Controversial Catholic priest who gained a large following in the 1930s
through his national radio broadcasts, which were often filled with praise for
Adolf Hitler and
Benito Mussolini and laced with vitriolic anti-Semitic tirades. He blamed the Great Depression on "international Jewish bankers", who he also claimed were behind the Russian Revolution of 1917. He once claimed that Hitler's persecution of the Jews was justified because "the Jews in Germany persecuted Christians first". He was involved in several ultra-right-wing, anti-Semitic hate groups, one of which, The Christian Front, was broken up by the FBI when it was discovered to be arming and training its members to start killing Jews, Communists, "liberals" and more than a dozen US Congressmen it believed were Jewish or were supported by Jews. Eventually many radio stations refused to carry his broadcasts. In 1942 the Bishop of Detroit ordered Coughlin to return to his duties at his parish and cease his political activities.
