The Plot Against America

Herman quits his job and begins working long hours at Monty’s market. He begins drinking whiskey when he returns home from work in the morning. Sandy rejoins the family and no longer acts contemptuous; Philip is not sure what has changed for his brother. Bess also quits her job to stay home and supervise her erratic sons: “A father remodeled, a brother restored, a mother recovered, eighteen black silk sutures stitched in my head and my greatest treasure irretrievably lost, and all with a wondrous fairy-tail swiftness” (239). 

After his Sunday broadcast, Walter Winchell is fired by Jergens Lotion. His show is replaced by a dance band. Jergens representatives accuse him of having “cried fire in a crowded theater” (240) and that he has slandered the president. The New York Times supports the firing as well, stating that Winchell’s baseless accusations have disgraced him. The paper accuses Winchell of using the Big Lie technique employed by the Nazis. Winchell responds in the Daily Mirror, listing fifteen of his personal enemies who, in his view, typify the new American fascism. It will be his last column. 

Three days later, Winchell announces his candidacy for president. Winchell was a rumored womanizer and adulterer, and a fixture in New York nightlife. The Republicans do not treat his candidacy seriously. Bengelsdorf and Aunt Evelyn marry in the middle of June. Philip’s parents are not invited. Bess is inconsolable and Philip overhears her saying that Winchell might be the last thing to give them hope. 

The wedding’s guests include many prominent Jews, as well as African-American authorities from local churches. The First Lady sends a congratulatory telegram that is read out loud at the wedding. Its conclusion includes the line, “Our greatest mission as Americans is to live in harmony and brotherhood as a united people” (249). 

The FBI agent, Don, goes to the produce market and begins asking questions about Herman. Monty temporarily bribes someone to make the FBI pressure go away. A new infatuation with girls makes Sandy forget about OAA and Just Folks: “Lindbergh’s Jewish tobacco farmer discovers breasts, and suddenly he turns up as just another teenager” (253). All summer, Jewish families say goodbye to the Roths before relocating. Herman has decided that the family will not move: “There were two types of strong men: those like Uncle Monty and Abe Steinheim, remorseless about their making money, and those like my father, ruthlessly obedient to their idea of fair play” (255). Herman takes them out for ice cream on the Saturday the last family leaves. 

Winchell begins his campaign the Tuesday after Labor Day. He gives a speech through a bullhorn in downtown New York and is soon surrounded by thousands of listeners. He says he knows that Lindberg can order him locked away and executed, “[b]ut what our homegrown Hitlerites cannot take away is my love for America and yours” (260). Throughout the day, he repeats the speech in many neighborhoods. The New York Times and other papers frame Winchell’s efforts as narcissistic. 

In Boston, a riot erupts while he speaks. A man with a burning cross rushes the soapbox and a gun is fired twice; this man “had at last brought the Lindbergh grotesquery to the surface” (262). The police extinguish the fire that is burning Winchell’s pants and he is treated for minor burns at a hospital. After, Winchell is hounded by violent protesters at every stop. In Jewish neighborhoods, there is looting and vandalism. Soon, Jewish schools and synagogues are being firebombed in Detroit. Several hundred Jews cross the border into Ontario, and “American history had recorded its first large-scale pogrom” (266). 

Detroit becomes the center of the Winchell riots. The violence is so extreme that former Winchell supporters begin wondering if he should stop his candidacy to keep the peace. The Jews in Newark begin preparing for conflict, unsure of whether Winchell will visit on his speaking tour. Rabbi Joachim Prinz organizes the Newark Committee of Concerned Jewish Citizens to prepare for a worst-case scenario. A Jewish mobster named Longy Zwillman promises that if the cops fail to do their duty, Newark’s Jews will be protected. He puts his men out recruiting lawless Jewish youths, who begin to patrol the corners looking for trouble: “They embodied everything crude and despicable our that our parents had hoped to leave behind” (271). 

On October 5, 1942, Winchell is shot and killed by an assassin in Louisville, Kentucky: “By evening there wasn’t a Jewish family on our street that wasn’t barricaded behind double-locked doors” (273). Bess tries to call Mrs. Wishnow in Danville, but only Seldon is home. She has Philip talk to him and he asks Seldon if he knows that Walter Winchell has been killed. Seldon had not heard. Philip’s mother leaves a message for Mrs. Wishnow to call her. She is worried that the relocated families will be cut off from the news. 

An Italian family—The Cucuzzas—move in downstairs. One night, Mr. Cucuzza and his son, Joey, come up for a visit. Mr. Cucuzza gives Herman a gun and tells him how to use it, even though Herman protests that he has always paid his taxes and he knows nothing will go wrong in the long run. They are interrupted by a radio bulletin that says Winchell’s body will lie in state in Penn Station. FDR will speak at the service. Herman cheers and believes that Roosevelt will know how to fix what is happening.