America is against racial and religious persecution in Germany. Congressional, labor and religious leaders of this country last night told more than 2,500 Jews, Catholics and Protestants who met to protest Hitler’s policies.
Senator Millard E. Tydings of Maryland declared that “in the United States of America the public opinion of our people stands like a rock against the persecutions of our fellows for religious and racial reasons.”
He said that religious intolerance is “a disease which must be fought with public opinion founded on truth.
The job of the American people, he said, is to build moral opposition to the persecution policies of Hitler. “No nation can live with all other nations in moral opposition to it,” he declared.
Senator William H. King of Utah warned that “in dealing with the Hitler regime, soft words will fail to accomplish the result.” He said, “I would not hesitate to vote to rescind the commercial treaty between the United States and Germany if the Hitler regime continues its cruel and paganistic course against the Jews, Catholics and Protestants.”
Other speakers were Frank Morrison, secretary of the American Federation of Labor, who reported that the boycott was weakening
the Nazi regime and urged its continuance; Monsignor John A. Ryan of the Catholic University, Representatives Emanuel Celler, New York; William A. Citron, Connecticut; Samuel Dickstein, New York and C. G. Gererty, Pennsylvania.
Messages supporting the protest meeting were read from Senators Van Nuys and Moore and a number of House members. The meeting adopted resolutions urging United States withdrawal from the Berlin Olympics and urged that American universities refuse to exchange professors and students with German universities.
Other resolutions requested the League of Nations to assume responsibility for the care and rehabilitation of German refugees and urged that Congress and President Roosevelt officially protest against persecution on Germany.
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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.