Lines of a united front against Hitlerism were drawn Saturday afternoon when 600 delegates representing 125 organizations of various convictions convened at Irving Plaza Hall in a United anti-Nazi Conference sponsored by the National Committee to Aid Victims of German Fascism.
Telegrams to Mayor LaGuardia and Police Commissioner O’Ryan demanding the right to hold an anti-Nazi parade in Yorkville next Thursday were sent by unanimous decision of the delegates who represented Jewish, labor and fraternal organizations.
A four-point program was unanimously adopted calling for aiding victims of the Hitler regime; arousing public opinion against Nazism, dissemination of Hitlerite propaganda and organization of the supporters of Hitler in the United States; cooperating in the boycott movement against German goods, and demanding an asylum for political refugees in the United States.
PLAN ANTI-FASCIST PAPER
To carry out this program an executive committee headed by David Gordon was elected, which will organize a United Anti-Nazi Committee. Delegates were instructed to build up anti-Nazi sentiment, especially in Ridgewood and Yorkville. Literature, open-air meetings and even an anti-Fascist newspaper are on the program.
“The Jew in Germany,” declared James Waterman Wise, featured speaker, is persecuted not as a radical, but as a Jew. The Jew was the first and worst sufferer from Hitlerism.” He continued:
“Hitler has done in Germany what a rising Fascist movement is trying to do in the United States. The real distinction is between armed capitalism and the oiling masses of all nationalities, for Jewish industrialists are still protected by the Hitler government.”
A shudder passed through the crowd as Anna Schultz told how he had just received the news that her husband had been killed in Germany by Nazis, who had cut a star into his flesh and then corched the wound until he died in great agony.
An alleged Nazi spy who attempted to gain entrance to the conference was speedily and unobtrusively ejected by guards.
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.
