Julius Klein (1901–1984) was an American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

spy Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...

business executive A business executive is a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization. Executives run companies or government agencies. They create plans to help their organizations ...

and

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

general A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...

Early life

Klein was born in Chicago in 1901. His parents were Austrian Jewish immigrants to the U.S. who relocated to Berlin during Klein's childhood. He was interned by German authorities during World War I, but escaped to France and joined the U.S. Army as a spy.

Civilian career

After serving as a spy in Germany in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Klein began his civilian career in the 1920s as a criminal reporter for ''The State Herald'', a Hearst Corporation newspaper in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and initiated the first German language radio broadcasts in the United States. Klein also originated the South Pacific edition of ''The Stars and Stripes'' military newspaper, unsuccessfully ran for Congressman at Large as Republican in 1932, and for the United States Senate in 1954. He wrote the screenplay, ''Black Cargo'', during a Hollywood stint (1934–39) when Klein tried unsuccessfully to produce films on the life of General

John Pershing General of the Armies John Joseph Pershing (September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948), nicknamed "Black Jack", was a senior United States Army officer. He served most famously as the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) on the Wes ...

.National Museum of American Jewish Military History, "Major General Julius Klein: His Life and Work," Washington, D.C. Retrieved December 1, 2012.

World War II

In 1933 Klein joined the Illinois National Guard, becoming a lieutenant colonel in 1941. He formulated the ''Combat Public Relations'' plan dealing with

psychological warfare Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), have been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations (MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and M ...

and propaganda and was also stationed in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. During this time Klein also worked as a journalist for the

Chicago Herald-Examiner The ''Chicago American'' was an afternoon newspaper published in Chicago, under various names until its dissolution in 1974. History The paper's first edition came out on July 4, 1900, as ''William Randolph Hearst, Hearst's Chicago American''. ...

, published his own periodical (The National Free Press) with his nephew Joseph Roos, and conducted domestic intelligence gathering and spy operations authorized by both Illinois governor

Henry Horner Henry Horner (November 30, 1878 – October 6, 1940) was an American politician. Horner served as the 28th Governor of Illinois, serving from January 1933 until his death in October 1940. Horner was noted as the first Jewish governor of Illinois. ...

and Colonel (later General)

George C. Marshall George Catlett Marshall Jr. (December 31, 1880 – October 16, 1959) was an American army officer and statesman. He rose through the United States Army to become Chief of Staff of the US Army under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry ...

. Over the years, Klein had built a positive relationship with German Consul

Georg Gyssling Georg Gyssling (16 June 1893 – 8 January 1965) was Germany, German Consul (representative), consul to the United States from 1927 until 1941, since 1933 in Los Angeles. He was a member of the Nazi Party from 1931. Early life Gyssling was born ...

, which continued up until the time that Gyssling was recalled to Germany in 1941. After the war, Klein's letter of commendation for Gyssling was one of the factors that saved Gyssling from being convicted as a Nazi war criminal.

Public service

In 1947, Julius Klein was elected the National Commander of the

Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America The Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America (also referred to as the Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A., the Jewish War Veterans, or JWV) is an American Jewish veterans' organization created in 1896 by American Civil War veterans to rais ...

. On April 4, 1948, as National Commander of the Jewish War Veterans, Klein organized an enormous show of strength for the establishment of the State of Israel in the form of a JWV parade down New York's Fifth Avenue. The parade influenced the United States to vote for the partition of Palestine and the State of Israel was born in May, 1948.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Klein, Julius 1901 births 1984 deaths Journalists from Chicago Jewish American military personnel Illinois National Guard personnel United States Army generals World War I spies for the United States 20th-century American Jews American expatriates in Germany