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Nazi Agents Active in Spreading Racial Propaganda in Washington, Official Says

February 24, 1942
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The revelation that Washington is “honeycombed with Nazi agents” who following direct orders from Berlin are spreading anti-Jewish and anti-Negro propaganda in the capital with a view of stirring up race riots, was made here today by a government official.

The Berlin orders, the official said, are received by short wave radio and the government knows about them. They call upon the Nazi agents in Washington to provoke fights with Jews and to spread racial propaganda among the lower classes of the population. The circle in which the Nazi agents operate has been nicknamed by government officials “The Coffee Pot Set” because the Nazis conduct their anti-Jewish whispering campaigns mostly among taxi drivers and workers in the cheap restaurants, rooming houses and coffee pot establishments.

These agents, composed of people who wish America to lose the war, are conducting their propaganda chiefly under the argument that “Hitler himself is bad, but what he does to the Jews is right.” According to the government official, this propaganda impresses many low-paid workers, taxi drivers and ignorant women. In stirring up racial antagonism among the lower class of the population, Nazi agents are at present concentrating their activities in Washington more than in any other city in the United States, the government official estimated.

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