cording to well-founded reports in New York, the real purpose of his visit was to engage here in an extensive anti-Semitic Nazi campaign.
“It is not so,” Weidemann declared. “My only aim in this country is to represent the German Government at the Chicago World Fair to which we have been officially invited.”
“Are you going to meet members of the German Nazi party in this country and are you going to deliver lectures at meetings while here?” the Hitler envoy was asked.
“I am not going to deliver any political speeches while here, and as far as meeting Nazi members in this country is concerned, no appointment has been arranged so far, and I do not know as yet, whether I shall see them,” replied Mr. Weidemann. He repeated that his was a purely technical mission.
“But why should the Hitler Government send on this ‘technical mission’ an official of the Propaganda Ministry and not of the trade ministry?” he was asked.
“Well, Germany is represented in Chicago by an art department and art is a part of the activities of the ministry of Propaganda and Enlightenment,” he replied.
DENIES GOEBBELS REPORT
He denied the report that his chief, Dr. Goebbels, was supposed to come to this country and that he had changed his mind, after protests by Chicago Jews to the management of the Fair.
“What is your attitude towards the anti-Jewish measures taken by the Hitler Government? Do you concur with the expulsion of Jewish professors from German universities, of Jewish physicians from the hospitals and Jewish judges from the courts?” a reporter asked Weidemann.
“I am a member of the Hitler Government. I am a National Socialist and I naturally, fully agree with all the steps taken by our government against the Jews. This is obvious, otherwise I would not be a member of this government and I would not be here now as a representative of the Nazi government,” Weidemann stoutly replied.
IN SECLUSION HERE
Mr. Schneider, his assistant, obviously a more experienced politician than Herr Weidemann, often interposed and tried to rescue his chief from embarrassing questions.
Efforts by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to establish the whereabouts of the Nazi envoy after he disappeared on the tug, were fruitless. Neither the German Consulate, nor officials of the North German Lloyd would disclose the hotel or residence of Mr. Weidemann while in this city. Although at the pier it was said that he is to leave for Chicago immediately, Mr. Schlitter, the vice-consul, declared later that the Nazi envoy was to stay in New York over night and proceed to Chicago today.
Three policemen and several communists were injured and fifteen men were arrested as a result of the clash between police and communists taking part in the demonstration at the pier.
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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.
