‘Hitler declares war, blames a famous Mason’

     
I thought that subject line would get ya!

But I promise that is no mere clickbait. There actually is a point to this, and it involves Hitler—and not in one of those reductio ad absurdum ways either.

Last Wednesday, we observed the 75th anniversary of Imperial Japan’s devastating sneak attack on the American military bases at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which brought the United States into what would become known as World War II. The day after that surprise attack, the U.S. Congress, at the request of President Franklin Roosevelt, declared war on Japan. In less than four years, America would completely vanquish Japan’s land, sea, and air forces, and reduce much of the Japanese home islands to rubble, including a few parts that were caused to glow in the dark. But you know that already.

The Germans were not too keen on being at war with the United States again. With total war being waged against both the British Empire and the Soviet Union already, the last thing the Nazi leadership wanted was a third great power as a foe, particularly the one with the seemingly limitless economic potential. But Japan was Germany’s strategic partner, and if Hitler wanted Japan to join the fight against the Soviets, he would have to agree to support Japan’s war on the United States.

So, on this date in 1941, Hitler, standing before the Reichstag, explained why he wanted war against the United States, and did so in a speech that mostly was calling Roosevelt names—and that gave a shout-out to Freemasonry. Excerpted:


And now permit me to define my attitude to that other world, which has its representative in that man, who, while our soldiers are fighting in snow and ice, very tactfully likes to make his chats from the fireside, the man who is the main culprit of this war…

But it is a fact that the two conflicts between Germany and the U.S.A. were inspired by the same force and caused by two men in the U.S.A.—Wilson and Roosevelt… But why is there now another President of the U.S.A. who regards it as his only task to intensify anti-German feeling to the pitch of war? National Socialism came to power in Germany in the same year as Roosevelt was elected president. I understand only too well that a worldwide distance separates Roosevelt’s ideas and my ideas. Roosevelt comes from a rich family and belongs to the class whose path is smoothed in the Democracies. I am only the child of a small, poor family and had to fight my way by work and industry. When the Great War came, Roosevelt occupied a position where he got to know only its pleasant consequences, enjoyed by those who do business while others bleed. I was only one of those who carry out orders, as an ordinary soldier, and naturally returned from the war just as poor as I was in autumn 1914. I shared the fate of millions, and Franklin Roosevelt only the fate of the so-called Upper Ten Thousand.

After the war Roosevelt tried his hand at financial speculation: he made profits out of the inflation, out of the misery of others, while I, together with many hundreds of thousands more, lay in hospital. When Roosevelt finally stepped on the political stage with all the advantages of his class, I was unknown and fought for the resurrection of my people. When Roosevelt took his place at the head of the U.S.A., he was the candidate of a Capitalist Party which made use of him: when I became Chancellor of the German Reich, I was the Führer of the popular movement I had created. The powers behind Roosevelt were those powers I had fought at home. The Brains Trust was composed of people such as we have fought against in Germany as parasites and removed from public life…

While an unprecedented revival of economic life, culture and art took place in Germany under National Socialist leadership within the space of a few years, President Roosevelt did not succeed in bringing about even the slightest improvements in his own country. And yet this work must have been much easier in the U.S.A…. Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation was all wrong: it was actually the biggest failure ever experienced by one man. There can be no doubt that a continuation of this economic policy would have done this President in peacetime, in spite of all his dialectical skill. In a European State he would surely have come eventually before a State Court on a charge of deliberate waste of the national wealth; and he would have scarcely escaped at the hands of a Civil Court, on a charge of criminal business methods.

This fact was realized and fully appreciated also by many Americans including some of high standing. A threatening opposition was gathering over the head of this man... He was strengthened in this resolve by the Jews around him. Their Old Testament thirst for revenge thought to see in the U.S.A. an instrument for preparing a second “Purim” for the European nations which were becoming increasingly anti-Semitic. The full diabolical meanness of Jewry rallied round this man, and he stretched out his hands.

I will pass over the insulting attacks made by this so-called President against me. That he calls me a gangster is uninteresting. After all, this expression was not coined in Europe but in America, no doubt because such gangsters are lacking here. Apart from this, I cannot be insulted by Roosevelt for I consider him mad just as Wilson was. I don’t need to mention what this man has done for years in the same way against Japan. First he incites war then falsifies the causes, then odiously wraps himself in a cloak of Christian hypocrisy and slowly but surely leads mankind to war, not without calling God to witness the honesty of his attack—in the approved manner of an old Freemason.


