Without once mentioning him by name, Thomas Mann, the author, tonight delivered a bitter attack on the Chancellor Hitler who proscribed his books in Germany and stripped him of German citizenship.
Addressing 500 persons at a dinner at Sherry’s concluding the fourth anniversary celebration of the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science (The University in Exile) of the New School for Social Research, he declared:
“A task for courage–that is how this problem of truth is regarded by the decent, tolerably God-fearing mind of man. But today, ladies and gentlemen, a new kind of man has arisen, and has, here and there, attained absolute power.
“With this great idea of truth, which is related to all other great ideas, he perpetrates the most odious falsehoods. He denies it, proclaims the lie as the sole begetter of life, the sole power directing history. He has made it his philosophy to recognize no distinction between truth and falsehood. He has set up in the world a shameful pragmatism which denies the spirit itself in the name of utility. Without scruple, he commits or approves crimes, provided they serve his advantage, or what he calls his advantage. He has no dread of falsehood, but reckons falsehood as high as truth, provided only that it is useful in his sense of the word.”
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.
