Albert E. Kahn
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Albert Eugene Kahn | |
---|---|
Born | London, England | May 11, 1912
Died | September 15, 1979 | (aged 67)
Relatives | Albert Kahn (uncle), Julius Kahn (uncle) |
Albert Eugene Kahn (May 11, 1912 – September 15, 1979) was an American journalist, photographer, and author. He is known chiefly for his books Sabotage! The Secret War Against America (1942), related to Nazi and German-American subversive activities in the United States; and The Great Conspiracy: The Secret War Against Soviet Russia (1946). The latter described leading Soviet communists as foreign spies, based on their confessions at the
For a time during the 1930s, Kahn had been a member of the Communist Party in the United States, but had changed his thinking by the 1940s and opposed it and the
Albert E. Kahn's father, Moritz Kahn, was a senior engineer in Albert Kahn Associates, and worked with his two brothers there, Albert Kahn and inventor Julius Kahn.[citation needed]
Early life and education
Kahn was born in
Educated in the United States, Kahn attended
Married in 1934, he and the former Harriet Warner moved to California. Their children included writer Brian Kahn.[1] There Kahn tried unsuccessfully to become a Hollywood screenwriter.
Political leanings
Kahn developed an interest in socialism and working for social justice. After the outbreak of the
Communists and socialists organized many of the speaking events and impressed Kahn with their idealism. After completing the tour in 1938, he joined the
With no employment prospects, Kahn accepted a job at his uncle's architectural firm,
Kahn's political activism quickly caused a rupture with his uncle's firm. A talented orator, Kahn had begun giving anti-fascist speeches. Because he had the same name as his prominent uncle, internationally regarded for his industrial architecture, the publicity caused consternation at the firm.
His uncle and father were concerned also because industrialist Henry Ford was the company's largest client, and he was engaged in business in Nazi Germany. In a meeting with his uncle and father, the younger Kahn was given a choice: Stop speaking publicly, or resign. He chose the latter option.
After moving to New York, Kahn was the American Labor Party candidate in the 1948 elections for New York's 25th congressional district.[2]
Anti-Nazi journalism
Almost immediately Kahn was offered a position as Executive Director of the newly formed American Council Against Nazi Propaganda. Working for a Board of Directors including
Books
Kahn used materials gained by his investigations of Nazi and German-American activities for The Hour as the basis of his first book, Sabotage! The Secret War Against America (1942), co-written with Michael Sayers. Reader's Digest printed excerpts from the book, and it became a bestseller.
Kahn and Sayers also collaborated on The Plot Against The Peace (1945) and The Great Conspiracy: The Secret War Against Soviet Russia (1946), which became an international bestseller. In the latter, which explored the
Kahn was an outspoken opponent of the Cold War that arose between the United States (and its western allies) and the Soviet Union after World War II. With fears of communism increasing in the US, he was blacklisted by mainstream publishing, beginning in the late 1940s. Using pre-sales of books to leftist trade unions, he wrote and published High Treason: The Plot Against the People (Lear, 1950), a post-1917 political history of the United States; and The Game of Death: Effects of the Cold War on Our Children (C&K, 1953).
Cameron and Kahn
In the early 1950s, Kahn and
Pending publication of the book (whose contents had been publicized), the US government subpoenaed Kahn, Cameron and Matusow to appear before a federal grand jury. The publishers were accused of bribing Matusow to falsely assert that he had committed perjury on behalf of the government. After months of hearings and thousands of pages of testimony, the grand jury declined to issue indictments against Cameron or Kahn.
Simultaneously with these grand jury proceedings, Kahn, Cameron, and Matusow were subpoenaed to testify before the United States Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, chaired by James Eastland (D-Mississippi). The purpose of the hearings was to determine whether publication of False Witness was the result of a Communist conspiracy to have Matusow lie in admitting perjury. The Senate committee did not assess the origin and consequences of Matusow's admitted perjury.
In the late 1950s Kahn wrote about the Matusow book and the aftermath of reaction to it. But his account was not published until eight years after his death, as The Matusow Affair: Memoir of a National Scandal (1987), by Moyer Bell. Angus Cameron wrote an introduction to the book.
Cameron and Kahn published books on a range of topics, including The Testament of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, by the couple convicted and executed for espionage.[4] They also published Seeds of Destruction; The Truth about the U.S. Occupation of Germany[5] by Cedric Belfrage. They also published the novel The Ecstasy of Owen Muir by Ring Lardner.[6]
Breaking the blacklist
During the 1950s, Kahn had his passport revoked for refusing to sign an affidavit newly required by the federal government, as to whether or not he was or had ever been a member of the Communist Party. This was related to continued activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee and a campaign of fear led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, R-Wisconsin, claiming communist infiltration of government, publishing, and the entertainment industry. This requirement was ruled unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in a case involving Rockwell Kent, a noted painter and friend of Kahn.
