McCormack-Dickstein Committee Hearings Begin; Forerunner of HUAC
The McCormack-Dickstein Committee, created in March 1934 as a temporary committee, and a predecessor to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), on this day held closed hearings on alleged pro-Nazi groups in the U.S.
Several representatives of the Friends of New Germany testified, but no details were released. The committee chair promised open hearings in Washington in June. The official name of the committee was the Special Committee on Un-American Activities Authorized to Investigate Nazi Propaganda and Certain Other Propaganda Activities. It issued a report of its investigations in 1935.
The Committee was preceded by the temporary Fish Committee of 1930-1931 (October 3, 1930) and followed by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), created on May 26, 1938.
HUAC conducted the longest-running assault on freedom of belief and association for the next 37 years, until it was abolished on January 14, 1975. HUAC targeted alleged Communists or Communist-sympathizers almost exclusively, and in the hysteria of the Cold War the mere fact of being called to testify by the committee was regarded as evidence of one’s guilt.
The McCormack-Dickstein Committee focused on Nazi groups in the U.S. After in was created in 1938 gave some brief attention to Nazi group but quickly shifted its focus almost exclusively to Communists, alleged communists, non-communist left-wing groups, civil rights groups and leaders, and other social reformers.
It was later discovered that Rep. Samuel Dickstein served as a spy for the Soviet Union (see the article, below).
Learn about Rep. Samuel Dickstein here
Read the 1934 McCormack-Dickstein Committee report on Nazi propaganda in the U. S. here
Read about the history of HUAC and its predecessors: Walter Goodman, The Committee: The Extraordinary Career of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (1968)
Learn more: Larry Ceplair, Anti-Communism in the Twentieth Century America: A Critical History (2011)
Learn more: Griffin Fariello, Red Scare: Memories of the American Inquisition: An Oral History (1995)
Learn more about HUAC: http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/huac