Force School Pupils to Read Nazi Matter

Shortly before it went into conference yesterday afternoon the Board of Education received protests against the alleged inclusion of Nazi propaganda as required reading matter in German classes at the Stuyvesant High School, 345 East Fifteenth street. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Harold G. Campbell, who attended the meeting, and George J. Ryan, president of the Board of Education, had been informed previously of the alleged Nazi attempts to propagandize Hitlerism through the medium of New York high school class work.

According to B. Charney Vladeck, chairman of the Jewish Labor Committee and manager of The Jewish Daily Forward, a copy of the book, German Youth in a Changing World, had come to his hands with the inscription, “Property of the Stuyvesant High School.” Vladeck charges that the book was written by ten members of the propaganda department of the Nazi youth movement in Berlin. The special English language edition which came into his possession he described as having been printed for distribution in England, Canada, the United States and other English-speaking countries.

Vladeck’s newspaper expressed sharp resentment that the book should be introduced in New York public schools, particularly at the Stuyvesant High School which is located in a district largely populated by Jews.

At Stuyvesant High School yesterday teachers in the German department refused to comment. They said that they had no authority to speak on the matter and referred reporters to the principal.

The principal. Ernest R. von Nardroff, could not be reached.

Vladeck in his lettor to the president of the Board of Education asked that the board “not only immediately dispense with the use of this booklet in the high schools but fittingly punish those Nazis in the public school system who have the audacity to smuggle such literature in their official classes.” He protested against “the Board of Education conniving at Nazi propaganda,” and described the official use of the booklet as a “crime.”