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Dorothy Celene Thompson (July 9, 1893 – January 30, 1961) was an American journalist and radio broadcaster. She was the first American journalist to be expelled from
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
, in 1934, and was one of the few women news commentators broadcasting on radio during the 1930s. Thompson is regarded by some as the "First Lady of American Journalism" and was recognized by ''
Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' magazine in 1939 as equal in influence to
Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt ( ; October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, first lady of the United States, during her husband Franklin D ...
. Recordings of her NBC Radio commentary and analysis of the European situation and the start of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
(from August 23 to September 6, 1939) were selected by the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
for preservation in the National Recording Registry in 2023, based on their "cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage."


Life and career

Dorothy Thompson was born in
Lancaster, New York Lancaster is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Erie County, New York, Erie County, New York (state), New York, United States, centered 14 miles east of downtown Buffalo, New York, Buffalo. Lancaster is an outer ring suburb of ...
, in 1893, one of three children of Peter (1863-1921) and Margaret (Grierson) Thompson (1873-1901). Her siblings were Peter Willard Thompson (1895-1979) and Margaret Thompson (1897-1970, later Mrs. Howard Wilson). Her mother died when Thompson was seven, leaving Peter, a Methodist minister, to raise his children alone. Their father soon remarried; Dorothy did not get along with his new wife, Elizabeth Abbott Thompson. In 1908, her father sent Thompson to
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
to live with his two sisters to avoid further conflict. In Chicago she attended Lewis Institute for two years and earned an
associate degree An associate degree or associate's degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of academic qualification above a high school diploma and below a bachelor's degree ...
before transferring to
Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...
as a junior. At Syracuse, she studied politics and economics and graduated '' cum laude'' with a
bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...
in 1914. Because she had the opportunity to be educated, unlike many women of the time, Thompson felt that she had a social obligation to fight for
women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...
, which would become the base of her ardent political beliefs. Shortly after graduation, Thompson moved to Buffalo and became involved in the women's suffrage campaign. During her time in the suffrage movement, Thompson also did advertising and publicity work in New York City and contributed op-eds on social justice to ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' and the '' New York Herald Tribune''. In 1920, she went abroad to pursue a journalism career.


Journalism in Europe

Thompson boarded a ship to
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
in June 1920 to become a foreign correspondent. Beginning by submitting articles to the
International News Service The International News Service (INS) was a U.S.-based news agency (newswire) founded by newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst in 1909.
(INS), she went to Ireland in August and was the last to interview the
Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( ; ; ) is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The History of Sinn Féin, original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffit ...
Irish independence leader Terence MacSwiney. Later on the day of the interview, Aug. 12, MacSwiney was arrested for sedition by the British government; he died in prison on a hunger strike two months later. The interview was sent by INS to American newspapers and led to Thompson being appointed Vienna correspondent for the Philadelphia ''Public Ledger''. While working in
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
, Thompson became fluent in German. She met and worked alongside correspondents
John Gunther John Gunther (August 30, 1901 – May 29, 1970) was an Americans, American journalist and writer. His success came primarily by a series of popular sociopolitical works, known as the "Inside" books (1936–1972), including the best-sell ...
and G. E. R. Gedye. In 1925, she was promoted to Chief of the Central European Service for the ''Public Ledger''. She resigned in 1927 and, not long after, the '' New York Evening Post'' appointed her head of its Berlin bureau in Germany. There she witnessed firsthand the rise of the National Socialist or Nazi party. According to her biographer, Peter Kurth, Thompson was "the undisputed queen of the overseas press corps, the first woman to head a foreign news bureau of any importance". During this time Thompson cultivated many literary friends, particularly among exiled German authors. Among her acquaintances from this period were Ödön von Horváth,
Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...
,
Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...
, Stefan Zweig and Fritz Kortner. She developed a close friendship with author
Carl Zuckmayer Carl Zuckmayer (27 December 1896 – 18 January 1977) was a German writer and playwright. His older brother was the pedagogue, composer, conductor, and pianist Eduard Zuckmayer. His first two dramas were failures. In 1929, he wrote the script ...
. In Berlin she got involved in a
lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...
affair with German author Christa Winsloe, while still married, claiming "the right to love". Thompson's most significant work abroad took place in Germany in the early 1930s. In
Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
, Thompson met and interviewed
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
for the first time in 1931. This would be the basis for her subsequent book, ''I Saw Hitler'', in which she wrote about the dangers of him winning power in Germany. Later, in a ''
Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the United States. ''Harper's Magazine'' has ...
'' article in December 1934, Thompson described Hitler in the following terms: "He is formless, almost faceless, a man whose countenance is a caricature, a man whose framework seems cartilaginous, without bones. He is inconsequent and voluble, ill poised and insecure. He is the very prototype of the little man." Biographer Kurth wrote: "Later, when the full force of Nazism had crashed over Europe, Thompson was asked to defend her 'Little Man' remark. 'I still believe he is a little man,' she replied. 'He is the apotheosis of the little man.' Nazism itself was 'the apotheosis of collective mediocrity in all its forms.' "


