The following is the fourteenth of a series of articles detailing the rise and growth of the Nazi-inspired anti-Semitic movement in this country in all its ramifications.
One closely connected with German American Society recently remarked to me that unless something now unforeseen interferes with the present trend, within the next eight months more than ninety per cent of organized German Americans will be under the control of the League of Friends of New Germany, which one year ago was known as the American Branch of the National Socialist Party.
At present, more than fifty per cent of New York’s German American societies (some say seventy-five per cent) have come directly or indirectly under the spell of Hitler’s American supporters. Those as yet uncoordinated include the German Catholic, German Jewish, German liberal, and German Socialistic groups. To some extent the sports societies have been influenced toward the anti-Semitism of the Nazis, and in a much greater measure the singing societies have “gone Nazi.” The DAWA (anti-Jewish boycott organization) is swinging into line many groups and individuals which formerly have held aloof from political strife.
The German women’s societies are said to be less restrained than those of the men in their deportment toward Jewish members, and Jewish members are being forced from virtually all but German Jewish groups. Even the children’s societies are being hurt by the influence of the Nazis, who have begun the process of regimenting German American youth through the medium of their branch of of Hitler-Jugend, called in this country Deutsche Jungenschaft. Their dress and regulations conform to that of the German youth movement.
SARTOR RESARTUS
The League of Friends of New Germany have established battalions of uniformed guards throughout the metropolitan area. The number of these are reckoned by observers at approximately 750. They are tailored in the manner of German stormtroopers with a few slight differences. The shirts are white instead of brown, the trousers are of the regulation SS (or higher grade stormtrooper) make, boots are regulation; black ties are regulation, Sam Browne belt and shoulder straps are regulation, and armbands are regulation except that they are red, white and black rather than the customary red. The official pin, which has been a swastika superimposed on the American shield, is now a plain swastika.
The withdrawal of Jews and anti-Nazis from German American societies is facilitating the process of conversion for the ever-growing Nazi nucleus of revamped German American organizations. There is no open opposition to the League of Friends of New Germany in their crusade of conversion and very little rivalry. The only rivalry is that offered by the aged Friedrich Heiss, publisher of Amerikas Deutsche Post, who soured on the League of Friends of New Germany when that group took their patronage from his publication and set up their own organ, the Deutsche Zeitung. Heiss at present is waging a feeble fight for support of his Deutsche Bund, which is led by himself and Hans Wuerz, former propaganda leader for the American Branch of the National Socialist Party. As a sideline, Heiss promotes an Aryo-Christian Union, which he hopes will some day be important. He is more unreasonably anti-Semitic than the Friends of New Germany.
More than fifty large German American societies in the vicinity of New York are directly connected with the League of Friends of New Germany.
REGARDING THE DHV
The most powerful ally of the League of Friends of New Germany is the Deutsch Nationaler Handlungs-Gehilfen-Verband with six offices in the United States from New York to San Francisco and others throughout the world. Membership in the DHV is composed almost exclusively of German merchants and professional men, and their employees, who are kept in close touch with Germany through great DHV international offices maintained in Hamburg and Berlin. From these offices come pamphlets on the New Germany, and these are circulated either through the mails directly from Germany or from the offices of members of the DHV in this country. Since the ascension of Hitler to power his policies, both racial and otherwise, have been warmly defended in these communications. The DHV offices in Germany also issue propaganda attacking the Versailles Treaty and France.
The DHV is a part of the German Labor Front, and all its members are German citizens and members of this National Socialist institution. Unless Germans in America are registered in the Labor Front it is impossible for them to secure work on their return to the Fatherland. Hence the Germans here register through their membership in the DHV.
The organ of the DHV is “Der Deutsche Kaufmann Im Ausland,” in translation, “The German Merchant Abroad.” It keeps German businessmen abroad informed on the wishes of the Nazi party at home. Employing much the same mailing list, the National Socialist World Post, edited by members of the Nazi Party with Max Baumann editor-in-chief, is published at Hitlerplatz 4, Hamburg. It is the organ of the Associations for Germans Abroad, and in a recent front page editorial instructed all Germans abroad to seek to “replace Democracy with leadership.” It demands that expatriates propagandize abroad the “totalitat” conception of the Hitler Government, that is, the corporate state under absolute dictation of a “Fuehrer.”
A LITTLE LUCRE, PLEASE
Through the good offices of the DHV the League of Friends of New Germany were able to survive and prosper. Members of the DHV, mainly business men, have been persuaded or coerced into becoming members of the League of Friends of New Germany, and expensive advertisements have been secured for the Deutsche Zeitung from members of the DHV. From excellent authority it is learned that the North German Lloyd alone contribute $800 weekly in advertising toward the League of Friends of New Germany. The cost of advertising in the Deutsche Zeitung is by far the highest of any newspaper in New York, when the size and circulation of the paper are taken into consideration. Its minimum rate of fifty-five cents a line may be considered extremely high when contrasted with that of the New York Times, which in most categories charges much less than twice that rate, although the circulation of the latter is thirty times as large and its prestige inestimably greater.
The close contact maintained by the League of Friends of New Germany with the Berlin government makes it expedient for merchants here to support the American organization just as they must support the National Socialist Party in Germany to maintain friendly relations with the fatherland.
The DHV likewise contributes many members to the League of Friends of New Germany who pay one dollar a month dues and considerably more to the various funds that are forever being raised by the latter. When one considers that the League of Friends of New Germany has about 12,000 members in the city of New York alone and throughout the country approximately 25,000, the immense profits of the group can readily be envisioned.
In the campaign against American Jewry, the Friends of New Germany make up the nuclear mass of support; the DHV provides the most lucrative source of funds; the Deutsche Legion provides the actual physical manpower for projects requiring strong, able-bodied men; and the Stahlhelm provides the atmosphere for parades and military demonstrations, so dear to the hearts of all Germans and so essential to the maintenance of a patriotic fervor toward the Fatherland in German-American circles. Dozens of other groups fulfill other specialized functions.
Although it is by no means the only example of the cooperation of the above named groups, the point might be illustrated by reference to the celebration occasioning the first anniversary of Hitler’s rise to power, when all joined hands in a mammoth demonstration at the Central Opera House in New York with more than 2,000 people crowding the spacious auditorium. But for one American flag, one might well believe himself in Germany. The language was German; the decorations were Hitlerite; the uniforms were German and Nazi; and the spirit was exclusively National Socialist. Similar demonstrations are held on a greater or smaller scale throughout the metropolitan district every week. Infrequently reference to President Roosevelt is thrown in as a mark of appreciation of the Germans and German Americans for the benefits granted them by their new government. The reference, however, is so infrequent and so shallow as not to detract from the impression that these are a group of people whose hearts soul, and absolute allegiance are for the “alte Heimat” and the new leader of their old home.
The DHV is of considerable importance to the Friends of New Germany because of the link it maintains with the old home. Through the good offices of DHV officials of the North German Lloyd and Hamburg American lines, ships are placed at the disposal of those who would like to celebrate their affection for Hitler without restraint. Youth fests for America’s Hitlerjugend, called here the Deutsche Jungenschaft, are held aboard these ships as well as in the Turnverein Halle. As yet uncoordinated groups are invited aboard the ships where they are allowed to see and hear about the wonders of Hitlerized Germany. The agents of these steamship lines constitute an excellent medium for communication between Nazi Germany and the Nazi movement in the United States. (To be continued tomorrow)
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.
