Writing in a series on “The Collapse of American Communism,” which is being currently published by the N.Y. Herald Tribune, Benjamin Stolberg reports that the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression treaty has caused many Jewish defections from the Communist Party here.
Quoting a former high party official who resigned because of the pact, Mr. Stolberg said: “… for every member who withdraws openly, there are dozens, even hundreds who quietly drop out. Jewish members, except for the die-hards, are rushing from the party as from a pest-house.”
Resentment over the Hitler-Stalin tie, Mr. Stolberg said in another of the series, was “especially evident among the Jewish workers. In those shops in the needle trades in which Jewish workers predominate it is today unsafe for Communist propagandists to attempt to whitewash the Stalinazi alliance. And in the cloak and suit and fur districts of New York City, street meetings at which Communist speakers are trying to ‘explain’ the alliance between Herr Stalin and Tovarich Hitler are simply broken up by enraged workers.”
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.
