Maurice Goldbloom papers

Maurice J. Goldbloom was a socialist writer, editor, and translator involved with several organizations dedicated to restoring democracy in post-World War II Germany, including the American Association for a Democratic Germany.

Maurice Jackson Goldbloom was born on July 28, 1911, in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Erasmus High School in Brooklyn and Columbia University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in history (1930) and a master’s degree in medieval philosophy (1933).

At various times between 1932 and 1938, he worked as a substitute teacher of history and civics in New York City high schools. He also taught History of the American Labor Movement to trade unionists at the Brookwood Labor College in Passaic, New Jersey. Between 1934 and 1944, he held several short-term positions in the New York City government. At the same time, Goldbloom was an active member of the U.S. Socialist Party, involved primarily with labor education within the United States and Europe. In conjunction with this interest, he made several trips to England, Scandinavia, and the Netherlands between 1935 and 1939.

During these pre-war years, Goldbloom made several trips to Nazi Germany, at times acting as a courier on behalf of exiled German socialists by relaying messages to those carrying on their work in the underground. It was this sort of experience that led him to join the American Association for a Democratic Germany (AADG), a New York-based support group for the anti-Nazi movement composed of German expatriates and their American allies. Prominent members of AADG include Karl Frank (alias Paul Hagen), Reinhold Niehbur, Dorothy Thompson, William Ernest Hocking, Cornelia Bryce Pinchot, and Roger Baldwin. Goldbloom served the AADG in various capacities, including writer, researcher, translator, and Executive Secretary from 1945 to 1949.

After leaving the AADG in 1949, Goldbloom applied to the Economic Cooperation Administration set up by the federal government to aid in the postwar reconstruction of Europe. He had hoped to secure a position in Germany or Austria but was assigned to work in Athens, Greece. There he served as Assistant Labor Information Specialist, a position he held until late 1950. After a military coup took power in Greece in 1967, Goldbloom organized and served as the Executive Secretary for the U.S. Committee for Democracy in Greece.

Goldbloom also expressed his political views as a freelance writer and editor for several magazines, including The Socialist Call (1942-1955), Common Sense (1944-1945), Commentary (1946), and Current (1960s). Amid the widespread fear of communism that dominated the McCarthy era of the early 1950s, Goldbloom wrote a book titled American Security and Freedom, in which he warned against political “witch-hunts” as well as against communism.

Maurice Goldbloom died in New York on December 30, 1977.