Samuel Dickstein (politician)

Samuel Dickstein

Samuel Dickstein (born February 5, 1885 in Vilnius , † April 22, 1954 in New York City ) was a Democratic Congressman for New York State and then a judge at the local Supreme Court. He played a key role in the forerunner of the Committee on Un-American Activities , with whose help he exposed fascists and sympathizers of the National Socialists . He was paid by the Soviet NKVD to report on Congress activities .

Life

Dickstein was born in the Vilnius Governorate as the eldest child of Rabbi Israel. The family moved to New York City in 1887. After graduating from New York City Law School in 1906, he worked for the law firm Hyman & Gross. In 1911 he was appointed Deputy Attorney General of New York State and remained so until 1914. He then became a member of the City Council in 1917 and was a member of the New York State Assembly from 1919 to 1922 . There he suggested the kosher food law , which other states also adopted, as well as the New York Sabbath law , which allows Jews to trade on Sundays, as well as property and rent regulations for the East Side of Manhattan . In 1923 he moved to the 68th Congress as a Democrat and was re-elected eleven times until his resignation at the end of 1945.

Committee to Investigate Un-American Activities

From the 72nd to the 79th Congress (1931-1945) he was chairman of the Immigration and Naturalization Committee. In this role, he turned his attention to anti-Semitism and related US literature. He started his own investigation into the actions of the National Socialists and fascist groups in the USA, the results of which he presented on January 3, 1934 at the second session of the 73rd Congress. With the so-called "Dickstein Resolution" (HR # 198) of March 1934, a " Committee to Investigate Un-American Activities " was set up under John W. McCormack . He himself preferred the deputy chairmanship because of his Jewish roots.

The remainder of 1934 was spent by the commission hearing key figures in the fascist movement in the United States. Dickstein propagated the eradication of all traces of National Socialism in the USA and questioned everyone personally. His tendency towards drama and sensation, combined with occasionally exaggerated accusations, secured him headlines. He paid particular attention to the German-American Bund .

The second "Committee for the Investigation of Un-American Activities" from 1938 acted as the so-called "Dies Committee" at his call under Martin Dies Jr. It was later renamed the Committee for Un-American Activities , now focused on communist organizations and was a permanent institution from 1945.

After 23 years in Congress, Dickstein said goodbye in 1945 and was a Supreme Court Justice of New York State until his death.

espionage

After 1990, KGB archive records in Moscow showed that Dickstein received US $ 1,250 a month from there from 1937 to January 1940. He himself had asked for $ 2,500 a month for information; the NKVD offered $ 500, whereupon it cut its offer in half. In the files he was led under the code name "Crook" (crook). When he left the Committee to Investigate Un-American Activities , the Soviets suspended payments and broke off contact after a monetary dispute with him. Dickstein had received the current equivalent of US $ 133,000 (1997 value), but allegedly delivered nothing over the years.

Web links

Commons : Samuel Dickstein  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Samuel Dickstein in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

swell

1. ^ Samuel Dickstein Papers 1923-1944
2. ↑ Weinstein, Allen, Alexander Vassiliev (March 14, 2000). The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America - The Stalin Era . Modern Library. ISBN 0-375-75536-5 . Pp. 140-150