| Saul Goldman | |
| Fictional Character | |
| Southern Victory POD: September 10, 1862 | |
| Appearance(s): | The Center Cannot Hold through In at the Death |
| Type of Appearance: | Direct |
| Nationality: | Confederate States |
| Religion: | Judaism |
| Date of Birth: | Late 19th century |
| Date of Death: | 1945 |
| Cause of Death: | Execution by hanging |
| Occupation: | Radio station manager, Politician |
| Political Party: | Freedom Party |
| Political Office(s): | Director of Confederate States Department of Communications |
Saul Goldman (d. 1945) was the Director of Communications for the Confederate States during the Second Great War, answerable only to Jake Featherston.
In the early 1920s Goldman, a Jew, owned and operated a radio station. He allowed the Freedom Party to use his facilities for speechmaking, thus allowing Jake Featherston's message to reach every corner of the country. A grateful Featherston made Goldman chief of the party's propaganda (a position Jake himself had held very early on) and then, after his election to the Presidency, of the entire country.
As Director of Communications, Goldman's office included writing radio news reports and compiling newsreel clips. These reports and clips were the only reports and clips that could be played in their respective media anywhere in the CS.
Goldman's news reports were highly favorable to Jake Featherston and the Freedom Party as well as the CS and its Entente allies. Goldman's office also demonized the United States and its Central Powers allies, blacks, aristocrats (excluding, of course, Nathan Bedford Forrest III), and, before the death of Governor Huey Long, the state of Louisiana. During the Second Great War, Goldman grossly exaggerated Confederate military successes and played down setbacks to an equal extent.
In 1942, when US dive bombers raided Richmond and destroyed the Gray House, Goldman may well have saved Featherston's life by convincing him to get to a bomb shelter. After Richmond fell, Goldman followed Featherston to Portsmouth and then into Georgia, where Featherston was killed and Goldman was captured by U.S. forces. Unlike Featherston, Goldman directly witnessed the explosion of the U.S. superbomb in Newport News. Temporarily blinded, Goldman began the Jewish prayer for the dead, horrified by the immense power he'd witnessed.
Initially, Goldman was supportive on Featherston's stance on Negroes, even thanking Featherston early in their relationship for not scapegoating the Jews for the country's problems, as other countries had. As the war progressed, Goldman found Featherston's anti-black rhetoric interchangeable with anti-Semitic rhetoric he'd heard. Goldman did little to act on his concerns. He expressed his reservations only in very cautious private remarks to Featherston, and continued to spread the racist Freedom Party line.
In 1945, along with Ferdinand Koenig and Jefferson Pinkard, Saul Goldman was executed by the United States government for crimes against humanity for his part in the Population Reduction; even though killing no one with his own hands, he had a major role in creating the mindset where white Confederates were willing to hunt Blacks down and kill them.
See Also
- Josef Goebbels, the Propaganda Minister of Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler, a figure superficially mirrored by the CSA's Director of Communications. Goebbels committed suicide in 1945 to avoid capture.
- Julius Streicher, Nazi propagandist who, like Goldman, was convicted and hanged for inciting genocide, despite not directly taking part in the killings.
