Representative Andrew L. Somers of New York in an interview today came out with a strong indictment against Nazi activities in the United States, advocating a counter-offensive against the forces of Hitler in this country.
“A threat to the foundations of American society,” are the words in which Somers described the operations of Nazis here.
He expressed keen interest in organizing Christians for the purpose of shedding true light on Nazi propaganda activities in the United States and charged all Americans with responsibility of warding off the Nazi invasion of this country.
BURDEN ON JEWS
“To date the entire burden of countering Nazi propaganda has been met by the representative bodies of the Jews, who are the immediate victims of Hitlerism,” Somers recently declared in an address.
He cited the work of the American Jewish Congress as “a valiant piece of work in arousing the world to protest against the victimization of Germans by the Hitler Government.”
“I believe the time has come for the Christian forces of the United States to recognize the danger of the Nazi movement and to unite for the purpose of conducting an organized and responsible campaign to counter the invasion of Hitler in this country.”
“For eight years the Nazi party has made an effort to find a foothold in the United States,” Somers said. “During the last year, since the rise of Hitler to power the Nazi movement in this country has enjoyed a degree of success. Since Hitler came into power the Hitler government has made a concerted effort to invade the United States by sending to our cities and towns thousands of secret service agents and by dumping upon our people millions of dollars worth of literature with the immediate object of stirring up racial discord similar to that which exists in Germany and with the ultimate objective of creating sympathy in America and making us forget the obligations that Germany still owes us.”
HITLER ESPIONAGE
In a withering indictment against the Nazi regime, he declared that “the Hitler government is seeking control of our public institutions and that it is conducting a widespread espionage system on the activities of the United States Government and a section of the population of this country.”
Congressman Somers estimated the number of centers of the League of Friends of New Germany at “more than twenty” throughout the United States, and he described their “disciplinarians” as “storm troops wearing the uniform of the Nazi storm troops of Germany.” He charged them with operating in the same manner as the brown shirts of Germany, and he described their function as “through methods of terrorization it has seized control of German organizations in this country and reorganized them as subsidiaries of Nazidom.”
Among the more serious charges lodged by Somers against the Friends of New Germany is that of having sought “to set up units in the National Guard for the ultimate purpose of seizing control of our national defense forces.”
INSIDIOUS PROPAGANDA
“An attempt is being made to reach the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps,” he said. “Our lecture platforms, our universities and our schools have been deluged with exchange professors and exchange students, whose function it has been to voice the Nazi principles. Our press has been flooded with Nazi propaganda. Our libraries have become the haven for the surreptitious of the most libelous literature published by the international propaganda bureau of the Nazis.
“There is reason to believe that some of our best known promotion and publicity agents in this country have succumbed to the lure of Nazi gold and have become the agents for the dissemination of Nazi propaganda in the American press.
“The repeated disappearance of large volumes of mail dispatched to and from important Jewish organizations lends weight to the suspicion existing in the minds of these organizations that even the United States post office is not free from Nazi invasion.
SPY ON HOMES
“The Nazi espionage system has extended to private homes, and servant girls are pressed into service to spy on their employers for the purpose of securing reprisals against relatives in Germany for any hostility to Nazidom,” he concluded.
In discussing the DAWA, anti-Jewish boycott organization, Somers said that this instrument under the direct control of the Friends of New Germany is the exact duplicate of the organization set up in Germany a year ago for the purpose of boycotting the Jewish people.
“In German societies and among German groups the DAWA has deliberately created a false impression that the boycott against the products made in Nazi Germany which is today being practised by such American organizations as the American Federation of Labor, is being prosecuted against German Americans. This is in direct defiance of the truth, in preachment and in practice of all groups, whatever their religious denomination, who are responsible for the boycott movement in the United States. Boycott against products made in Nazi Germany is a spontaneous act, the inevitable expression of condemnation of a policy of oppression and terrorism practised by the Hitler government against its own nationals. Contrary to being illegal, as claimed by the DAWA, the boycott is a weapon recognized by international law.
“As a matter of fact, I, personally, would have nothing but contempt for any Jew who would knowingly trade with a nation that used the profit of that trade to help destroy his people.
SCORES THE DAWA
“The DAWA in America follows its parent organization in Germany even to the extent of issuing what is known as the ‘German Blue Eagle’ to all stores who refuse to patronize those who have business traffic with the Jews or other boycotters. This is a deliberate attempt to interfere with recovery in America, and it is, in my opinion, a deliberate betrayal of the National Recovery Administration.”
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.
