Nazi activities in this country have been brought to a head by the first open attack on the Jews of America by the Friends of New Germany, Hitler organization in the United States, which has proclaimed a boycott on the Jews. The following is the thirteenth of a series of articles detailing the rise and growth of the Nazi-inspired anti-Semitic movement in this country in all its ramifications. The articles are based on an exhaustive investigation of Nazi propaganda activities in this country and in Germany for a period of over a year.
The League of Friends of New Germany has swept the United States from the Pacific to the Atlantic in a wave of political conversion such as this country has never before seen. It began first as the National Socialist Party, which embraced all Germans here voting in elections in the homeland; then it became the League of Friends of New Germany, which enlisted all Germans who had become American citizens and who wished to subscribe to the policies of the Hitler government, and now it sponsors the DAWA (Deutsch-Amerikanischer Wirtschafts-Ausschuss, German American Protective Alliance) which professes to be a defensive organization for all German Americans and which later will be extended to include “Aryan” Americans wishing to exclude Jews socially, politically, and economically.
It is now obligatory for German Americans to join the DAWA unless they would be classified with the “Juden-genossen” (Jewish spirited). Quite obviously, as the organization grows, it will become more imperative for German Americans to enlist in the DAWA unless they wish to be ostracized from German American business and social circles. The DAWA is in most respects similar to the German organization created by the fanatical Julius Streicher in Nuremburg, which puts in the same category of Jews all those who continue to do business with Jewish concerns or treat Jews on an equal social footing. Streicher’s organization is the NS HAGO, the National Socialist Artisans and Tradesmen’s Association.
WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING
Unlike Communist organizations, the Nazis here assume a guise of respectability as they drive triphammer blows at the bulwarks of democracy. Like Hitler’s party they profess to protect the country from a greatly exaggerated Communist menace and a mythical peril instigated by a legendary ring of powerful international Jews. Thus they gain support from the German Americans and the approval of a number of respectable American patriotic societies.
Today the League of Friends of New Germany, a direct outgrowth of Hitler’s American branch of the National Socialist Workers’ Party, has captured more than fifty percent of German American society and has laid siege about the still uncoordinated organizations. It is only a matter of time until all give way to the influence of the League of Friends of New Germany and its Nazi policies, unless American elements rise to defend themselves at least as energetically as they are being attacked.
The manner in which Nazis are corrupting German American society is similar to that employed by termites. They are boring both from within and without through successive concentric social circles. The modus operandi is to station representatives in the wider untouched circles. These representatives have the duty of so internally corrupting the organizations in which they are placed that by the time the League applies external pressure they crumble.
The conversion of the United German Societies was undertaken in this manner. Nazi representatives had so Hitlerized the society that Jews and liberals could not prevail when the time came to crack down. The inner Nazi circle had succeeded in gaining the franchise by selecting as voting members representatives from the League of Friends of New Germany. Jews were forced to withdraw from the organization, and the sixty groups composing the United German Societies, became “gleichschaltet” with the policies of Hitler’s American party, which now assumed the guise of American composition.
A BAD INFECTION
The third great circle now being attacked by the Nazis is the German American Conference, which is still under liberal and American leadership. At present this organization, embracing twenty-six major German verein leagues, of which the United German Societies is only one, is well infected by the germ of anti-Semitism. Many believe that if an election were to be held tomorrow, the German American Conference would be swung under Nazi control. Hence, the German American Conference at present is inactive and impotent. It meets only as frequently as is absolutely necessary and then limits its discussions as much as possible to non-political affairs.
The fourth great circle is composed of the national German societies, many of which have headquarters in New York. Many of these have been drawn into the Nazi fighting front. Difficulty is found in complete “gleichschaltung” of these, however, because many local units in the hinterland are headed by Jews and liberals. The showdown is expected to come early in June, however, when the Third German American Congress is called in Cleveland. I am told that Nazis hope to inspire German American organizations throughout the country to come into the Hitlerite fold by a mammoth celebration over which the swastika will fly and at which Dr. Hans Luther, the German ambassador, will speak.
Beyond this circle there are the hundreds and even thousands of national and local American political organizations from which the Nazis will draw for support. In preceding articles I have told of the foreign brands of Fascism which are being propagated in this country as well as many of our homegrown Fascist and anti-Semitic societies. Direct communication has been established between the League of Friends of New Germany, their German American coconspirators, and these groups.
WHAT WILL TOMORROW BRING?
In preparation for the Nazi conversion of German America, the League of Friends of New Germany is active in twenty principal cities throughout the United States. The work of New York Nazis in the United German Societies and the German American Conference is being duplicated in other large centers throughout the country.
The purpose and aims of the American League of the Friends of the New Germany have been made public by that organization The statement begins, “To unite all honorable, serious minded, courageous and unselfish men and women of the Germanic Race, now loyal citizens or residents of the United States, proud of their Germanic blood and treasuring Germanic traditions, language, and ideals of national and individual liberty, justice, truth, duty, and absolute honesty into one great, free, proud, and respect-demanding American League of Friends of the New Germany for the mutual benefit of the United States of America and Germany.”
The resolutions include one “To defend with all lawful means at our disposal the good name and honor of our mother-country, Germany, against all base defamation, willfull and poisonous lies, and purposeful malice-.” To do this the League has discredited virtually the entire American press, attacked our government officials, and attempted to weaken the prestige of German-language newspapers in this country which saw fit to report objectively the developments within the new Germany.
‘LET FREEDOM RING’
Another resolution reads: “To abstain from useless, harmful, and ignoble propaganda and incriminations of all kinds,” such, perhaps, as that carried in the League organ, the Deutsche Zeitung, which appears every week with an assortment of fresh and warmed-over attacks on Jews, government officials, and the general press.
Another says: “To work incessantly and courageously for the fundamental right of every civilized nation to tend to its own business of self-government without any undue interference, threats, boycotts, or illegal violence from outsiders.” And yet the League boycotts American Jews and other Americans privately protesting their right to buy from most favored nations.
“To cooperate freely and willingly with all of good will to promote mutual understanding and friendship among nations and for an honorable peace among mankind.” The League has repeatedly attacked France, forgetful that France is Germany’s and not America’s mortal enemy.
The League announced as its motto. “All for one and one for all.” It resolves “to be and remain worthy of our Germanic blood, our German Fatherland, our German brothers and sisters, who are now fighting for their very existence and honor; to cultivate our German language, customs, and ideals; and to be upstandingly proud of this.”
THESE ARE THE CHOSEN
With regard to the motto, it becomes increasingly clear that all outside the pale of racial and national requirements of the League are “ausgeschaltet” from this exclusive ring of German Americans. Through their protective alliance, DAWA, the League essays to isolate itself into a pure social, economic, and political bloc, the scope of which may later be extended to all “Aryan” Americans. Members of this alliance, the DAWA, are pledged to buy from German American stores handing German goods and to boycott Jewish stores and other American stores not in favor of the policies of the Friends of New Germany. It also has announced itself ready to vote against Jewish and other governmental officials.
Such is the cleverness with which Nazi organization is undertaken that few of the subjects can resist enlistment in the scheme. German organizations, such as the Steuben Society, which may seek autonomy from the ever-widening sphere of the Nazi organization, are forced to compromise their philosophies evermore to prevent the withdrawal of Nazi elements and internal disruption. The shadow of Hitlerism has fallen across all of German American society. (To be continued tomorrow)
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