Rep. Edward A. Garmatz of Maryland told the House today there was “no real evidence of a Communist plot” behind recent anti-Semitic vandalism in West Germany and that the Bonn Government was obligated to confront the issue directly instead of discounting it as a “Communist plot.”
Rep. Garmatz told the House there were indications that West German youth has not been taught in school about the Hitler regime’s “monstrous assault on humanity.” He said that the West German Government “would do well, even at this late date, to re-examine its educational policies as well as its laws, in order to extirpate the Nazi influence from German life. “
Other developments in the swastikas epidemic reported by the JTA during the last 24 hours included the following:
UNITED STATES: The American Jewish Congress criticized the filing of treason charges against three hoodlums in Queens, New York, and said “these youths and their evil actions must not become the opportunity for martyrdom or confusion.” Two hoodlums were to be arraigned in Queens Felony Court for attacking a Jewish family in a restaurant. Students demonstrated before the German Consulate in New York.
ITALY: Milan police swooped down tonight on the headquarters of the neo-Fascist Ordine Nuovo (New Order) organization and arrested nine men, charging them with having sent threatening letters to Milan Jews and with having painted swastikas on walls in the city.
NETHERLANDS:Queen Juliane was personally represented last night at a demonstration against anti-Semitism held in one of Amsterdam’s largest churches. The Dutch Minister of Justice, A. C. W. Beerman, attended the meeting at which clergymen of several Dutch congregations spokes and condemned the out breach of incidents.
AUSTRIA: Austrian police pressed a search today for Albrecht Alberti, the “fuehrer” of a neo-Nazi youth organization in the province of Carinthia modeled after the Hitler Youth movement. Three officials of the organization were arrested. A quantity of Nazi propaganda material was confiscated in a raid on Alberti’s apartment. Alberti was described as a lawyer who had been active in the Nazi youth movement.
BRITAIN: The chairman of the Enfield, London, police court imposed fines on three youths today for having painted the words “Death to the Jews!” on a fence and told them: “What you were doing was connected with something that happened before you were born. Thousands of people died through no fault of their own. It doesn’t do for English boys to go around painting those words on fences. “
At Lytham, St. Annes, a seaman and a student were fined 15 pounds ($42) each for daubing swastikas on the walls. Two small swastikas were carved on the door of a synagogue in Stepney Green, in East London, last night. In Hendon, another suburb, swastikas were daubed on the Hendon Reform Synagogue, on private houses and parked cars.
CANADA: The Montreal Police Department warned that “anyone caught defacing public buildings or other property with swastikas will be prosecuted for public mischief or damage. “
BULGARIA: The Central Jewish Council of Bulgaria, according to a Sofia broadcast, protested the revival of anti-Semitism in West Germany and in “the capitalist world. ” It sent a cable of protest to the United Nations Secretary General.
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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.
