Office of Alien Property Custodian
The Office of Alien Property Custodian was an office within the government of the United States during World War I and again during World War II, serving as a custodian to property that belonged to US enemies. The office was created in 1917 by Executive Order 2729-A under the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 (TWEA) in order to "assume control and dispose of enemy-owned property in the United States and its possessions."[1][2]
World War II-era[edit]
On 11 March 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9095 establishing the Office of the Alien Property Custodian[19] within the Office for Emergency Management under authority of the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 and the First War Powers Act of December 18, 1941. On April 21, 1942 an Executive order subsequently transferred to it the functions, personnel, and property of the Alien Property Division of the Department of Justice.[20] He appointed Leo Crowley, a former banker and chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as APC. During the war the APC amassed a vast portfolio of enemy property including real estate, business enterprises, ships and intellectual property in the form of trademarks, copyrights, patents and pending patent applications. Following Nikola Tesla's death at the New Yorker Hotel in 1943, the Custodian seized much of Tesla's work from his hotel room even though Tesla was an American citizen.[21][22]
In 1947, Assistant Attorney General David L. Bazelon took over as head of the Office of Alien Property,[23][24] as a result of the reorganization in Executive Order 9788.[25] He remained in this post until he received a recess appointment from President Harry S. Truman on October 21, 1949, to a new seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.[26] Before he was seated on the bench, Harold L. Ickes, a key figure in the Roosevelt administration, indicated that Bazelon's activities as head of the Office of Alien Property warranted a Senate investigation but predicted none would be forthcoming.[27]
Among the assets held by the Alien Property Custodian in WWII was the copyright for Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf, meaning that Hitler got none of the royalties from the book's sales in the United States, totaling $20,580 by 1945.[28]
1950s[edit]
In 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Dallas Townsend Sr. Assistant United States Attorney General, heading the Justice Department's Alien Property Office, an office he held until 1960. Townsend supervised the seizure of enemy property and assets that had been seized during World War II.[29]
Testifying before a U.S. Subcommittee in 1957, Townsend argued that a return of 10% of seized enemy property was a sufficient amount. "One of the most unfair aspects of a general return of all German and Japanese property is that it would donate huge windfalls to large enemy corporations, industrialists and their agents, many of whom were strong supporters of the militaristic and aggressive policies of the former Governments of Germany and Japan," he told Senators.[29]
Townsend seized $329 million in proceeds of Interhandel, a Swiss holding company, saying that it was a front for the real owner, IG Farben, the German chemical cartel.[29]
Abolition[edit]
On May 13, 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued Executive Order 11281 which abolished the office, effective June 30 of that year.[30]