President Roosevelt’s statement condemning Nazi persecution spurred the anti-Nazi indignation movement throughout the United States to new heights today, evidencing itself in (1) increasing sentiment for a sharp rebuke to the Reich — perhaps even severance of diplomatic relations, (2) growing sympathy with the refugees’ plight and (3) a drive by Christians to defend Herschel Grynszpan, assassin of the German Embassy official in Paris.
(1) President Roosevelt’s condemnation of the Nazis was supported by newspapers of all complexion. Religious and other organizations arranged mass meetings and radio broadcasts. The Government was flooded with messages from organizations and individuals urging a rebuke to the Reich. The CIO convention in Pittsburgh adopted a resolution supporting the President’s denunciation.
A delegation of clergymen and educators presented a statement to the State Department yesterday urging economic sanctions against Germany. Senators George Norris and Henry Ashurst and Representatives Sam D. McReynolds, Hamilton Fish, Vito Marcantonio and Charles Buckley, issued statements vigorously condemning Nazi oppression. The New York City Council unanimously adopted a resolution of protest. Statements and resolutions were also issued by the New York Central Labor Council, the New York Newspaper Guild, the International Society of Christian Endeavor and many other organizations.
More than 4,500 persons with signs condemning Nazi brutality picketed the dock from which the German liner Bremen sailed early this morning, while police guarded the home of German Consul-General Hans Borchers and the German consulate at the State Department’s request. Incidentally, three Jewish policemen were on guard outside the consulate.
Among the mass meetings scheduled is one at Madison Square Garden next Monday evening under the auspices of the Jewish People’s Committee. A nation-wide broadcast over NBC and CBS networks was held tonight under the auspices of the Catholic University of America, with ex-Governor Alfred E. Smith and other prominent Catholics among the scheduled speakers. Other radio networks and stations were arranging programs.
The press of the nation continued to devote an unprecedented amount of space to editorials, cartoons and news stories on German persecution. The New York Herald Tribune hailed President Roosevelt’s statement as an example to the world, as did the World-Telegram, Post and Sun. Even the German daily, New Yorker Staats-Zeitung und Herold, in its second editorial on the subject, repudiated the Nazi Party as leader of the German people and denounced the “sadistic lowness” of the oppression of the Jews.
Leaders of the American sports world in many sections of the country, condemned the terror in Germany as “a complete repudiation of all standards of humanity. Statements were made by Commodore Ernest Lee Jahncke, former Assistant Secretary of Navy and former member of the International Olympic Committee; Glenn S. Warner, football coach of Temple University; Henry Penn Burke, president of the National Association of Amateur Oarsmen; Adam Walsh, football coach of Bowdoin College; William R. Benthron, former National Collegiate Mile Champion; W.F. Bailey, president of Carolina’s Association of Athletic Amateur Union; William M. Leonard, president of the Adirondack Association of the A.A.U., and Brother Peter, president of Saint Stanislaus College and head of the Southern Association of the Athletic Amateur Union.
(2) The world problem of refugees created by Nazi persecution to which President Roosevelt said he was giving considerable thought, also occupied increasing attention. The President, in a message to the United Palestine Appeal’s “Night of Stars” at the Madison Square Garden tonight attended by about 20,000 persons — a message written before the most recent anti-Jewish depredations — wished “all success to the activities of American Jewry in the amelioration of distress and suffering.”
The New York Times in a lengthy editorial urged the creation of a Jewish homeland in some sparsely populated territory, preferably in a European nation’s colony, initially financed by the democratic nations. The League for Industrial Democracy and other groups wrote President Roosevelt urging liberalization of American immigration regulations. The National Negro Congress telegraphed President Roosevelt urging him to provide a haven for the Jews in America.
(3) A Journalists’ Defense Committee to seek funds among non-Jews only for the defense of Herschel Grynszpan and a public trial was announced by Dorothy Thompson, N.Y. Herald Tribune columnist, whose radio appeal in the youth’s behalf Monday night brought thousands of letters and telegrams and also unsolicited contributions. She devoted her syndicated column today to the drive, as did General Hugh S. Johnson, a member of the committee. Other members are Leland Stowe, Raymond Gram Swing, William Allen White, Hamilton Fish Armstrong, Heywood Broun and John Gunther.
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.
