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snagglepuss

(12,704 posts)
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 05:14 PM Mar 2012

In the 1930s American Nazis built a huge bunker for Hitler in Los Angeles. Am I the only one

Last edited Sun Mar 18, 2012, 06:15 PM - Edit history (2)

who never knew this? Does anyone know the names of the people who financed the bunker and what happened to them after the war?



snip


It sounds like the bizzare script of a Hollywood B-movie.

In a parallel universe the Nazis have won the war, Adolf Hitler moves to LA where he mingles with the stars of the silver screen while running his evil empire from a luxurious ranch deep in the LA hills.

But during the 1930s, American sympathisers were so confident this exact scenario was actually going happen they spent millions building a deluxe compound ready for their fuhrer's imminent arrival.


Equipped with a diesel power plant, 375,000 gallon concrete water tank , giant meat locker, 22 bedrooms and even a bomb shelter, the heavily guarded estate was home to a community of Hollywood fascists who hoped to ride out the war there.




Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2116684/Hitlers-Los-Angeles-bunker-planned-run-Nazi-empire-war.html#ixzz1pVNTGItx

48 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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In the 1930s American Nazis built a huge bunker for Hitler in Los Angeles. Am I the only one (Original Post) snagglepuss Mar 2012 OP
Travel Channel program 'Off Limits' did a piece on this in their Los Angeles episode... Bluenorthwest Mar 2012 #1
I also didn't know about Rocketdyne Labs, (until recently) Trillo Mar 2012 #2
Wait for the movie 'Iron Sky'. randome Mar 2012 #3
Where dya think Reagan was chopping all that wood in the 80s? kenny blankenship Mar 2012 #4
Q: WTF is he chopping for? The tree is down tabasco Mar 2012 #26
A. Always kick them when they're down. kenny blankenship Mar 2012 #27
Best part of the article is that it is going to be bulldozed. About time. Does anyone know who the jwirr Mar 2012 #5
Tea Party types Enrique Mar 2012 #8
Figure Grand-daddy Prescott (BFEE) prolly had a paw in it......n/t lastlib Mar 2012 #12
It's a possibility. Did the fascists pay to hush this up after the war? snagglepuss Mar 2012 #14
I wonder if the Mail got this from their proprietor's archives intaglio Mar 2012 #6
Hollyvood, ja! Octafish Mar 2012 #7
He was working for the terrorists before he was against them. Rex Mar 2012 #10
A Fresh Look by Carla Binion Octafish Mar 2012 #20
True, there is so much information we don't know Rex Mar 2012 #47
Do you find it odd that this bunker hasn't got more press over the years? snagglepuss Mar 2012 #13
Edward Luttwak explained things... Octafish Mar 2012 #23
Yes, I do. I've never never heard anything about this. I also did a quick search on the net and RKP5637 Mar 2012 #30
Never knew this- thanks for posting Tumbulu Mar 2012 #9
The ad is for Powerbuilt Buildings on the OP. Rex Mar 2012 #11
Here's a piece on The Silver Shirts, the group of whacks who built this compound: gateley Mar 2012 #15
That document which states that the goal of "Christ democracy" is to organize snagglepuss Mar 2012 #21
Well... "The State Of California Was At The Vanguard Of The American Eugenics Movement" WillyT Mar 2012 #16
So it was the Nazis who hitched their horse to America's Eugenics ideology Zalatix Mar 2012 #19
Detailed article: The Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics ellisonz Mar 2012 #41
Thank You For That !!! WillyT Mar 2012 #44
You're welcome. ellisonz Mar 2012 #46
Turn it into a museum of tolerance and diversity. Zalatix Mar 2012 #17
Better still a museum about fascism in the USA. snagglepuss Mar 2012 #22
It should left alone or preserved as a cautionary reminder. Joe Shlabotnik Mar 2012 #45
William Dudley Pelleyand the "Silver Shirts" pkdu Mar 2012 #18
Whoa! This is news to me! GreenPartyVoter Mar 2012 #24
So where is this place? Gold Metal Flake Mar 2012 #25
It might be off of.... AntiFascist Mar 2012 #29
See post #31 and #32. Your posting helped me find it on the net, I was curious. n/t RKP5637 Mar 2012 #34
That's a very informative article. Thanks for posting. snagglepuss Mar 2012 #36
It's mind boggling that story behind who built the place remains "sketchy". snagglepuss Mar 2012 #38
I think a lot of history tends to get covered up... AntiFascist Mar 2012 #40
Here's info on a hike into the area and location. RKP5637 Mar 2012 #31
Here's a video from youtube and a hike into the area. RKP5637 Mar 2012 #32
Wow! The founder of the Silver Shirts...William Dudley Pelley joeybee12 Mar 2012 #28
They went 6 days early. Maybe they were afraid they had been found out. HubertHeaver Mar 2012 #42
Here's a video from youtube and a hike into the area. Just found it. RKP5637 Mar 2012 #33
As the person was climbing the stairs, the fact that Hitler and Nazism was relatively recent snagglepuss Mar 2012 #37
And today they would be Teabaggers.... rfranklin Mar 2012 #35
More on the Silver Legion of America (aka the Silver Shirts) RufusTFirefly Mar 2012 #39
That looks like a fascinating book. I had read years ago about snagglepuss Mar 2012 #48
I grew up in this county, and I never heard of it. AnotherDreamWeaver Mar 2012 #43

