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"Church and State: American Rapture" - Craig Unger - Vanity Fair
"On a scorching afternoon in May, Tim LaHaye, the 79-year-old co-author of the “Left Behind” series of apocalyptic thrillers, leads several dozen of his acolytes up a long, winding path to a hilltop in the ancient fortress city of Megiddo, Israel. LaHaye is not a household name in the secular world, but in the parallel universe of evangelical Christians he is the ultimate cultural icon. The author or co-author of more than 75 books, LaHaye in 2001 was named the most influential American evangelical leader of the past 25 years by the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals. With more than 63 million copies of his “Left Behind” novels sold, he is one of the best-selling authors in all of American history. Here, a group of about 90 evangelical Christians who embrace the astonishing theology he espouses have joined him in the Holy Land for the “Walking Where Jesus Walked” tour. Megiddo, the site of about 20 different civilizations over the last 10,000 years, is among the first stops on our pilgrimage, and, given that LaHaye’s specialty is the apocalypse, it is also one of the most important. Alexander the Great, Saladin, Napoleon, and other renowned warriors all fought great battles here. But if Megiddo is to go down in history as the greatest battlefield on earth, its real test is yet to come. According to the book of Revelation, the hill of Megiddo—better known as Armageddon—will be the site of a cataclysmic battle between the forces of Christ and the Antichrist. . . "
Vanity Fair 2005-12-01
XIII-"It can happen here;" Nazi Torturer Tells How" - John Metcalfe and James Metcalfe - Chicago Daily Times
Throughout the summer Billy Rose swings his colorful water carnival at the Clevelant Great Lakes exposition to a might climax while a chorus sings, "It can't happen here!" Black shirts, brown shirts, reds collapse in a fantastic dance when a peace loving legion of Americans marches onto the stage. But in a basement apartment a few miles away, I meet an Amerikadeutscher Volksbund fanatic, who is convinced "it can happen here." He is Adolph Scheidt, alias Schmidt, 564 E. 120th st., a sheet metal worker employed by the General Aviation Corp., and secretary of the Cleveland Bund post. A disabled German world war veteran, Scheidt apparently is in almost constant pain. he breathes hard and occasionally twists his body and grips his side as if to ease the pain. His icy eyes stare at me suspiciously as I meet him in front of his apartment. I introduce myslf and he gives me the nazi salute.
Chicago Daily Times 1937-09-24
XII-"Chicago Police 'with Us,' Ex G-Man hears Nazi Boast" - James J. Metcalfe and John C. Metcalfe - Chicago Daily Times
Initial subscriptions for the Chicago Bunds' proposed camp near Grays Lake total $2,000, Fuehrer Fritz Heberling tells me on Aug, 18. "With an insurance company taking a mortgage for $4,000, we need only $2,500 more," he says. "because we already have 1,500 in the Bund fund, the total cost will be $10,000. We are going to have baby bonds. But first we have to have a charter and make a corporation. It will take about two months. We don't have an option on the property, but we are not worried about that."
X-"German Citizens Join U.S. Bund, Ex G-Man Learns" - James J. Metcalfe and John C. Metcalfe - Chicago Daily Times
The fact that the Amerikadeutscher Volksbund has opened its membership to German citizens "some day may cause a lot of trouble," Fritz Heberling, fuehrer of the Deutscher Volksbund tells me. We are seated in Heberling's home at 3240 W. Warner ave. for a "school" session. I have volunteered to help Heberling with English pronunciation and grammar and he is to help me with German. He says he never could conscientiously become an American citizen because he could not be loyal to two countries at the same time. "you know," he explains, "one time I went to the courthouse - the federal office - to file my intention but when I went up the steps and saw those people writing out papers and swearing, I just could not do it. I turned around and went out again.
Chicago Daily Times 1937-09-21
IX-" Ex-G-Man Hears Bund Edict on Kenosha March" - James J. Metcalfe and John C. Metcalfe - Chicago Daily Times
Fritz Matthes, drillmaster of the Deutscher Volksbund, tells me not to attempt to retaliate if the CIO or "the communists" start trouble when we parade at Kenosha, Wis., on German day. "I'll issue the commands if the situation requires action," he warns. This warning comes six days before the Kenosha celebration after a drill night at the Bundscheim. At this meeting and at the business meeting of the Amerikadeutscher Bund two days later, a dozen members asks for copies of the pictures I took at Hindenberg camp the previous Sunday. Members at amused at the stories of the Hindenburg camp celebration in the Milwaukee Sentinel headed "Fail to Heil Hitler."