Expulsion from Germany

Fellow correspondent and friend William L. Shirer once commented on Dorothy Thompson's "love for Germany, which was passionate but — as she wrote once — frustrated." Her anti-Nazi journalism and, in particular, her depiction of Hitler in her book, ''I Saw Hitler,'' led to her becoming the first American journalist to be expelled from Germany. On August 25, 1934, she received the expulsion order, delivered by a
Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
agent to her hotel room in the Hotel Adlon, Berlin. She was given 24 hours to leave the country. Thompson did so on August 26. Numerous journalists gathered to see her off at the train station, who gave her bunches of American Beauty roses to show their solidarity. Thompson's expulsion received extensive international attention, including a front page story on the
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
. Biographer Peter Kurth said "her expulsion from Berlin had turned her overnight into a kind of heroine – a celebrity of note, the dramatic embodiment of the nascent war against fascism."


At the ''New York Herald-Tribune''

In 1936, Thompson began to write "On the Record", a '' New York Herald Tribune'' newspaper column that was also syndicated nationwide. It was read by over ten million people and carried by more than 170 papers. With a new column appearing three times a week, the feature lasted, uninterrupted, for 22 years. She also wrote a monthly column for the '' Ladies' Home Journal'' for 24 years, from 1937 to 1961. Its topics were far removed from war and politics, focusing on gardening, children, art, and other domestic and women's-interest topics.


Radio and the Herschel Grynszpan affair

Around the time when she started to write "On the Record", NBC hired Thompson as a news commentator. Her radio broadcasts on the network from 1936 to 1938 would become some of the most popular radio broadcasts in the United States, making her one of the most sought after female public speakers of her time. When Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Thompson went on the air for fifteen consecutive days and nights. In 1938, Thompson championed the cause of a Polish-German Jewish teenager, Herschel Grynszpan, whose assassination of a minor German diplomat, Ernst vom Rath, in Paris, had been used as propaganda to trigger the events of Kristallnacht in Germany by the Nazis. Thompson's broadcast on NBC radio was heard by millions of listeners, and it led to an outpouring of sympathy for the young assassin. Under the banner of the Journalists' Defense Fund, more than $40,000 was collected, enabling the famous European lawyer Vincent de Moro-Giafferi to take up Grynszpan's case.


Fame and controversy

By 1939, Thompson was one of the most respected women of her age and as a result, she was featured on the cover of ''
Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' along with a picture of her speaking into an NBC radio microphone, captioned "She rides in the smoking car". The article declared that "she and
Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt ( ; October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, first lady of the United States, during her husband Franklin D ...
are undoubtedly the most influential women in the U.S." and explained Thompson's influence: "Dorothy Thompson is the U.S. clubwoman's woman. She is read, believed and quoted by millions of women who used to get their political opinions from their husbands, who got them from Walter Lippmann." In '' Woman of the Year'' (1942) Katharine Hepburn played Tess Harding, a foreign correspondent modeled on Thompson. The 1981 Broadway musical adaptation starred
Lauren Bacall Betty Joan Perske (September 16, 1924 – August 12, 2014), professionally known as Lauren Bacall ( ), was an American actress. She was named the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the America ...
as Tess. During the
1936 United States presidential election United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 3, 1936. In the midst of the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depression, the History of the Democratic Party (United States), Dem ...
, Thompson characterized Black voters as a bloc which was "notoriously venal. Ignorant and illiterate, the vast mass of Negroes are like the lower strata of the early industrial immigrants, and like them, they are 'bossed' and 'delivered' in blocs by venal leaders, both white and black." In 1941, Thompson wrote " Who Goes Nazi?" for ''Harper's''.


