An estimated 500 former inmates of Nazi concentration camps participated yesterday in a “Thank You, U.S.A.” demonstration here, in appreciation for their liberation by the U.S. Army. They were greeted at the White House by unformed storm troopers of the American Nazi Party, displaying signs reading “Gas Jew Communist Traitors.”
Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, New York Democrat, received the group in his Senate office and told them they were an inspiration to free men everywhere. He declared that there is no statute of limitation on murder, and said that those responsible for “crimes against humanity, against the Jews, should be held responsible no matter how long a time it takes.”
Referring to the Nazi pickets who sought to insult and disparage the former inmates of Nazi camps, Sen. Kennedy said they were “a small lunatic fringe” and should be ignored. The Jewish group, representing the Workmen’s circle and the Jewish Labor Committee, placed flowers on the grave of President John. F. Kehnedy, and also paid tribute at a marker memorializing President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Led by Jacob T. Zuckerman, president of the Workmen’s Circle, the group went to the White House, where, through an aide, a letter was left for President Johnson. The letter expressed the “heartfelt gratitude” of the concentration camp survivors for America’s liberation of the camps, “giving us the opportunity to rebuild our lives in a land of freedom.”
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.
