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Urban Archives Center
Descriptive Finding Guide for
1946 – 1948
1 oversize box
Prepared by
Robert G. Marshall, Archivist, December 1985
Revised by Autumn Hayner and Cathy Kay, J. Paul Getty Trust, Student Assistants, October 2004; February 2006
© 2004 Oviatt Library, California State University, Northridge. All rights reserved. For additional information, please contact Urban Archives Center .
This small run of The Broom newspaper was transferred to the Urban Archives Center by Donald Read, former Head of the Special Collections Department, Oviatt Library, California State University, Northridge in September 1985. The newspapers were inventoried, processed, and made available for research in December 1985. This descriptive finding guide was revised in October 2004, in part under a generous gift from the J. Paul Getty Trust. Additional issues of The Broom newspaper are located in the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, Community Relations Committee [CRC] collection. The collection is open for research without restrictions.
Antisemitism in the United States, while reaching a fevered pitch just prior to World War II, began to decline in the late 1940’s. After the murder of six million Jews in Europe, many Americans found themselves ardently opposed to the bigotry that led to such genocide. Unfortunately, many of the conceptions that Jews were a Godless people who controlled U.S. money and wealth remained. Accordingly, “Fifty-seven anti-Semitic groups still existed in the United States throughout 1950’s.”[1] In many cases, anti-Semitic sentiments were shared by devout Christian groups who viewed the Jews as “materialistic, dishonest and vulgar.”[2] Many even linked Jews to communism and looked upon them with disdain immediately following WWII. It were these misconceptions and fears that publications such as The Broom newspaper presented and played to.
The Broom newspaper touted itself as a voice to the Christian Community of Southern California. The Broom began publication in East San Diego during 1932 by owner, Fred de Aryan and his father, C. Leon de Aryan, the papers editor. The de Aryan's background included membership in the Mazdaznan church order (an ancient method of integral education that teaches harmonious, natural and spiritual ways of living), vegetarianism and pacifism. In C. Leon de Aryan's words, "The purpose of my being born on earth is to break the stranglehold of the murderers upon mankind, which results in wars when allowed to run its course and curse." In 1946 de Aryan's son was fighting a court case under the Selective Service Act as a conscientious objector, which appears in many issues of the tabloid.
De Aryan claimed that he was promoting the rule of love and faith in God in his newspaper, frequently taking biblical verses out of context to use in slanted writings. Articles were often hypocritical, preaching that one should love and treat all humans equally while insisting (just a few paragraphs later) that interacting and intermixing with different races was evil (“mongrelization” as de Aryan referred to it). He also suggested that Antisemitism did not actually exist in the Christian nation of America and that all Jews should convert to Christianity to end the trouble that their faith caused. Derogatory slang toward non-white ethnic groups was used repeatedly in the articles. De Aryan also believed that the fight against Germany during WWII was misdirected and unnecessary, and that the Germans were the actual victims of the war. Some articles even suggest that the Jews started the war for capital gain. Despite the virulent anti-Semitic language used throughout the newspaper, the publication was, ironically, fiercely anti-Nazi.
The Broom was primarily dedicated to expounding reactionary theories on Antisemitism, racial purity, war, and interpreting the word of Christ. Typical examples of article subjects are depicted in the following headlines: "Message of Holy Zarathushtra," "The Heroism of Peace in Wartime," "Synopsis of and Essay on the 'Race Problem'," "Slave-Laboring German Prisoners of War," and "Sanhedrin: 70 Anti-Christ Master Minds."
This small collection of 22 issues of the newspaper is arranged in chronological order. Additional issues of The Broom may be found in the CRC collection.
The Urban Archives Center has an extensive collection of reactionary literature, which includes copies of The Broom newspaper:
Related research material can be found in the following institutions
[Note: See also - National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections and Special Collections Libraries]:
The Oviatt Library, CSUN has extensive listings for published material under the subject heading Subversive activities, which include the following:
The collection's major themes relate to the following subjects:
1 oversize box
[22 issues]
This small collection of 22 issues of The Broom newspaper is not arranged by series. It is arranged in chronological order.
22 Oversized newspapers, Issues of The Broom
No records have been disposed of in this collection
[End Box Listing]
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