Here’s a look at one of America’s ugliest chapters — the bizarre antisemitic visions of Father Charles Coughlin, a Roman Catholic priest who was the Rush Limbaugh/Glenn Beck of his day. At its height, Father Coughlin’s radio show boasted more than 30 million listeners — at the time, a full third of the population of the United States. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Coughlin was an outright supporter of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

Coughlin also published a newsletter named Social Justice, peddling a virulent brand of antisemitism that’s more than a little shocking to read, 70 years later. Among other disgusting content, Social Justice published The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

LGF reader Mich-again got his hands on one of the most infamous issues of Social Justice, published December 5, 1938, and scanned the whole thing for us: Scanned copy of Antisemitic Icon Father Coughlin’s ‘Social Justice’ (Dec. 1938). I’ve taken his full resolution images, scaled them down about 50%, and made them into a slideshow.

Why is this issue especially infamous? Because it contains an article by Coughlin titled “Background of Persecution” which is translated almost verbatim from a 1935 speech by Nazi Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels. It’s on page 7 of the slideshow.

20 pictures in this slideshow - click the image to start