Thirty thousand men, women and children marched here this afternoon in an impressive demonstration of protest against Hitlerite persecution of the Jews in Germany. From the London East Side to Hyde Park, where the marchers, whose numbers were augmented by several thousand spectators, heard the persecutions denounced, adopted resolutions of protest and pledged themselves to boycott German goods, Jewish stores and shops were closed all along the route, in a gesture of support of the protest despite the fact that the British Board of Jewish Deputies, influential organization of leaders of British Jewry disapproved of the demonstration.
Alarming rumors that British Fascists and Nazi sympathizers intended to cause trouble during the demonstration brought out hundreds of London mounted and foot police who accompanied and closely guarded the two-mile-long procession. Special instructions were issued to the marchers to ignore any provocations and to behave calmly. No disorders of importance resulted except that city traffic was considerably interfered with.
Huge crowds, far outnumbering the marchers, lined the route of the procession and cheered all sections of the parade which took three and a half hours to pass.
Hundreds of banners urging a boycott of German goods waved over the heads of the demonstrators. Scores of automobiles bore placards and signs to the same effect and boycott slogans were roared out through megaphones by hundreds of the demonstrators.
The most popular slogan was the demand, “Restore German Jewish Rights—Protect the World from Hitlerism!”
A particularly impressive section of the parade was a section of bemedalled war veterans including hundreds of disabled ex-soldiers headed by a crippled veteran in a wheel-chair. This section bore a banner which drew resounding cheers from the spectators—”1914, We Defended Freedom from the Huns—1933, We Must Defend the Jews from Hitler’s Atrocities.”
Accompanied by four bands, the procession reached Hyde Park after the long march of three and a half hours, and there was augmented by thousands of others including Jews from the provinces, non-Jewish sympathizers and an organized section of Roman Catholics. Speakers addressed the huge throng from several platforms set up through the park, decorated with bunting in the white and blue of the Zionist flag and with the Mogen Dovid, five-pointed Jewish star. The speakers included Holford Knight, prominent National Laborite member of Parliament; Dr. David Jochelman. Jewish communal worker and chief organizer of the demonstration, and Father Day, Society of Jesuits.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
