Page 68 - The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand Vol.XIII-2021

The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand
Volume XIII – 2021

Apparently, this paper directly referred to a sermon Fritchman had agreed to
send him beforehand. In October 1948, Thomas Mann recorded in his diary that the
sermon’s topic was a protest “against increasing breaches of the [C]onstitution,

[such as] imprisoning witnesses at will who refuse to inform on their friends”.
Already since the year before, he had felt “Horribly affected by the ever-diminishing
sense of justice in this country, by the dominance of fascist violence.“ (Diary, October
1947) As you know, the “Hollywood Ten,” whom the “House Committee on Un-
American Activities” suspected of being Communists, refused to testify and were
sentenced to prison. On the same night, Fritchman and his wife were invited to
Pacific Palisades to coordinate their joint response, and Thomas Mann wrote a
“letter as a supplement to his sermon against the ongoing erosion of Constitution
[al] and Americ[an] free-dom”. Fritchman read out that letter in the pulpit, and
the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles later published it – singularly naming
both men as co-authors.

Although the printed leaflet looks rather humble, it had decisive con-
sequences for both Fritchman and Thomas Mann. On April 4, 1949, “Life” Magazine
carried a sensational article, initiated by the FBI. The article depicts fifty mug shots
with captions that give only names and occupations, resembling a huge “wanted”
poster and running under the headline: “Dupes and Fellow Travelers Dress Up Com-

munist Fronts.” The list reads like a Who’s Who of liberal America. Apart from
Norman Mailer, Albert Einstein, Leonard Bernstein, Charlie Chaplin, and Arthur Miller,
it also includes “Thomas Mann, novelist” and “Stephen H. Fritchman, Unitarian
clergyman.” But – “to be a ‘dupe’ with them,” Fritchman commented later, “is the
greatest honor I have yet had in my forty-six years.”

The extent to which these events intensified the personal relationship
between the two men can be seen eleven months later in a separate personal, even
intimate, moment. On March 11, 1950, Heinrich Mann died. And, as if self-evidently,
Thomas Mann wanted to put the funeral ceremony in the hands of his Unitarian
friend.

In their fight to preserve civil rights and resist the threats of the McCarthy
era, Stephen Fritchman and Thomas Mann remained allies. In January 1951, when
Fritchman was again a guest in Pacific Palisades, Thomas Mann commented on the
visit on the following day: “Fritchman yesterday: being American at its best” [“bestes
Amerikanertum”].

58 Unitarianism as “Applied Christianity” Thomas Mann and the Unitarian Church in the USA