Anti-semitic Speech by Congressman Gossett Draws Protests in Washington

A bitterly anti-Semitic speech by Congressman Ed Gosett, Texas Democrat, before the Washington chapter of the American Association of University Women last Saturday began drawing protests today from within the administration and on Capitol Eill.

Speaking on displaced persons legislation as a member of the House Sub-committee on Immigration, Gossett attacked the entrance into this country of Jewish DP’s as “an injection of virus in our national bloodstream which is already becoming polluted.” He singled out Russian Jew as being especially undesirable, Gossett charged that most of the Jews in DP camps are not those who have been persecuted but are “Communistic Russian and Polish Jews” who are planning to destroy the U.S. from within.

The Texas Congressman said that the true persecutees were the ethnic Germans expelled from Eastern Europe, overlooking the fact that several million Russian and polish Jews last their lives during the Nazi regime. To Gossett, the Jewish survivors are “a left-over, non-talented class, too lazy to work.” He described DP legislation as rewarding “the least deserving, least desirable and most dangerous” people.

Gossett conceded that the U.S. was a country of immigrants but he maintained that “times have changed and so have the Immigrants.” He suggested that at least half of the DP quotas be filled with “good German folks who are hot afraid of physical work.” The Germans, he said, are of “batter stock than the dregs of the DP camps.

Rep. Emanuel Celler, New York Democrat, today wrote to the American Association of University Women asking for a chance to speak to the chapter in view of the grave charges made by Gossett.

Specific charges of DP destruction and sabotage which were made by Gossett were contradicted firmly today in official circles. Gossett state that DP’s stationed at the Zeilsheim camp near Frankfurt rioted and destroyed $200,000 in equipment when ordered to more to new quarters so as to make room for U.S. airlift personnel. Army spokesmen connected with DP administration reported their records showed no such destruction taking place during the evacuation.