Zionism and the State of Israel

Thompson had been sympathetic to the Zionist movement since she first travelled to Europe in 1920. During her visit, she had "endless discussions" about the movement with delegates who were traveling to the International Zionist Conference which was then being held in London. In the late 1930s, as Thompson emerged as a leading advocate for Jewish refugees who were fleeing from persecution in Europe, she grew close to the Zionist statesman
Chaim Weizmann Chaim Azriel Weizmann ( ; 27 November 1874 – 9 November 1952) was a Russian-born Israeli statesman, biochemist, and Zionist leader who served as president of the World Zionist Organization, Zionist Organization and later as the first pre ...
and she also grew close to Meyer Weisgal, Chaim Weizmann's lieutenant in the US. As
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
unfolded, Thompson went from being a sympathetic commentator to being an outright advocate for the movement. She was a keynote speaker at the 1942 Biltmore Conference, and by the war's end, she was regarded as one of the most effective spokespersons for
Zionism Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...
. However, Thompson's attitude towards the movement had already begun to shift, most especially after a 1945 trip to Palestine, because she grew more concerned about the activities of the movement's right-wing adherents. She was especially troubled by its escalating
terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...
against the British. After penning several columns which were critical of right wing Zionist terrorism, Thompson provoked a tremendous backlash that ultimately led her to cooperate with the leaders of the Jewish anti-Zionist organization, the American Council for Judaism. She wrote a critique of American Zionism in '' Commentary'' in 1950, accusing Zionists of
dual loyalty In politics, dual loyalty is loyalty to two separate interests that potentially conflict with each other, leading to a conflict of interest. Examples Examples of actual or perceived "dual loyalty" include the following: United States Wor ...
. A response in ''Commentary'' by Oscar Handlin criticised her "totalitarian" understanding of national identity in demanding single loyalty. After her ''Commentary'' article, the backlash against her grew more intense.Hertog, Susan (2011)
''Dangerous Ambition: Rebecca West and Dorothy Thompson: New Women in Search of Love and Power''
Random House, New York. p. 344.
This included accusations of antisemitism, which Thompson strongly rebuffed, after being warned that hostility toward Israel was, in the American press world, "almost a definition of professional suicide." She eventually concluded that Zionism was a recipe for perpetual war. As Thompson's distance from the Zionist movement grew, she became an advocate for Palestinian refugees. After she travelled to the Middle East in 1950, Thompson was involved in the founding of the
American Friends of the Middle East The American Friends of the Middle East (AFME) was an American international educational organization, formed in 1951. It was founded by columnist Dorothy Thompson, Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., Harry Emerson Fosdick, and 24 other American educators, th ...
, an organization which was secretly funded by the CIA. Lyndsey Stonebridge wrote in 2017 that
There can be no doubt that anti-Semitism was a theme in Thompson’s later writing. Pathologizing Jewishness, in particular, became habitual for her in the 1950s. By May 25, 1950, she is writing to Maury M. Travis, darkly, of the “tragic
psychosis In psychopathology, psychosis is a condition in which a person is unable to distinguish, in their experience of life, between what is and is not real. Examples of psychotic symptoms are delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized or inco ...
of the Jew”... In the ''Commentary'' piece she warns: “We bring on what we fear. Any psychologist will tell you that a primary neurosis is the fear of rejection and that when that neurosis takes hold of a person he unconsciously strives to create the conditions for that rejection.” The reference is to Jewish “ neurosis,” but the passage also rather elegantly describes the logic of Thompson’s own fears. In what well may be a case of knowing your addressee, Thompson wrote to
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...
in 1951: “I have become convinced that the Jews, phenomenally brilliant individually and especially in the realm of abstract thought, are collectively the stupidest people on earth. I think it must come from cultural inbreeding—perhaps physical inbreeding also—in a desire to retain a homogenous, in-group society in the midst of ‘aliens.’


Personal life

She was married three times, most notably, to her second husband, the Nobel Prize in Literature winner
Sinclair Lewis Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930 Nobel Prize in Literature, 1930, he became the first author from the United States (and the first from the America ...
. In 1923, she married her first husband, Hungarian Joseph Bard; they
divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganising of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the M ...
d in 1927. Thompson met Lewis on July 8, 1927, at an afternoon tea at the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin, held by German Foreign Minister
Gustav Stresemann Gustav Ernst Stresemann (; 10 May 1878 – 3 October 1929) was a German statesman during the Weimar Republic who served as Chancellor of Germany#First German Republic (Weimar Republic, 1919–1933), chancellor of Germany from August to November 1 ...
. The two arranged a dinner the following day, which was both Dorothy's 34th birthday and the day when her divorce from Bard was finalized. In 1928, she married Lewis and acquired a house in Vermont. They had one son, Michael Lewis, born in 1930. The couple divorced in 1942. She married her third husband, the artist Maxim Kopf, in 1943, and their marriage lasted until Kopf's death in 1958. Thompson died in 1961, at the age of 67, in
Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...
,
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...
, and she is buried in the town cemetery of Barnard, Vermont.


