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Ezra Weston Loomis PoundOctober 30 1885 November 1 1972born in what is nowHaileyIdaho was amajor American figure in the earlymodernist poetrymovement and afascistcollaborator in Italy duringWorld War II Angered by the carnage ofWorld War I Pound blamed the war onfinance capitalism which he called usuryHe moved to Italy in 1924 and through the 1930s and 1940s promoted an economic theory known associal credit wrote for publications owned by the British fascist SirOswald Mosley embracedBenito Mussolinisfascism and expressed support forAdolf Hitler During World War II and theHolocaust in Italy he made hundreds of paidradio broadcasts for the Italian governmentattacking the United StatesFranklin D Rooseveltand above allJews He was arrested in 1945 by American forces in Italy on charges oftreason spendingmonths in a US military camp inPisaincluding three weeks in an outdoor steel cage Deemed unfit to stand trial he was incarcerated inSt Elizabethspsychiatric hospital in Washington DC for over 12 yearsAfter a campaign by his fellow writers he was released from St Elizabeths in 1958 and lived in Italy until his death in 1972