Harold Keith Thompson | |
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 Thompson in 1952 | |
| Born | (1922-09-17)September 17, 1922 New Jersey, US |
| Died | March 3, 2002(2002-03-03) (aged 79) |
| Alma mater | Yale University |
| Political party | |
Harold Keith Thompson (September 17, 1922 – March 3, 2002) was aNew York City-based corporate executive, a Nazi agent, and a figure withinAmerican far-right andfascist circles.[1][2]
Thompson was born inNew Jersey in 1922.[1]: 85
Thompson began his political activism in his teenage years, joining theGerman American Bund and theAmerica First Committee, and campaigning against involvement before America's entry intoWorld War II.[1]: 85 [3] He came to the attention ofNazi Germany and was appointed as a Special Agent of theSicherheitsdienst (SD) Overseas Intelligence Unit on July 27, 1941, swearing a loyalty oath toAdolf Hitler.[1]: 86 [4] Thompson served in theU.S. Navy during the war.[5]
Thompson graduated fromYale University in 1946.[3] He made an expedition toAntarctica as part ofOperation Highjump under Rear AdmiralRichard Evelyn Byrd.[1]: 86 [6] In 1948, Thompson joined theUnited States Marine Corps. In 1949, he was court-martialed for sexual deviation and maltreatment. Following a conviction and the approval of the verdict, Thompson, who had already been under investigation for his Neo-Nazi activities, was dismissed from the military.[5]
Alongside his political activities, Thompson found work inpublic relations and owned a PR firm by the 1950s.[3][1]: 85
The writerStephen E. Atkins describes Thompson as "the intermediary between American prewar Nazism and the postwar neo-Nazism".[3] Thompson befriended the German NaziOtto Skorzeny, who had been Hitler's commando leader, and worked with him to set upODESSA.[1]: 86–87 [7] Thompson also became a close ally ofOtto Ernst Remer, a Nazi general who had defended Hitler against a 1944 coup plot,[8] and in 1951, Thompson registered with theUnited States Department of Justice as the American representative for the German neo-NaziSocialist Reich Party co-founded by Remer, a position Thompson held until the group was banned in 1952. Around the same time, he became involved with theNational Renaissance Party, the American neo-Nazi party founded byJames Madole.[9][8][3] Thompson campaigned withFrancis Parker Yockey for Remer's release from prison during the 1950s. Thompson and Yockey remained close allies until the latter's suicide in federal custody in 1960.[1]: 103–106 Thompson also ran a campaign to releaseKarl Dönitz, Hitler's successor.[2] Thompson worked with neo-Nazi presses in South America to distribute literature covertly in Germany.[7]
Among the stranger aspects of Thompson´s life he was friends with the Jewish Communist publisher,Lyle Stuart, who he used the assistance of on several occasions to attack people with whom he had come into conflict includingKing Farouk of Egypt, and maintained warm relations with many members of theCPUSA.[10]
In his article "I Am an American Fascist" for the obscureExposé magazine in 1954, Thompson praised theThird Reich and Hitler and condemned theNuremberg Trials as "vicious and vilely dishonorable".[2] He became linked to theInternational Association for the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugenics and published a number of pamphlets on its behalf.[2]
Thompson visitedCairo in an attempt to forge links to theNasser regime.[11][better source needed] More concrete links were established withMohammad Amin al-Husayni andJohann von Leers as part of efforts to build the ties of the extreme right in the West and theIslamic world.[12]
Along with a number of right wing activists Thompson was also involved on the fringes of theRepublican Party. Independently wealthy, he contributed to the campaigns of such right wing figures in the GOP asJesse Helms,Oliver North andPat Buchanan. His monetary contributions to the party were such that he was awarded membership of its Presidential Legion of Merit as a result.[1]: 387
He became a mentor and friend to the Holocaust denierKeith Stimely.[13]
In his later years, Thompson largely disappeared from public view. In the wake of theOklahoma City bombing he re-emerged, initially welcoming the attack; afterward, however, he later revised his position and denounced it as a government act designed to destroy the reputation of the far right.[1]: 354
He would also speak positively about the Russian nationalist politicianVladimir Zhirinovsky saying that, "Zhironovky certainly seems a good man to me in many ways, certainly better thanYeltsin".[1][2]
Thompson died in 2002.
In the early post-war years, Thompson worked as a publisher and literary agent (his clients includedFulgencio Batista,Carol II of Romania andHans-Ulrich Rudel).[1]: 114 Thompson was offered a position on the board of policy of theLiberty Lobby, although he turned it down, stating that he only wanted to take one loyalty oath in his life (to Hitler when he joined the SD).[1]: 225
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)| International | |
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| People | |
