Search JTA's historical archive dating back to 1923

Lord Mayor of Coventry Threatened for Backing Anti-nazi Exhibition

June 13, 1961
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
Advertisement

Although he had received a telephone call threatening him and his family, Lord Mayor William Callow last night officially attended the opening of an exhibit, at St. Mary’s Hall here, of photographs depicting life in Nazi concentration camps.

Mayor Callow notified police that a man who had telephoned him told him: “If you and your stinking Jewish friends open this exhibit, you and your family will suffer.” The caller, said the Mayor, identified himself as speaking for “friends of Eichmann,” and concluded his message with “Sieg Eichmann!”

The exhibit consists of 80 huge photos, depicting life in concentration camps, and includes also other items from some of the former Nazi death camps. It pictures various atrocities practiced against camp victims, and shows gas chambers and crematoria.

There has been considerable controversy here since the planning of the exhibit was announced. Harold Williams, provost of the Coventry Cathedral, has called upon all Christians to boycott “this exhibition of bitterness.” Mayor Callow, however, denying the exhibit was an attack against Germany, said “we protect not against any one nation, but against an evil philosophy, against man’s inhumanity to man the world over.”

Recommended from JTA

Advertisement