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Hitlerism Pagan Uprising Against Religion, Wise Tells Boston Meeting

December 26, 1933
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Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of New York who was the principal speaker at a Jewish-Gentile meeting at Tremont Temple here, declared that “Hitlerism is the last mighty pagan uprising against religion generally and Christianity in particular,” and charged that the sterilization program of the Nazis is in reality “an attempt to wipe out the Jewish race in Germany.”

Among the speakers who addressed the meeting were representatives of Catholic, Unitarian, Episcopal, Baptist and Methodist faiths.

Characterizing Hitler as a “paranoiac adventurer,” Dr. Wise asserted that the peace of the world which never seemed nearer of accomplishment than it did 16 months ago at Lausanne, had been blighted and darkened by Hitlerism.

“The more the Nazis are heard,” he said, “the more they will be condemned by all right-minded Americans. They think they have a case; then let it be heard. And we, who believe in good will, think we have a case.”

The Right Reverend Samuel G. Babcock, suffragan bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, pointed out that in the past few hundred years there had been a steady increase of liberty. “Still,” he said, “there are those who refuse to live in the spirit of liberty. In Germany today, to enslave, persecute, or discriminate because of race, religion or political belief, does more harm to the persecutor than to the persecuted. You cannot destroy a race or a cause by hatred and persecution.”

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