The following is the sixteenth of a series of articles detailing the rise and growth of the Nazi-inspired anti-Semitic movement in this country in all its ramifications.
During the last year the Nazi organization has expanded widely through a series of strategic maneuvers which, while gaining a tremendous following did not in the least detract from its inner cohesion. Its first maneuver was to change from the National Socialist Party to the League of Friends of New Germany, which brought into the brown fold thousands of German Americans as well as the original German citizenry.
It then began the process of coordinating other societies with its policies by atacking their neutral or anti-Hitlerite attitudes as treasonable to the German people. It demanded the fealty of German Americans to the old fatherland and got it.
The Friends of New Germany and their first great capture, the United German Societies, then instituted the DAWA, a group which now embraces all German Americans favoring the boycott of Jews and which may be extended later to include “Aryan” Americans. In the meantime it has Hitlerized social affairs of German American society in New York. The Steuben Society, one of the largest and most honored of German American societies, was forced to meet with the Nazis’ written demands for the Hitlerizing of the German Day celebration in New York on December 6 before the Nazis would lend their support to the project. The Steuben Society has since lost many Jewish members as it drifted further into the Nazi fold, and today it is desperately seeking to ward off complete absorption by the Nazis. To do this it compromises its liberal policies and trades on its respectable name to have the anti-Nazi boycott declared illegal. It has been active in Washington, D.C., to this end.
SUPPORTERS OF “FRIENDS”
The League of Friends of New Germany is drawing its support from virtually all types of German American organizations. The singing societies, the music and theatre groups, political (non-Socialist) groups, sport and turn societies, literary and cultural vereins. (non-Socialist) relief and benefit associations, women’s groups, war veteran organizations, and the massive professional and trade groups-all have contributed members to the Nazi anti-Jewish and pro-Hitlerite campaign.
The mails are being utilized to spread the doctrine of Hitlerism; the public rostra, the radio, to a limited extent the movies, and the press serve as carriers of Nazi propaganda. Under this unflagging attack American opinion is gradually being diverted towards Fascism and anti-Semitism. The Nazis have defined their present cause as racial, and in their enlistment they have included many credulous persons, whose congenital racial instincts wield more influence over their actions than do their acquired processes of reason. In recent weeks there has been a veritable landslide of support gained by the Nazis who have opened new and wider doors to their organization by creating the DAWA, which appealed to those wishing to defend Germany and German Americans from the “Jewish menace.” The next step in organization, has already been foreshadowed with the adoption of the slogan, “The Enemies of Germany are also the Enemies of America.”
I believe an alarmist attitude toward the American Nazi situation is justified. As the Nazis march, their lines grow ever stronger. They are fighting an active battle, against which passive resistance cannot prevail. Anti-Nazi forces find themselves fighting on altogether too many fronts. Their shells, timed to explode in Berlin, are without effect among the ranks of their assailants in America. The struggle promises to be a long one. And it appears strategically correct that defense fortifications should be strengthened before the rapidly growing enemy overwhelms all resistance.
PLAN OF ATTACK
One might do well to adopt the Prussian methods of attack: cleaning up the immediate opposition and consolidating one’s position before engaging in a scattered attack on a distant enemy.
The spirit of the American Nazis, which grows bolder as time goes on, may be sensed at any meeting of the League of Friends of New Germany or their allied groups. It is distinctly Hitlerite, despite the American citizenship of its members. To illustrate: On the night of March 17 aboard the Hamburg American liner, Deutschland, which lay at the company pier in New York, the German Commercial Association (DHV), the Board of Trade for German-American Commerce, and other German and German-American organizations entered into a festive evening. German Ambassador Dr. Hans Luther spoke.
At the height of festivities, someone called for the Horst Wessel Lied, the Nazi marching an-them. All but one, a woman, raised their hands in the Nazi salute. She blushed under the stare of many guests. She was questioned about her conduct, and when she explained that she refrained from saluting in deference to her friendship with Jews, she was badgered. Her tormentors continued bothering her throughout the dinner, until Dr. Martin Genzel, a neighbor at the table, arose and announced that he would not stand for further molestation of the young woman.
HOW GENTLEMEN ARE TREATED
During the early morning hours Dr. Genzel was taken out on deck and severely thrashed by a number of the celebrants, after which he remained unconscious for hours. He was treated by Dr. I.T. Griebl, a Nazi kingpin of the group, and taken home rather than to the hospital.
