Gerald Burton Winrod

Gerald Burton Winrod (March 7, 1900 – November 11, 1957) was a pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic evangelist, author, and political activist.

Biography
Winrod was the son of Mable E. (1881–?) of Illinois, and John W. Winrod (1873–?) of Missouri. His father was a former Wichita, Kansas bartender whose saloon was attacked by Carrie Nation. In 1918 he was the chief clerk at the Kansas Gas and Electric Company in El Dorado, Kansas. By 1925 he formed the Defenders of the Christian Faith, a fundamentalist Christian organization that opposed teaching evolution in public schools and supported Prohibition and racial segregation.

Winrod professed strongly antisemitic views, earning him the nickname "The Jayhawk Nazi" (Jayhawk is a nickname for a Kansan). Winrod offered the following defense of his views in the introduction to his book "The Truth About the Protocols" which proclaimed the veracity of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: "After observing the title of this book, some will accuse me of being anti-Semitic. If by this they mean that I am opposed to the Jews as a race or as a religion, I deny the allegation. But if they mean that I am opposed to a coterie of international Jewish bankers ruling the Gentile world by the power of gold, if they mean that I am opposed to international Jewish Communism, then I plead guilty to the charge." Winrod believed the United States to be the chosen land of God and, when the Great Depression struck, publicly stated that it was the work of Satan. He believed Franklin D. Roosevelt was a "devil" linked with the Jewish-Communist conspiracy and that Hitler would save Europe from Communism.

Winrod spread these views through his newspaper, The Defender, which by 1937 achieved a 100,000 monthly circulation. Some of the articles reproduced materials from the pro-Nazi and virulently antisemitic international Welt-Dienst / World-Service / Service Mondial news agency founded in 1933 by Ulrich Fleischhauer.

Winrod ran for a U.S. Senate seat from Kansas in 1938 but was defeated in the Republican primary when a popular former governor, Clyde M. Reed, was lured out of retirement by the party establishment to run against him. With 21.4% of the vote, Winrod was a distant third after Reed and Dallas Knapp of Coffeyville, Kansas.

Winrod developed a strong following among German-speaking Kansas Mennonites who identified with his religious, anti-WWII, and pro-Germany views. The Defender was printed by Mennonite-owned Herald Publishing Company of Newton, Kansas from 1931 to 1942. Winrod found support in Bethel College and Tabor College and from editors of local Mennonite papers, and some Mennonite precincts voted predominantly for Winrod in the 1938 Senate primary.

According to the 1941 Theologue, the Yearbook of Practical Bible Training School (now Davis College) located just outside of Binghamton, NY, Windrod was a member of the school's administration. No details are given as to what Winrod's duties were.

In 1940 Winrod's wife sued for divorce. Then, in 1942 the federal government indicted Winrod for sedition, alleging conspiracy against the U.S. government. The political aspect in attempting to suppress free speech proved especially troubling to civil libertarians in what came to be called the Great Sedition Trial. The poor prosecution effort was further undercut by the death of the judge in 1944. In the end, Winrod and his fellow defendants were freed.

He died on November 11, 1957. He was buried in White Chapel Memorial Gardens in Wichita, Kansas.

Legacy
Winrod's son Gordon Winrod is a Christian Identity minister and convicted kidnapper.