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Gerald Smith Assails Anti-defamation League at Congressional Committee Hearing

January 31, 1946
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Gerald L.K.Smith, leader of the Nationalist Party, testified today before the Wood Committee investigating un-American activities. He scored the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, Friends Of Democracy and Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League, as “Jewish-Gestapo groups,” stating that they “have an elaborate and expensive system for indexing and following up on the names of individuals alleged to have criticized Jews.” He called for committee investigation of the three organizations.

A sharp attack on Smith as a “fascist propagandist” and as “America’s most raucous purveyor of anti-Semitism and of racial and religious bigotry” was made by Democratic Representatives Patterson of California, Savage and De Lacy of Washington and Marcantonio of New York in a joint letter to the committee. They criticized the committee for being “unable or unwilling to conduct this vital investigation through to a complete unmasking of Smith’s disruptive activities and chief financial supporters here or abroad.”

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