , 1892, 1926-1974.

Books and Government Documents , 1943-1967.

Series IV: Audio Materials, undated, 1963-1965.

Arrangement:

Arranged alphabetically.

Scope and Content:

This series consists of six quarter-inch reel-to-reel audiotapes, two audio cassettes and one 33 rpm record. Two of the reels are recordings of the Arthur Goren oral history interview, the transcript of which can be found in Box 5A, Folders 10-11. A letter from Bob McGarrity in Box 5B, Folder 3 may refer to the contents of the two audio cassettes.

Series V: Photographs, undated, [1920s], 1952-1964.

Arrangement:

Alphabetical.

Scope and Content:

There are four photographs of Shoenfeld in this series (Folders 6 and 7).

Otherwise, with the exception of one undated copy of a photograph of unidentified individuals in 1920s or 1930s garb, all photographs are connected to Shoenfeld’s AJC work. Most photographs are of extremist groups, and in some cases numbers are written onto the photograph itself with corresponding, identifying names on the back. It’s not always clear which American Nazi organizations appear in the photographs, but many seem to be the protests and gatherings of the Fighting American Nationalists (F.A.N.) in the 1960s. Photographed individuals include George Lincke, George Lincoln Rockwell, Gilbert Robert Demillo, Christopher Laird Snow, Seth Dave Ryan, Hugh Roy Bruce, Carl Mulready and Sven Engblom. Also represented in a few photos are African Nationals in America, Inc., the Egyptian and Syrian Delegations at the Seventh Session of the U.N. General Assembly in 1952, and an anti-Zionism protest.

Appendix: Deaccessioned U.S. Government Documents, 1945-1964.

Scope and Content:

The following materials were discarded, because Shoenfeld had not notated or otherwise marked them, and because they are all available on-line at GPO Access.

General

American Aspects of Assassination of Leon Trotsky (1951)

The American Negro in the Communist Party (1954)

California Legislature -- 2nd, 11th Report on Un-American Activities in California (1945, 1961)

California Legislature -- 4th, 8th, 10th, 11th Reports of the Senate Investigating Committee on Education (1949-1953)

Colonization of America's Basic Industries by the Communist Party of the U.S.A. (1954)

Committee on Un-American Activities Annual Reports for 1952 and 1963 (1953, 1964)

Communist Activities Among Youth Groups (1954)

Communist Domination of Certain Unions (1951)

The Communist "Peace Petition" Campaign (1950)

Communist Target -- Youth: Communist Infiltration and Agitation Tactics (1961)

The Communist-led Riots Against the House Committee on Un-American Activities in San Francisco (1960)

The Crimes of Khrushchev (1959)

Cumulative Index to Publications of the Committee on Un-American Activities 1938-1954 (1955)

Documentary Proof that the Communist Party USA Teaches and Advocates the Overthrow and Destruction of the United States Government by Force and Violence (1952)

The Effect of Red China Communes on the United States (1959)

The Great Pretense: A Symposium on Anti-Stalinism and the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party (1956)

Guide to Subversive Organizations and Publications (1951, 1957, 1961)

Hearings Related to H.R. 4700, to Amend the Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950, as Amended (The Fund for Social Analysis) (1961)

Hearings Related to H.R. 9120 and H.R. 5751, to Amend the Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950 (1961)

The Ideological Fallacies of Communism (1957)

Joint Legislative Committee on Un-American Activities "Activities of the Southern Conference Educational Fund, Inc. in Louisiana" -- Reports 4 and 5 (1963)

Lobby Index 1950 (1950)

Manipulation of Public Opinion by Organizations Under Concealed Control of the Communist Party (1961)

Operation Abolition (1957)

Report of the March of Labor (1954)

Report on the Communist "Peace" Offensive (1951)

Southern Educational Fund, Inc. Hearings (1955)

Special Committee to Investigate Political Activities, Lobbying, and Campaign Contributions -- Final Report (1957)

Statement on the March of Treason (1951)

Strategy and Tactics of World Communism: Recruiting for Espionage, Parts 15 and 16 (1955)

Subversion in Racial Unrest -- Public Hearings of the State of Louisiana Joint Legislative Committee (1957)

Supplement to Cumulative Index to Publications of the Committee on Un-American Activities 1955-1956 (1958)

Supplement to Cumulative Index to Publications of the Committee on Un-American Activities 1955-1960 (1961)

The Truth About the Film "Operation Abolition" (1961)

Who Are They?: Maurice Thorez and Palmiro Togliatti (1957)

Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary

Communism in Labor Unions (1954)

Communist Anti-American Riots (1960)

A Communist Plot Against the Free World Police (1961)

Cumulative Index to Published Hearings and Reports of the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary (1957)

Relationship Between Teamsters Union and Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (1962)

Subversive Influence in Certain Labor Organizations (1954)