An Anti-Semitic Poem from the United States in the 1930s

Recently upon re-reading George Armstrong’s 1940 book ‘Rothschild Money Trust’ (1) I noticed that he had included a specimen of an anti-Semitic and anti-Franklin Delano Roosevelt poem from the 1930s in the United States that he was familiar with.

Thus, as I have done before with anti-Semitic handbills and pamphlets; I reproduce it here so that it will not be lost to posterity:

‘An applicant stood at the gates of hell,

And the devil himself had answered the bell.

He looked him over from head to toe

And said: “My friend, I’d like to know

What you have done in the line of sin

To entitle you to reside therein.”

Then Hyde-Park D., with his kosher guile,

Stepped forth and flashed his toothy smile.

‘When I took charge in Thirty-three,

A nation’s fate was mine,’ said he.

‘I promised this, I promised that,

Then calmed ‘em down with a fireside chat.’

‘I spent their money on fishing trips,

And fished from the decks of their battleships.

I gave them jobs on the W. P. A.,

Then I raised their taxes and took it away,

I bossed their wages and closed their shops,

I killed their pigs and burned their crops.’

‘I double-crossed both old and young,

And still the goofs my praises song.

I brought back beer, and what do you think?

I taxed it so high that they couldn’t drink.

I supplied them cash with government loans;

When they missed a payment, I took their homes.’

‘When I wanted to punish the folks, you know,

I’d put my She on the radio.

I paid them to let their farms lie still,

And imported foot-stuffs from Brazil.

I curtailed crops when I felt real mean,

And shipped in beef from the Argentine.’

‘My workers worked with the speed of snails,

While taxpayers chewed their fingernails.

When the Red-Jew mobsters needed dough,

I closed up plants for the C. I. O.

I ruined jobs by my New Deal stealth,

And put the screws on rich men’s wealth!’

Now Hyde-Park talked both long and loud,

While the devil stood and his head he bowed.

At last he said: ‘Let’s make it clear,

You’ll have to go – you can’t stay here,

For once you mingled with my mob,

I’d have to look for another job!’ (2)

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References

(1) For another example, see: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/translation-of-an-anti-semitic-flyer

(2) George Armstrong, n.d., [1940], ‘Rothschild Money Trust’, 1st Edition, Omni: Palmdale, pp. 128-129