Trillo

(9,154 posts)
2. I also didn't know about Rocketdyne Labs, (until recently)
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 05:21 PM
Mar 2012

also nestled in the hills of that general area. I heard they had a little radiation accident there late 1950s or thereabouts. Supposedly, the radiation is not yet fully cleaned up, in spite of lots and lots of money allocated and spent to do just that.

 

randome

(34,845 posts)
3. Wait for the movie 'Iron Sky'.
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 05:22 PM
Mar 2012

Coming out sometime this year.

The Nazis have been hiding on the Moon since the close of WWII and in 2018, they invade the Earth!

Indie-movie heaven!

kenny blankenship

(15,689 posts)
4. Where dya think Reagan was chopping all that wood in the 80s?
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 05:27 PM
Mar 2012

Uncle Adolf would never hear of a bunker heated by solar power.
 

tabasco

(22,974 posts)
26. Q: WTF is he chopping for? The tree is down
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 06:25 PM
Mar 2012

Last edited Sun Mar 18, 2012, 08:42 PM - Edit history (1)

A: Photo op, like shrubby "clearing brush"on the pig ranch.

Is imbecile Reagan supposed to be splitting that piece of wood? Why is there no more split wood or wood to be split? Can somebody help?

kenny blankenship

(15,689 posts)
27. A. Always kick them when they're down.
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 06:30 PM
Mar 2012

"Then go after them with an axe."
--Republican Party motto
Adopted June 19, 1900 National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States, Exposition Hall Philadelphia PA.

jwirr

(39,215 posts)
5. Best part of the article is that it is going to be bulldozed. About time. Does anyone know who the
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 05:29 PM
Mar 2012

50 Americans were?

Enrique

(27,461 posts)
8. Tea Party types
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 05:36 PM
Mar 2012

not just a slam, the American fascists were just like the Tea Party now, a far right-wing movement funded by huge corporations, but with a populist and racist message.

lastlib

(23,339 posts)
12. Figure Grand-daddy Prescott (BFEE) prolly had a paw in it......n/t
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 05:44 PM
Mar 2012

GAWD, I hate those evil bastards!

intaglio

(8,170 posts)
6. I wonder if the Mail got this from their proprietor's archives
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 05:32 PM
Mar 2012

Rothermere, the proprietor of the Mail in the 30's, was a full on fascist sympathiser and had the Daily Mail publish puff pieces about the Fuhrer.

 

Rex

(65,616 posts)
47. True, there is so much information we don't know
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 10:44 PM
Mar 2012

and won't know as long as Congress (with an approval rating of dogshit) keeps records hidden away for political reasons that has nothing to do with national security. Or whitewash an event that we will never have all the information on. With nothing to do with national security and just stupid actions that needed to be caught and corrected before they went on.

How many people know The High Power Moon sat in Congress with his wife and was baptized our New Lord and Savior?

George is happy, he got what he wanted didn't he? So did his son.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
23. Edward Luttwak explained things...
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 06:18 PM
Mar 2012

...writing about "hypotheticals" of course:


Control over the flow of information emanating from the political center will be our most important weapon in establishing our authority after the coup. -- Edward Luttwak, "Coup D’Etat – A Practical Hanbook," Penguin, 1968, p. 117.


Which explains this wonderful peak behind the curtain from Carl Bernstein:

CIA and the Media

As did Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho), who warned us:



“That capability at any time could be turned around on the American people and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter. There would be no place to hide. If this government ever became a tyranny, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back, because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government, no matter how privately it was done, is within the reach of the government to know. Such is the capability of this technology.

"I don’t want to see this country ever go across the bridge. I know the capability that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return.”



[link:Frank Church and the Abyss of Warrantless Wiretapping|That was 1976]. Loads o' interesting times since then, Friend snagglepuss. Too bad Corporate McPravda doesn't see fit to tell us about them.

RKP5637

(67,112 posts)
30. Yes, I do. I've never never heard anything about this. I also did a quick search on the net and
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 06:37 PM
Mar 2012

the most I was able to find was this recent article. I checked you tube too, I though someone might have posted a video, because judging by all of the graffiti it must be accessible. Weird, really weird.

gateley

(62,683 posts)
15. Here's a piece on The Silver Shirts, the group of whacks who built this compound:
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 05:48 PM
Mar 2012
http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/THR-SS1.PDF

Other things when you Google, too -- this is the first one I pulled up.