In popular culture

The character of Tess Harding, played by Katharine Hepburn in the film Woman of the Year (1942), was loosely based on Dorothy Thompson. Her marriage to Sinclair Lewis was the subject of Sherman Yellen's Broadway play ''Strangers'', where she was played by Lois Nettleton. The play opened on March 4, 1979, and closed after nine performances. In the TV series '' World on Fire'', the character of Nancy Campbell, played by Helen Hunt, was loosely based on Dorothy Thompson's experience as a broadcaster in Berlin. In the novel ''The War Begins in Paris'' by Theodore Wheeler, a fictional version of Thompson makes several cameos in scenes that depict American journalists who are covering the start of World War II from Paris.


Works

* 1928: ''The New Russia'' (Holt) * 1932: ''I Saw Hitler!'' (Farrar and Rinehart) * 1935: ''Maps'' * 1938: ''Dorothy Thompson's Political Guide: A Study of American Liberalism and Its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States'' (Stackpole) * 1938: ''Refugees: Anarchy or Organization?'' (Random House) * 1937: ''Concerning Vermont'' * 1939: ''Once on Christmas'' (Oxford University Press) * 1939: ''Let the Record Speak'' (Houghton Mifflin) * 1939: ''Christian Ethics and Western Civilization'' * 1941: ''A Call to Action, Ring of Freedom'' * 1941: ''Our Lives, Fortunes, and Sacred Honor'' * 1941: '' Who Goes Nazi?'' * 1942: ''Listen, Hans'' (Houghton Mifflin) * 1944: ''To Whom Does the Earth Belong?'' * 1945: ''I Speak Again as a Christian'' * 1946: ''Let the Promise Be Fulfilled: A Christian View of Palestine'' * 1948: ''The Truth About Communism'' (Washington: Public Affairs Press) * 1948: ''The Developments of Our Times'' * 1955: ''The Crisis of the West'' * 1957: ''The Courage to Be Happy'' (Houghton Mifflin)


See also

* List of suffragists and suffragettes * List of women's rights activists *
Timeline of women's suffrage Women's suffrage – the right of women to vote – has been achieved at various times in countries throughout the world. In many nations, women's suffrage was granted before universal suffrage, in which cases women and men from certain Social ...


References


Further reading

* Cohen, Deborah. ''Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took On a World at War'' (2022) American coverage of 1930s in Europe by
John Gunther John Gunther (August 30, 1901 – May 29, 1970) was an Americans, American journalist and writer. His success came primarily by a series of popular sociopolitical works, known as the "Inside" books (1936–1972), including the best-sell ...
, H. R. Knickerbocker, Vincent Sheean, and Dorothy Thompso
excerpt
* Nancy Cott, ''Fighting Words: The Bold American Journalists Who Brought the World Home Between the Wars'' (Basic Books, 2020) * Hertog, Susan. ''Dangerous Ambition: Rebecca West and Dorothy Thompson; New Women in Search of Love and Power'' (New York: Ballantine, 2011) 493 pp. * Kurth, Peter. ''American Cassandra: The Life Of Dorothy Thompson'' (1990) * Sanders, Marion K. ''Dorothy Thompson: A Legend in her Time'' (1973) * Sheean, Vincent. ''Dorothy and Red'' (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1963) *


External links

*
Dorothy Thompson Papers
at Syracuse University
Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961)


(September 3, 1939) * Video:
Sands of Sorrow
' (1950). Dorothy Thompson speaks on the plight of Arab refugees from the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Producer: Council for the Relief of Palestine Arab Refugees *


Articles


"Dorothy Thompson, the Journalist Who Warned the World About Adolf Hitler"
by Kristin Hunt. {{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Dorothy 1893 births 1961 deaths 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American women journalists American anti-communists American anti-fascists American activists for Palestinian solidarity American columnists American suffragists American women columnists American Writers Association members Illinois Institute of Technology alumni Journalists from Upstate New York LGBTQ people from New York (state) Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Methodists from New York (state) NBC employees New York Herald Tribune people New York Post people People deported from Germany People from Lancaster, New York People from Windsor County, Vermont Syracuse University alumni Viennese interwar correspondents Writers from New York (state) Suffragists from New York (state)