Palmetto Past & Present: The Sad Saga Of A South Carolina Nazi Sympathizer

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May 8 marks the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, VE Day for short. There was plenty for Americans to celebrate back in 1945. After nearly four years of hardship and sacrifice—not to mention 416,000 deaths and another 671,000 wounded (many maimed for life)—fighting on the European continent was finally over. 

Adolf Hitler had splattered his brains on his bunker wall with a bullet, and Allied forces now ruled over conquered Berlin. That, at least for that theater of operations, was that.

Yet as his fellow countrymen savored their moment of triumph, it was a party not shared by one South Carolina native. He was hiding in Austria, terrified of the consequences that were likely soon to catch up with him for his activities.

That’s because Robert Henry Best was a traitor. 

World War II buffs know about the propaganda antics of Mildred Gillars (better known as “Axis Sally”), Japanese-American Iva Toguri (“Tokyo Rose”), and Briton William Joyce (“Lord Haw-Haw”). They sat behind microphones and broadcast messages in English aimed at Americans, Canadians, and Brits on the home front and serving on the front lines. They talked up the supposed virtues of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan while attacking Allied morale, making soldiers feel homesick, and urging them to surrender.

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They paid dearly for their folly, too. Gillars and Toguri both did long stretches in the federal big house. Joyce wound up swinging from a rope.

Though they were the conflict’s most famous broadcast propagandists, they were hardly alone. There were many others, traitors to their homeland, whose names have long since vanished into the mists of time.

And sadly, South Carolinian Best was one of them.

Born in rural Sumter in the closing years of the 19th century, he graduated from Wofford College in 1916, then served in the U.S Coastal Artillery Corps in World War I, staying in the army until 1920.

After earning a degree in journalism from prestigious Columbia University in New York City, Best landed a Pulitzer Traveling Scholarship worth $1,600 (almost $30,000 today), and he wound up in Vienna, Austria, in 1923.

He worked for some of the biggest names in news of his day, first as a foreign correspondent for the old United Press and freelancing for big-name publications as The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, Time and Newsweek.

But in between pecking out stories on his old manual typewriter, Best became something of a character in Vienna. He wore a broad-brimmed Stetson hat, his 220-pound frame was hard to miss, and he relished spending hours every day holding forth at a table reserved for him at the fashionable Café Louvre. It was a Viennese version of the legendary Algonquin Round Table at The Plaza Hotel in New York.  

There, Best assembled a kind of human Noah’s Ark, much like the mélange of mankind showcased in the classic film “Casablanca.” One witness recalled, “refugees, hangers on, news tipsters, spies — serious, but questionable people who sat at his table … People were astounded by what they saw at Café Louvre.”

It was a charmed life. Until March 12, 1938. That was the day German troops goose-stepped into Vienna, and Austria was absorbed into the Reich.

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More than just Best’s adopted country’s flag changed. His table now included Nazis – and he slowly fell under their anti-semitic spell.

Best spent more time listening to the Brown Shirts and less tending to his professional duties. United Press finally got fed up and fired him.

And that’s where his story starts going off the rails.

Best bummed around Nazi-occupied Europe looking for work until finally washing up in Berlin. German State Radio eventually put him on its payroll. He began hosting a show called BBB: “Best’s Berlin Broadcast,” beamed directly to the U.S.A. Under the guise of an alleged journalist reporting what he saw, his diatribes were filled with his hatred of Jews.

Consider this gem from May 24, 1943: “What I shall continue to broadcast is every word native-born, dyed-in-the-wool propaganda of an America, by an American, and for America. Awake, America, Awake! Arise! Down with the Judocrats! Oust the Rabbis!”

Best grew even more bizarre. Later that year, he announced he was running for president of the United States against Franklin Roosevelt (whom he called “Funny Frankie.”). A key pillar of his 1944 campaign platform: “I demand the head of one of America’s Jewish bankers for every American boy who is killed or wounded in the present war.” (Spoiler alert: Best lost.)  

Few Americans paid attention to his drivel. But the FBI was listening, taking notes, and making recordings. In 1943, Best and several other Americans who made similar broadcasts from inside Nazi Germany were indicted in absentia and charged with treason. 

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When the war was over, they were tracked down and hauled home to stand trial. Best acted as his own lawyer (rarely a sound legal strategy) and proudly admitted he wrote his broadcasts himself. Armed with that testimony, a jury swiftly convicted him of 12 counts of treason. Best was sentenced to life behind bars, commencing with his 1948 conviction.

In 1950, acting as his own attorney once again, he appealed his conviction and was shot down. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review his case.

Best died of a brain hemorrhage in the federal prison hospital in Springfield, Missouri, just before Christmas 1952. Shortly thereafter, he was quietly buried in a Methodist cemetery in Pacolet, South Carolina.

He was 56 years old. 

The Palmetto State has had many heroes over its long, storied existence. Robert Henry Best was not one of them.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

J. Mark Powell is an award-winning former TV journalist, government communications veteran, and a political consultant. He is also an author and an avid Civil War enthusiast. Got a tip or a story idea for Mark? Email him at mark@fitsnews.com.

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