Franklin Roosevelt was initiated in Freemasonry in Holland Lodge 8 in New York City on October 11, 1911. The lodge is still at labor, and you can visit the room in Masonic Hall and see the altar where that happened. For more on Hitler versus Freemasonry, read this from the Masonic Philosophical Society.
     

'Finding Joe'

  
(With apologies to the makers of the recent film on Joseph Campbell.)

The Searchers Club held a very special meeting tonight, so special that the group required the Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library to serve as an appropriate setting. On the agenda was the unsealing of several mysterious parcels recently received from Japan, boxes containing Masonic treasures that excited our anticipation as we eagerly awaited the moment of unveiling.

Regalia, parchments, jewels, and ephemera of various kinds filled several cardboard cartons shipped to Bro. Darryl Perry in New York from his friend Diana in Japan, daughter of the late Ill. Joe Diele, a renowned Scottish Rite Mason in Japan.

Bro. Darryl & Bro. Earnest.

The medium-sized cardboard cartons were shipped by the daughter of the late Ill∴ Joe Diele, 33°, GC, a hard working Scottish Rite Mason of the Southern Jurisdiction who passed away in 2005. Not knowing what to do with so much regalia and ephemera, she sent them across the planet to her friend Bro. Darryl Perry of Joseph Warren-Gothic Lodge No. 934, who co-founded the Searchers Club with Bro. Earnest Hudson.

The group assembled included RW Tom Savini, director of the library; RW Bill Thomas, Grand Treasurer, RW Ron Steiner, public relations director; various club members; and other miscellaneous, curious Masons, like myself. None of us knew anything about our departed brother. All we had to go on was his obituary published in the May-June 2005 issue of The Scottish Rite Journal. It was up to the Mystic Tie to bring us together to share this moment of exploration and remembrance.

Please read about Bro. Diele here to get a better idea of his service to the Craft. For brevity here, I'll just let the photographs speak for themselves.

Ill. Diele received these jewels in recognition for presiding over three Scottish Rite bodies.

The jewels shown above are past presiding officer jewels. From left: Venerable Master of a Lodge of Perfection; Wise Master of a Chapter of Rose Croix; and Commander of a Council of Kadosh. Diele presided over these bodies in Tokyo. In 1973, he received the Knight Commander Court of Honour, and in 1975 the 33°. The following year he was appointed Deputy for Japan and Korea, and served until his retirement, only several months before his death. In 2001, Supreme Council bestowed on him its top honor, Grand Cross of the Court of Honour.

Ill. Bro. Diele was not a mere office-holder or title-chaser. His leadership extended into the work from which true legacies are founded. Please do read that obituary for the details, but to offer a few highlights, Diele brought the Tokyo Masonic Center to fruition. He was honored with the Takashi Komatsu Distinguished Service Medal from the Grand Lodge of Japan, and even was an Honorary Past Junior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of Japan, and was an Honorary Marshal of the District Grand Lodge of Scotland in Hong Kong. Honors such as these are not awarded frivolously or frequently.

From left: the jewels of the Thirty-Third Degree and Knight Commander of the Court of Honour, both Scottish Rite honors, and the Joseph Warren Medal from the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.

RW Bro. John Chang inspects a certificate awarded to Ill. Diele.

Obviously death figures largely in Masonic thinking and practice. How many other fraternal orders have their own ritualized funeral services? "To live respected, and die regretted" is how the ideal is phrased often.

And then there are all those things we leave behind. Maybe a bookshelf of Masonic literature. Carry cases full of aprons, caps, fezzes, and other clothing. White gloves. The leather-like snap cases containing highly ornamental gold medals. Gold always is valuable, especially today. Lapel pins by the score. Plaques, certificates, souvenirs. So much more. Where does it all go after we ourselves are gone?

Into the trash, mostly, except for the gold. Maybe for sale on eBay or somewhere. Perhaps occasionally given back to the brother's lodge, which already has an abundance of such inventory.

As explained above, the daughter of the late Ill. Diele, not knowing how to properly care for these Masonic items seven years after the death of her father, shipped them all to Bro. Darryl. During our enjoyable meeting to salute the memory of our late brother, Darryl decided to return everything to Japan, not back to Diana, but to the Tokyo Masonic Center, where the Masonic memory of Ill. Joe Diele deserves to serve others today and tomorrow as an inspiration. In that way, one overcomes the sting of death and robs the grave of victory. SMIB.

Bro. Earnest Hudson, RW Tom Savini, RW John Chang, Bro. Darryl Perry, and RW Ron Steiner.