Dies’ Committee May Publish Report on Anti-semitic Propaganda of Pro-axis Groups

Rep. Jerry Voorhis of California who refused to sign the annual report of the Dies Committee on Un-American Activities, of which he is a member, today acknowledged that objections to the publication by the committee of material concerning anti-Semitic propaganda conducted by pro-Axis organizations in America had been raised by persons who feared that exhibits of anti-Jewish utterances might be distorted by propagandists to indicate “Dies Committee approval” of their contents.

“Personally, I do not believe that this consideration carried much weight,” the California congressman said. He added that he believes that the Dies’ Committee report on anti-Semitic propaganda in this country would eventually be issued “in some form or another.” He minimized the reports that the information had been withheld because it might embarrass “respectable isolationists.” As far as he could recall, he said, no such persons would be involved.

A number of notorious anti-Jewish propagandists are listed in the indictment returned yesterday by a District of Columbia grand jury against thirty-three persons charged with wartime sedition. Twenty-eight of them had been previously indicted. The new indictment charges that 42 publications were used in a conspiracy to impair the morale and loyalty of the American military and naval forces, including the notorious “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” the anti-Jewish and anti-British “Double Cross in Palestine,” and “The Christian Free Press.”

JURY ESTABLISHES CONTACT EXISTED BETWEEN AMERICAN ANTI-SEMITES AND NAZI GERMANY

The notorious Nazi publisher, Ulrich Fleischauar who was involved in the international trial in Bern, Switzerland, which branded the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a forgery, was also named by the grand jury here yesterday as a co-conspirator, though not as a defendant. Fleischauer has been distributing his anti-Jewish propaganda service “Welt-Dienst” in all major languages, from Erfurt, Germany, trying to reach every country in the world. The indictment quotes a letter addressed to the “Welt-Dienst” in Erfurt on November 30, 1938, by the defendant, Hans Diebel of Los Angeles, proprietor of the “Aryan Bookstore,” asking for anti-Jewish propaganda literature to be sent from Nazi Germany with signs of its origin obliterated.

“The American people will fall for anything but German-printed literature,” Diebel wrote. A letter to Diebel from the “Welt-Dienst,” signed “J. Klapproth, American Section,” is also quoted. This acknowledged the receipt of money and advised that literature was being sent. “The printer trade mark we have covered as good as it was possible,” said Klapproth. “In the future we will eliminate entirely the name and trade mark for our literature for the U.S.A.” The defendants face maximum a fines of $20,000 and jail sentences of 30 years.

Most prominent of the new defendants is George E. Deatherage, of St. Albans, W. Va., organizer of the Knights of the White Camellia; Mrs. Louis Do Lafayette Washburn of Chicago, organizer of the National Gentile League; Frank W. Clark of Tacoma, Wash., organizer of the National Liberty Party and commander in chief of the League of War Veteran Guardsmen; Paquita De Shishmareff of Glendale, Calif., publisher of the Christian Free Press and organizer of the Militant Christian Patriots; and Frank K. Ferenz of Los Angeles who was active in the distribution of pro-Nazi films. The New York Evening Enquirer, Inc., a corporation headed by William Griffin, was also indicted.