Anti-Nazism is all right, but business is business.
This is the philosophy of Monte Shackman, head of the B. Shackman Novelty Corporation, whose store at Madison avenue and Thirty-fourth street was being picketed by the Anti-Nazi Minute Men Friday for selling German goods.
Shackman, who is Jewish and says he opposes the Hitler regime, explained that he must sell German goods because his customers want it.
“Sure I hope Hitler is overthrown,” he told a reporter, “but you can’t run a business on theory. We’re in business to sell merchandise.”
Further, it was his opinion that such picketing as the Anti-Nazi Minute Men have been carrying on in front of his store for the past two weeks “doesn’t do the Jewish race any good.”
He admitted that many Jews, who he said compose only twenty per cent. of his clientele, have stopped buying in his place.
Shackman said that on legal advice he has written to President Roosevelt, Secretary of State Cordell Hull and German Ambassador Hans Luther protesting against the picketing as interfering in trade with a friendly nation.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