Chicago Daily Times 1937-09-20
VIII-"Nazi in U.S. Boast German Counsul Control" - William Mueller, John C. Metcalfe, James J. Metcalfe - Chicago Daily Times
By the very pinnacle of American naziism - Der Fuehrer Fritz Kuhn - the TIMES was informed of a "special arrangement" between the German-American Bund and Chancellor Adolf Hitler of Germany. Ramifications of the "arrangement" Kuhn declared, include a secret relationship between the Bund and the new German ambassador to the United States and German counsuls throughout the country. Publicly, Kuhn has said repeatedly: "We are strictly an American organization with no connections with Germany." But in the privacy of his executive office on the second floor of the Bund national headquarters at 178 E. 85th st., New York, he had a different story to tell one of the reporters who became a trusted storm trooper.
Chicago Daily Times 1937-09-19
VII-"Storm Trooper's Love Flight Told By Chicago Wife " - William Mueller, James J. Metcalfe and John C. Metcalfe - Chicago Daily Times
A bewildered little woman, aged beyond her years, sat in her shabby basement apartment at 2631 Lakewood ave., today sobbing for "justice" from her American nazi storm troop husband who deserted her for a childhood sweetheart. She is Mrs. Freida Lee, 54, and she told her story after identifying a picture of Robert Lee, Los Angeles member of the Amerikadeutsher Volksbund, as the husband who deserted her on Dec. 13, 1932. The picture appeared in the TIMES Sept. 10 in connection with the series on American nazis.
Chicago Daily Times 1937-09-17
U.S. Nazi Toys Teach Kids War
Nazi swastikas wave ... a cannon "booms" ...sparks fly from machine guns...signal communication lights flash. It is WAR, but a miniature war. A war played by American boys and girls with toy soldiers which are exact copies of the new Hitler military machine. Toy soldiers imported from Germany instill in American children the "glory" of war, TIMES reporters "covering" American nazidom learned. Two German import stores in the Yorkville section of New York City sell hundreds of nazi toy soldiers each year. The stores have smaller displays of American soldiers but they are not nearly as popular as those of the nazi regime.
Chicago Daily Times 1937-09-15
V-"Nazi in U.S. Blast Church" - William Mueller and John C. Metcalfe - Chicago Daily Times
American nazis, aping the Fuehrer of their homeland, applaud vicious attacts on Chicago's Cardinal Mundelein, the Roman Catholic Church, and all Christian religions which conflict with national socialism. But the Chicago leader of the Amerikadeutscher Volksbund, buck-toothed Peter Gissibl, a tailer, makes cassocks for priests and is actively soliciting their business. Early this month, Times reporter James Metcalfe, who became a Deutcher Volksbund storm trooper under the name of Oberwinder, drafted a letter for Gissibl which his business partner said was to go to 250 Catholic priests.
Chicago Daily Times 1937-09-14
III-"Fascist Union U.S. Nazi Goal" - William Mueller and John C. Metcalfe - Chicago Daily Times
"The Amerikadeutscher Volksbund, U.S. voice of nazism, is seeking to consolidate all fascist elements in America, wit their vari-colored shirts, into one great movement which the Hitler-inspired Bund will lead. TIMES reporters who joined the Bund marched with Italian black shirts and Ukranian brown shirts. Leaders revealed plans to enlist the support of other fascist-inclined groups. At the same time Newton Jenkins, perenially hopefully political candidate of Chicago is attemption to unite "nationalist" groups in a third party and the Bund is looking for a leader of its third party movement. . ."
Chicago Daily Times 1937-09-12
II-"U.S. Children 'Heil' Hitler" - William Mueller and John C. Metcalfe - Chicago Daily Times
I am a stranger in the crowded bar at Camp Siegfried, summer home of the German-American Bund near Yaphank, L.I.. It is Sunday, May 23, and American nazis of the New York metropolitan area are celebrating the official summer opening of their camp. The air is heavy with conversation in German and it is difficult for me to catch snatches of it since I have forgotten much of the German I learned in Berlin as a boy. My aim is to become acquainted with a Bund member who will invite me to a meeting where I can become a part of the organizations. I talk about the inevetable weather toa kindly appearing man next to me and soon we take our beer out to a picnic table under the tall trees that surround the restaurant-bar building. I tell him I am a stranger in New York and that I came to Camp Siegfried because I wanted to be with people of my own race.
Chicago Daily Times 1937-09-10