Benjamin Mandel

Benjamin Mandel (1887-August 8, 1973) AKA "Bert Miller"[1] was a New York city school teacher and activist who later became a director of research for the House Un-American Activities Committee and the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee.

Life

Background

Born in New York in 1887 Mandel was a New York schoolteacher who, as "Bert Miller," joined the Communist Party in 1920. In 1925 he resigned his position as a teacher to work full-time for the party.[2]

Communist years

Mandel eventually became Organization Secretary for the New York district and business manager for The Daily Worker.[3] He was also elected to the organizations Central Committee at its Fifth congress in 1927, and re-elected as a "candidate member" at its Sixth convention in March 1929. Later that year he was expelled with a group of party leaders known at the Lovestoneites.[4]

In 1930 Miller left the Lovestone group to go into the Conference for Progressive Labor Action.[5]

Anti-communist years

By the later 1930s he had become a dedicated anti-communist, and as "Benjamin Mandel," served as the research director for the Dies Committee for 1939–1945, and worked with the New York legislature during the Rapp-Courdert inquiry into the presence of Communist teachers in New York schools. He spent two years with the State department handling "security."

In 1947, he returned to the HUAC to assist the committee in the Hiss-Chambers case.[1]

In 1951 he became research director in the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, and stayed in that position until his retirement in 1967.

Death

Mandel died on August 8, 1973.[3]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Chambers, Whittaker (1952). Witness. New York: Random House. pp. 207, 536, 558, 563–564, 566–568, 571, 600, 628, 647, 663, 665. ISBN 978-0-8488-0958-4.
  2. ↑ "7 Teachers Face Contempt Action in School". New York Times. 6 June 1941. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  3. 1 2 Communist Prober Benjamin Mandel The Washington Post, Times Herald (1959-1973); Aug 10, 1973; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Washington Post (1877 - 1993) pg. C4
  4. ↑ Draper, Theodore. American Communism and Soviet Russia. pp. 430, 531, 561.
  5. ↑ Alexander, Robert J. The Right Opposition: The Lovestoneites and the International Communist Opposition of the 1930s. pp. 63–69. ISBN 0-313-22070-0.
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