Kahn finally broke the blacklist in 1962 when Simon & Schuster published his Days With Ulanova, an intimate portrait of the fabled Bolshoi Ballet ballerina, Galina Ulanova. Kahn received critical acclaim for this work.[citation needed]
On a trip to Moscow after Stalin's death, Kahn had met with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in the Kremlin. He proposed that they collaborate on the Soviet leader's autobiography. Khrushchev agreed, but was forced from office before the project was launched.[citation needed]
Other books written by Kahn included Smetana and the Beetles (Random House, 1967), a satire of the defection of Stalin's daughter to the United States; Joys and Sorrows (Simon & Schuster, 1970), cellist Pablo Casals's memoir, as told to Kahn; and The Unholy Hymnal (Simon & Schuster, 1971), a satirical exposé of the credibility gap of the Nixon administration and others.
Personal life and death
In 1950, Kahn was serving as president of the Jewish People's Fraternal Order (JPFO), a member organization of the umbrella International Workers Order. With IWO president Rockwell Kent, he attended a conference sponsored by the World Peace Council that resulted in a Stockholm Appeal, appealing for worldwide nuclear disarmament.[7]
Kahn died on September 15, 1979, of a
Bibliography
- Sabotage! The Secret War Against America (1942)
- The Plot Against the Peace: A Warning to the Nation! (1945)
- The Great Conspiracy: The Secret War Against Soviet Russia (1946)
- High Treason: The Plot Against the People (1950)
- The Game of Death: Effects of the Cold War on Our Children (1953)
- McCarthy on Trial (1954)
- Days With Ulanova: A Unique Pictorial Portrait of the Great Russian Ballerina (1962)
- Smetana and the Beetles: A Fairy Tale for Adults (1967)
- Joys and Sorrows: Pablo Casals, His Own Story as Told by Albert E. Kahn (1970)
- The Unholy Hymnal: Falsities and Delusions Rendered by President Richard M. Nixon [and Others] (1971)
- The Matusow Affair: Memoir of a National Scandal (1987, posthumous)
See also
References
- ^ Arbunich, Marty (2018). "Image that Moved Eichler/ Touching Image of Inspiration that Stirred Eichler's Soul -- Two Boys, Two Races, One Poignant Photograph". Eichler Network.
- ^ Kestenbaum, Lawrence. "The Political Graveyard: Index to Politicians: Kaan to Kandrevas".
- ^ Matusow, Harvey (1 January 1955). False witness. Cameron & Kahn – via Hathi Trust.
- ^ Rosenberg, Ethel; Rosenberg, Julius (1 January 1954). The Testament of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. Cameron & Kahn – via Hathi Trust.
- ^ Belfrage, Cedric (1 January 1954). Seeds of destruction; [the truth about the U.S. occupation of Germany]. Cameron & Kahn – via Hathi Trust.
- ^ Lardner, Ring (1955). The ecstasy of Owen Muir. Cameron & Kahn – via Hathi Trust.
- ^
Zecker, Robert M. (2018). A Road to Peace and Freedom: The International Workers Order and the Struggle for Economic Justice and Civil Rights, 1930–1954. Temple University Press. p. 212. ISBN 9781439915165. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
- ^ Blau, Eleanor (September 19, 1979). "Albert E. Kahn, a Writer Critical Of Government in McCarthy Era. An Unaffiliated Marxist". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-04-04.
Further reading
- Arbunich, Marty. "Image that Moved Eichler/ Touching Image of Inspiration that Stirred Eichler's Soul -- Two Boys, Two Races, One Poignant Photograph", Eichler Network, 2018
- Bentley, Elizabeth. Deposition 30 November 1945, FBI file 65-14603. Also see Venona247 KGB, San Francisco to Moscow, 14 June 1946, for an ambiguous mention of Kahn in the clear.
- Caballero, Raymond. McCarthyism vs. Clinton Jencks. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019.
- Haynes, John Earl and Harvey Klehr, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America, Yale University Press (1999).
- Kahn, Albert E. The Matusow Affair, Moyer Bell (1987).
- Kahn, Brian. My Father's Son, manuscript (2007).
- Sayers, Michael and Albert E. Kahn. Sabotage! The Secret War against America. Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1942
External links
- Albert E. Kahn papers archived at the Smithsonian Institution
- Sabotage outline
- An excerpt of the book Sabotage! The Secret War Against America by Michael Sayers & Albert E. Kahn
- The Great Conspiracy: The Secret War Against Soviet Russia Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine
- The Game of Death: Effects of the Cold War on Our Children
- High Treason: The Plot Against the People
- Treason in Congress
- Plot Against The Peace
- NSA official VENONA site