Self-styled Nazis hurled invectives at blacks and threatened Jews with “ovens” at a “White Power” rally in South Trenton. The rally attracted about 500 persons but most of them were counter-demonstrators including Youth Against War and Fascism and a local contingent of the Jewish War Veterans. Police kept the opposing groups apart and arrested three persons on minor charges.
One of them, identified as Robert Reali, 20, of Trenton, unemployed, was charged with throwing a rock at the Jewish vets. He was bailed out by Frank Drager, organizer of the rally who repeatedly gave the Nazi “seig hell” salute and blamed city officials for the “measly handful” that turned out to support him. One of his supporters was the professional hate-monger, James Madole of New York City, head of the National Renaissance Party.
The YAWF demonstrators, a left-wing group, shouted “death to the Fascist scum.” Drager and his cohorts shouted “White Power” and warned that “what America does (to Jews) will make Hitler’s Germany look like a Sunday school picnic.” Drager shouted to the JWV group, “Back to the ovens.” One speaker claimed that “Communism is Jewish” and another insisted there was a “Jewish conspiracy” to get the US into a war with Soviet Russia. The JWV group confined itself to singing “God Bless America” and other patriotic songs. Harvey S. Friedman, State commander of the JWV, walked back and forth before his contingent during the rally leading them in chants of “America, America.”
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.
