Fred Schwarz

Frederick Charles Schwarz, MD (15 January 1913 – 24 January 2009) was an Australian physician and political activist who founded the Christian Anti-Communism Crusade (CACC). He made a number of speaking tours in the United States in the 1950s, and in 1960, he moved his base of operations to California.[1] He was the author of the international bestseller, You Can Trust The Communists (to be Communists), Prentice Hall, 1960. Schwarz worked with his wife, Lillian Schwarz, from abroad and, in his later years, at their Australian home in Camden, New South Wales, near Sydney.

Early life

Schwarz was born in Brisbane, Australia, as the fourth of twelve children. His father was a Viennese Jew who emigrated to Australia after his conversion to Christianity.

He first obtained dual degrees in Arts and Science at the University of Queensland in Brisbane and later went on to complete a degree in medicine. He specialized as both a general practitioner and psychiatrist and kept a private practice at home in the Sydney suburb of Strathfield from 1953.

Career

In 1940, Schwarz, in the aftermath of a debate with an Australian communist, became compelled to study communist ideology and was later recognised as an expert on Marxist-Leninist philosophy.[2] He founded and was the chairman of the not-for-profit Christian Anti-Communism Crusade (CACC), based originally in Sydney and later in Long Beach, California. He remained in that position until the late 1990s. During his time with the CACC, Schwarz gave many lectures and seminars across the United States on the subject of communism, placing an emphasis on the role of education in understanding Marxism-Leninism from the source documents of that movement by Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Mao Zedong, and others. Under Schwarz's leadership, for some decades the CACC also paid for an orphanage in India for underprivileged children.

In the early 1960s, Schwarz had a national profile through his television network and powerful allies among southern California anticommunists: Walter Knott, founder of Knott's Berry Farm and member of the John Birch Society, and Patrick Frawley, a magnate whose portfolio included Paper Mate and Technicolor.[3] Both Knott and Frawley provided financial support to Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign, and funded Schwarz's anticommunist rallies.[4]

Schwarz held a "Southern California School of Anti-Communism" that filled the 16,000-capacity Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena from 28 August to 1 September 1961. The opening night's most popular speaker was Ronald Reagan.[5] According to Morrie Ryskind, writing at the time in The Los Angeles Times, "The evening sessions, featuring nationally known speakers, were televised, and those who should know tell me that some three million people listened in nightly. At any rate, I can honestly say that in my 25 years in Los Angeles I have never known a local event that so completely captured the enthusiasm of the city." A subsequent event, the three-hour "Hollywood's Answer to Communism" held at the Hollywood Bowl on 16 October 1961, featured a list of celebrities (Roy Rogers, John Wayne, James Stewart) and Senator Thomas J. Dodd of Connecticut. Columnist John Crosby described it as "a monster three-hour concentration of pure venom on television... in which the patriots suggested again and against that the United States was largely peopled by traitors."[6]

Schwarz wrote a fortnightly newsletter for nearly 40 years and three books. The first, You Can Trust the Communists (to be Communists), was first published in 1960 and sold well over one million copies worldwide, when its copyright was with Prentice Hall, and hundreds of thousands of copies later, when Dr Schwarz regained the copyright.

The second was The Three Faces of Revolution published in 1972.

The third was his autobiography, Beating the Unbeatable Foe: One Man's Victory over Communism, Leviathan, and the Last Enemy, which was published in 1996. In it (Foreword, xix) is a photo of a letter in which US President Ronald Reagan with whom Schwarz had been friendly for many years (on 4 January 1990): "Fred, you're to be commended for your tireless dedication in trying to ensure the protection of freedom and human rights...." The book also published accolades by William F. Buckley Jr., Reed Irvine, John Stormer, etc.

Schwarz was the father-in-law of leading Australian clinical cardiologist and medical scientist, Professor Murray Esler.

References
  1. North, Gary (12 December 2002). "It All Began With Fred Schwarz". Lew Rockwell.
  2. Vimeo.
  3. Helmore, Edward (24 November 1998). "Obituaries: Patrick J. Frawley Jnr". Independent. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  4. Hendershot, Heather (15 July 2011). What's Fair on the Air?: Cold War Right-Wing Broadcasting and the Public Interest. University of Chicago Press. p. 58. ISBN 9780226326764. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  5. Ross, Steven J. (6 September 2011). Hollywood Left and Right: How Movie Stars Shaped American Politics. Oxford University Press USA. p. 63. ISBN 9780195181722. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  6. Swanberg, W.A. Luce and His Empire. Charles Scribner Sons. pp. 419–421.
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