This is the spirit of the American Nazis. They are courteous and friendly so long as one is with them. But in the words of one of their slogans, “Those who are not for us are against us,” and they are treated as enemies. This spirit allows for no middle course in German American society, hence there is the necessity for each group to choose. And most, practically all in fact, are choosing the friendly course.
There are inducements as we as threats to persuade the uncoordinated German Americans to come into Nazi ranks. The German American children are afforded lavish entertainment at jugend fests aboard German ships, in the Turn Halle, and at other places. They are allowed to strut in their uniforms, similar to those of the Hitlerjugend at affairs for grownups. And from many viewpoints the Hitler youth groups appeal more to child psychology than do the non-Hitler organizations. The Nazi youth movement is designed here as in Germany to bring to manhood German American youth with a strong sense of responsibility to the German government and the old fatherland.
The same holds true of the women’s organizations, which, it is widely recognized, are more cruel than men’s groups in their attitude toward Jewish members. The women’s groups are fashioned after Hitler’s philosophy on the subject of wifely deportment. The Kirche, Kueche, Kinder theory is being applied here also. Perhaps the most influential women’s organization in the movement to Hitlerize German American women is the Women’s Division of the DHV. Women’s charity and benefit groups are largely exempt from anti-Semitism and other unwholesome features of the new order of German American society.
THEIR SALES TALK
The bulk of new support being given the Nazi movement comes from 110 trade vereins in the vicinity of New York City. These German American concerns are being drawn into the DAWA under the impression that the anti-Nazi boycott is meant as a boycott of all German American goods and services. This is untrue, but nevertheless the impression is assiduously spread by Nazis who seek support for their organization. There are numerous reports to the effect that Jewish employers have boycotted the American wares of discharged German employees and German American shops, but no bona fide instance of this sort has been disclosed. The support of these trade vereins however is sufficient to fortify the DAWA against financial worries and allow them to continue their march against American Jewry. Again in this case, the influence of the thoroughly Hitlerized DHV is important in the process of Nazi conversion. It is a leader of all the German American commercial organizations.
The writer can not believe that German Americans, who have established an enviable record in all phases of the development of the United States, can be at heart ### thoroughly anti-American as they now appear. Of all the nations which go into the composition of the United States few have contributed more than the German. This, however, does not entitle German Americans to special privileges-such as the transplantation of Hitler’s anti-Semitism in America. Nor does it give the German American element the right to set themselves up as a superior or even a distinct element among the sixty or more nationalities living here.
AMERICA FIRST?
The sentiment of German Americans for the old home is understandable. Of 6,873,103 German Americans (that is, of German parentage) 1,608,814 were born in Germany. It is difficult for one to divorce his sentiments from his native land and the land of his forefathers. This is particularly true of Germans who are disciplined to revere Germany and its institutions. But the United States most hold precedence in the allegiance of its citizens. Otherwise America should become the arena for settlement of all European disputes. Almost twelve per cent of the country’s population was born abroad. Thirty five per cent are of a pure foreign stock.
I quote from a copyrighted special wireless despatch to the Washington Star from Berlin dated March 30:
German-Americans in the United States must withdraw from purely American clubs or organizations based upon American principles if they are to remain friends of Germany, according to a significant announcement printed in heavy type in the German newspapers today.
A movement to invade the United States and build a Nazi body politic more or less hostile to everything there which bears the label of American is exposed in a cable dispatch from New York sent by the Deutscher Telegraph Agency. This is a quasi-official news agency recently established to furnish Germany with what the Ministry of People’s Englightenment and propaganda considers proper news from abroad.
The cablegram conveys the information that 750,000 so-called Americans already have withdrawn from “purely American clubs in the United States” considering them inconsistent with Nazi ideals.
All hyphenated German-American societies in the United States are to be united in the Friends of New Germany under Reinhold Walter, a German, the announcement says. The 750,000 persons who are said to have severed their American association will be in it.
I inquired at the German Embassy in Washington concerning the truth of this information. A spokesman would neither deny nor affirm it. If the information is correct, the Hitler government violates all American principles since the Monroe Doctrine. If this information is correct the Nazi regime’s jurisdiction over American citizens should be ended. (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.
