Herbert Fuchs

Herbert Fuchs (1905–1988) was an American Communist and federal government official who became a professor of law at the American University in Washington, D.C. in 1949, after which he became embroiled in anti-communist congressional hearings just after the peak of McCarthyism.

Background

Herbert Oscar Fuchs was born on September 20, 1905, in New York City. His parents Alfred Fuchs and Paula Hacker came from Vienna, Austria, and settled in Manhattan's Washington Heights, then home to many Germans-speakers. His father had been a lawyer in Vienna, but in New York he studied law at New York University and opened in law office in the "Yorkville" section on New York's Upper East Side. Fuchs had two brothers, Walter and Vernon. He attended Townsend Harris Hall (then on the campus of the City College of New York). In 1924, he graduated from City College with a BS in social sciences. In 1928, he graduated with a JD degree in law from New York University. In October 1937, he joined the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). ) In January 1946, he returned to the NLRB as a solicitor.

In December 1955, Fuchs again testified before HUAC, and this time he named names. He had been recruited in 1934 in New York City by a "very good friend" and joined a taxicab communist group for a year. He then moved to a Consolidated Edison power plant, where comrades included James Stasinos and Leah Robison. In 1936, on the Wheeler Committee, Arthur Stein (a founder of the United Federal Workers of America) led that group of comrades, who included: James Gorham, Samuel Koenigsberg, Ellis Olim, and Margaret Bennett Porter (wife of John W. Porter). At the NLRB, his comrades were: Arthur Stein again, Allan Rosenberg, Martin Kurasch, Joseph Robison, Eleanor Nelson, Henry Rhine, Philip Reno, Sidney Katz, Julia Katz, and Bernard Stern. At the time, Nathan Witt was NLRB assistant general counsel. HUAC asked him detailed questions about Allan Rosenberg, who had also worked at the Board of Economic Warfare, where his supervisor was Max Lowenthal. Fuchs would not say whether Lowenthal was a communist but did confirm that Rosenberg had also worked in the office of Nathan Witt, by that time Secretary of the NLRB. Fuchs also admitted that he had known Joseph Robison in New York and that Leah Robison was a cousin. Fuchs also mentioned knowing David Rein at the NLRB, as well as afterwards when Rein entered private practice. Returning to comrades at the Board of Economic Welfare, Fuchs named Woodrow Sandler, Jacob H. Krug, Mortimer Riemer, Ruth Weyand, Margaret Bennett Porter, John W. Porter, Harry Cooper, Frank Donner, Edward Scheunemann, Bert Diamond. Eventually, Fuchs named Victor Perlo as Party dues collector at the NLRB; Arthur Stein succeeded him. Toward the end of his testimony, HUAC had an editorial read into the transcript from a December 10, 1955, issue of the Saturday Evening Post entitled "Why No Fuss When a Helpful Ex-Red Professor is Fired?" in support of Fuch's termination at American University.

Fuchs died in the Spring of 1988.