From the piece:

II. THEIR AIMS
/
The Silver Shirts state that they are a Protestant Christian movement,
for bringing on the new Christ government, through a strictly Christian Mili-1^
tia, this government to be administered by people of the Christian faith and
Silver Shirt ideals.

They claim that President Franklin D. Roosevelt has set aside the Constitution,
which they desire to restore.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Swap a few names and we could be talking 2009.

snagglepuss

(12,704 posts)
21. That document which states that the goal of "Christ democracy" is to organize
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 06:09 PM
Mar 2012

the US into "Colossus Corporation" deserves it's own thread.

 

WillyT

(72,631 posts)
16. Well... "The State Of California Was At The Vanguard Of The American Eugenics Movement"
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 05:53 PM
Mar 2012


The state of California was at the vanguard of the American eugenics movement, performing about 20,000 sterilizations or one third of the 60,000 nationwide from 1909 up until the 1960s.[90] By 1910, there was a large and dynamic network of scientists, reformers and professionals engaged in national eugenics projects and actively promoting eugenic legislation. The American Breeder's Association was the first eugenic body in the U.S., established in 1906 under the direction of biologist Charles B. Davenport. The ABA was formed specifically to "investigate and report on heredity in the human race, and emphasize the value of superior blood and the menace to society of inferior blood". Membership included Alexander Graham Bell, Stanford president David Starr Jordan and Luther Burbank.
[92]
When Nazi administrators went on trial for war crimes in Nuremberg after World War II, they justified the mass sterilizations (over 450,000 in less than a decade) by citing the United States as their inspiration.[75] The Nazis had claimed American eugenicists inspired and supported Hitler's racial purification laws, and failed to understand the connection between those policies and the eventual genocide of the Holocaust.


From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics#United_Kingdom


 

Zalatix

(8,994 posts)
19. So it was the Nazis who hitched their horse to America's Eugenics ideology
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 06:04 PM
Mar 2012

and drove it into the ground?

ellisonz

(27,711 posts)
41. Detailed article: The Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 07:50 PM
Mar 2012
Tuesday, November 25, 2003 - 00:10
Edwin Black
Mr. Black is the author of IBM and the Holocaust and the just released War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race, from which the following article is drawn.
Hitler and his henchmen victimized an entire continent and exterminated millions in his quest for a co-called "Master Race."


But the concept of a white, blond-haired, blue-eyed master Nordic race didn't originate with Hitler. The idea was created in the United States, and cultivated in California, decades before Hitler came to power. California eugenicists played an important, although little known, role in the American eugenics movement's campaign for ethnic cleansing.

Eugenics was the racist pseudoscience determined to wipe away all human beings deemed "unfit," preserving only those who conformed to a Nordic stereotype. Elements of the philosophy were enshrined as national policy by forced sterilization and segregation laws, as well as marriage restrictions, enacted in twenty-seven states. In 1909, California became the third state to adopt such laws. Ultimately, eugenics practitioners coercively sterilized some 60,000 Americans, barred the marriage of thousands, forcibly segregated thousands in "colonies," and persecuted untold numbers in ways we are just learning. Before World War II, nearly half of coercive sterilizations were done in California, and even after the war, the state accounted for a third of all such surgeries.

---------

During the Reich's early years, eugenicists across America welcomed Hitler's plans as the logical fulfillment of their own decades of research and effort. California eugenicists republished Nazi propaganda for American consumption. They also arranged for Nazi scientific exhibits, such as an August 1934 display at the L.A. County Museum, for the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association.

In 1934, as Germany's sterilizations were accelerating beyond 5,000 per month, the California eugenics leader C. M. Goethe upon returning from Germany ebulliently bragged to a key colleague, "You will be interested to know, that your work has played a powerful part in shaping the opinions of the group of intellectuals who are behind Hitler in this epoch-making program. Everywhere I sensed that their opinions have been tremendously stimulated by American thought.…I want you, my dear friend, to carry this thought with you for the rest of your life, that you have really jolted into action a great government of 60 million people."

More: http://hnn.us/articles/1796.html




 

Zalatix

(8,994 posts)
17. Turn it into a museum of tolerance and diversity.
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 06:02 PM
Mar 2012

Piss on the ghosts of the Nazis and their sympathizers.

Joe Shlabotnik

(5,604 posts)
45. It should left alone or preserved as a cautionary reminder.
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 09:24 PM
Mar 2012

Bulldozing for a picnic area is a convenient and friendly way of whitewashing history.

