A thousand CIO convention delegates and visitors rose to their feet in a thunderous demonstration today when President John L. Lewis denounced Chancellor Hitler as a “blood-thirsty wolf” carrying out “the most appalling acts in history” and bolstered a demand for a State Department protest with a promise that “20,000,000 CIO members and their dependents will support this Government and defend it.”
The CIO is ready to support a war of defense against Germany if Hitler should attempt to extend his influence to the Western world, Mr. Lewis said. He declared:
“We stand appalled today at what we witness in Europe. What heart can fail to become anguished as we read in the daily press of the abuse, the atrocities and the brutalities being inflicted by the German Government and some of the German people on the Jews of that nation. It is one of the most appalling events in history – shameful, indeed, to our concepts – torture and abasement of a great race of people who only ask the right to their faith and the right to live.”
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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.