The first day of the open hearings before the Congressional Committee investigating Nazi activities in this country brought forth testimony which linked the German ambassador, Dr. Hans Luther, and the former German consul general in New York, Dr. Otto Kiep, with German anti-Semitic propaganda in the United States.
The German ambassador was described by the Rey. Francis Gross, a priest of Perth Amboy, N. J., as the financial backer and sponsor of the anti-Semitic pamphlet published by Gross under the title, “Justice to Hungary, Germany and Austria.” The Rev. Dr. Gross received payment in bills from the German consul general, who informed him that the funds for the pamphlets were furnished by a friend of the New Germany. In a letter to his printer, Gross wrote:
“Concerning documents-correspondence in my possession by which the proof is established that in publishing my books Ambassador Luther was the sponsor, financial backer and promoter of my books-permit me to state if these documents would be used in a further discussion, repercussions and sensation in the American and world press might even cause the recall of Dr. Luther-and the friendly relationship between our country and Germany might become clouded for a long while. Over more I myself will be in a storm center in which I might not be strong enough to overcome antagonism from opposing factions…”
Apparently the Reverend Dr. Gross failed to get as much as he had expected from the German embassy and consulate for the writing and publication of his booklet, for in his letter to the printer he complains:
“I feel that I was not only used but more abused by the German embassy at Washington, by which I have been used to fight Germany’s battle and have been thrown overboard by the German embassy when the fight became heated…”
It was also brought out in the course of the hearings that a payment of $4,000 was made by the German consul general in New York to Cari Dickey, associate in journalism at Columbia School of Journalism. According to Carl Dickey, on the witness stand, he had received this sum from Dr. Kiep, the German consul general, in currency “for the consul for publication in newspapers.”
When Chairman McCormack asked Mr. Dickey: “He paid you $4,000 to obtain publicity in this country on statements favoring anti-Semitism?” Dickey replied: “Yes.” Afterwards the witness qualified his answer, saying that the statements covered many subjects other than anti-Semitism.
Dickey also testified that Carl Byoir, his associate, received a monthly fee of $6,000 for publicity for the German tourist information office, the German railways, and steamships, the German Board of Trade and the Leipzig fair. Of this sum George Sylvester Viereck received a monthly salary of $1,000 and a commission of $750 a month for having obtained the contract for Carl Byoir and Associates.
The copy of the Carl Byoir contract with the German tourist information office, inserted in the record, contains the specification that the American publicity firm “will refrain from disseminating any information of news matter which might be considered political, National Socialist or racial propaganda.” Such specification is merely camouflage. Hitlerite Germany is so identified with racial hate that any praise of Nazi Germany is necessarily also praise of its system of religious and racial bigotry and cruelty.
Who are the givers and the takers of funds for disseminating Nazi propaganda in this country?
The first, according to the testimony of the Rev. Dr. Gross, is Dr. Hans Luther, German ambassador to the United States. It is inconceivable that the ambassador himself was so indiscreet as to have committed himself in writing to the fact that he was backing and financing the scurrilous Gross pamphlet. However, the ambassador is responsible for the acts of the consul general, and witnesses have testified under oath that the German consul general made payments for this pamphlet and for other Nazi publicity.
Dr. Hans Luther was chancellor under the republic. He was also president of the Deutsche Reichsbank. His republicanism was rapidly converted into Nazism. The “republican” chancellor, Dr. Hans Luther, became an ardent and loyal Hitlerite.
The second giver, Dr. Otto Kiep, until recently German consul general in New York, was under the republic the head of the press department, connected with the German foreign office on Wilhelmstrasse. Then he was appointed counsellor to the German Embassy in Washington. Finally he was transferred to New York as consul general. Dr. Kiep is a very capable man, intimately familiar with the press and with publicity. In his eagerness to serve his Nazi masters in Berlin he so forgot himself that he personally negotiated with propagandists and publicity agents and made payments for their services while he was the German consul general.
Among the takers thus far mentioned are: the retired Hungarian priest, Francis Gross, Carl Byoir, Carl Dickey and Sylvester Viereck.
The priest wrote and published a pamphlet which contained vicious anti-Semitic material for whatever revenue he got out of the German consulate in New York. He got less than he had expected, and he expressed his disappointment in his letter to his printer. This priest, who adopted the Nazi attitude toward the Jews, tried to justify himself by writing to his printer “we all shall honestly work to keep the fire of passions already flaming under ashes and try to bring once more harmony into the disturbed relationship between our Jewish element and the present Germany.”
Carl Byoir, who is said to be a Jew, entered into a contract with the German ###urist information office to spread its propaganda, which is the propaganda of the Nazi regime, for a flat fee. His Jewish origin did not deter him from undertaking this job. Nor did it deter the Nazi firm using a “non-Aryan” for their purposes of disseminating eulogies on Hitlerite Germany, which is endeavoring to exterminate the Jews.
Carl Dickey, an associate of Carl Byoir, admitted having accepted money from the German consul general for disseminating anti-Semitic publicity. Afterwards he issued a statement in which he said:
“The intentions of this firm have always been t allay anti-Semitism and racial hatred and their effects in the United States.”
The Nazis in Germany will read this statement with considerable amazement and amusement.
Carl Dickey was recently appointed a member of the advisory council of the Columbia School of Journalism. What an inspiring example this type of publicity work will be for the young journalists who are being trained in that splendid school! But we doubt that in the light of his testimony before the Congressional Committee Mr. Dickey will be permitted to continue as a member of the advisory committee of the Columbia School of Journalism.
And as for George Sylvester Viereck, the talented author and publicist, who kept declaring that he was ninety percent for Hitlerism but opposed to the anti-Jewish policy of the Nazi regime, it is now established that he has been receiving a monthly fee of one thousand dollars plus commission for having swung the publicity contract to the Carl Byoir firm.
In a statement issued after the first day’s hearings in Washington, Mr. Viereck says that “it was specifically understood the work involved no anti-Jewish activity in any form.”
And he went on to explain himself thus:
“I was a friend of imperial Germany. I was a friend of republican Germany. I am a friend of Adolf Hitler’s Germany. I made my standpoint clear long before there was any thought of the Byoir contract.”
Mr. Viereck has always been a friend of Germany. Now he is receiving $1,750 a month for his friendship for Adolf Hitler’s Germany.
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.