AntiFascist

(12,792 posts)
29. It might be off of....
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 06:36 PM
Mar 2012

Mandeville Canyon Rd, or somewhere in that area? I biked through it a long time ago. I recall that it's next to a creek and behind a creepy looking wrought iron gate off of the main road.

On edit: It's Rustic Canyon

http://articles.latimes.com/1990-11-18/local/me-6808_1_rustic-canyon

snagglepuss

(12,704 posts)
38. It's mind boggling that story behind who built the place remains "sketchy".
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 07:20 PM
Mar 2012

That there was no investigation after the war to root out Hitler sympathizers in the US speaks volumes. It also seems unlikely that just one American couple funded this project - $4 million in the 30s was astronomical.

AntiFascist

(12,792 posts)
40. I think a lot of history tends to get covered up...
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 07:33 PM
Mar 2012

for example, National Socialists were responsible for creating the Pledge of Allegiance and placing the flag in American school rooms. Prior to Hitler coming to power, children saluted the flag with something resembling a Nazi salute:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bellamy_salute_1.jpg

On Edit:

Edward Bellamy wrote "Looking Backward"

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199552576/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2/186-0909784-1293032?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_r=0V6W0649760P8E070EV6&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_i=0836951115

"There is a great sense in Bellamy's writing that social Darwinism plays a significant role. Clearly there is an idea of eugenics (reminiscent of the Oneida community) where the bad parts of society are simply bread out of society. "Like the social Darwinists of his day, Bellamy viewed character traits as inborn and believed that the morally as well as the physically unfit must be weeded out if human beings were to evolve to a higher state." (Strauss, 76) What must be addressed about this particular work is the influence that it exhibited on other writers in Bellamy's day and after."

 

joeybee12

(56,177 posts)
28. Wow! The founder of the Silver Shirts...William Dudley Pelley
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 06:32 PM
Mar 2012

He died in 1965 and he said his day of ultimate victory would comeon SEPTEMBER 17, 2001...pretty dang close!!!


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Dudley_Pelley

snagglepuss

(12,704 posts)
37. As the person was climbing the stairs, the fact that Hitler and Nazism was relatively recent
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 07:10 PM
Mar 2012

and that he had plans to live in the US really struck home.

 

rfranklin

(13,200 posts)
35. And today they would be Teabaggers....
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 06:58 PM
Mar 2012

convinced that Jesus was going to return to Earth if only they could convert all the Jews into evangelistic Christians.

RufusTFirefly

(8,812 posts)
39. More on the Silver Legion of America (aka the Silver Shirts)
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 07:27 PM
Mar 2012

From William Dudley Pelley: a life in right-wing extremism and the occult by Scott Beekman

The activities of Pelley's California-based “actionist boys” sparked the first governmental investigation into Silver Shirt activities. The Anti-Radical Squad of the LA Police maintained an ongoing investigation of Silver Shirt branches in the city. Concerned by the fiery rhetoric of Willard Kemp, the San Diego police had also begun monitoring local Silver Shirt meetings. (Beekman, 105)

Willard Kemp, leader of the San Diego group, was nothing if not a man of action. Not content to get bogged down in the writings of William Pelley, he preferred instead to prepare for armed struggle against Communist invaders. Arming his 200 followers with rifles allegedly procured from unscrupulous attendants at North Island Naval Base armory, he drilled them at a well-guarded ranch near El Cajon. To ensure that his men received top-notch training, Kemp hired two Marine Corps drill instructors, Virgil Hayes and Edward T. Grey, and allegedly offered to buy any stolen weapons the two Marines were able to get their hands on. (Beekman, 104)

Two U.S. Marines, Virgil Hayes and Edward T. Grey, had infiltrated the organization in San Diego and when Kemp attempted to buy stolen weapons from them, they reported their findings to Naval Intelligence. These reports reached the attention of several U.S. Congressmen as a result. (Beekman, 105)

Concern about the rise of the Silver Shirts was one of the factors that led Congressman Samuel Dickstein to propose the formation of an investigative committee. (Beekman, 105)



For those unfamiliar with Dickstein's committee, it was better known as the McCormack-Dickstein Committee. Its original goal was to investigate incidents of home-grown fascism and anti-Semitism. Two-time Congressional Medal of Honor winner General Smedley Butler's explosive testimony about the alleged "Business Plot" occurred in this committee. Ironically, the committee was subverted and morphed into the notorious Red-baiting House Un-American Activities Committee.

snagglepuss

(12,704 posts)
48. That looks like a fascinating book. I had read years ago about
Mon Mar 19, 2012, 12:12 AM
Mar 2012

General Smedley Butler but not about the Silver Shirts nor the association of the occult with American RW extremism.

AnotherDreamWeaver

(2,852 posts)
43. I grew up in this county, and I never heard of it.
Sun Mar 18, 2012, 09:02 PM
Mar 2012

But I thank you and everyone who added info to this thread. Another DU education.

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