###h protest against persecution in Germany. The conference, purport###g to represent all German-American societies in its twenty-three federations, voted to appoint a committee of seven to lay plans for suppression of anti-German propaganda, suppression of the anti-German boy###cott measures to induce all Americans of German descent to join the conference, and the carrying out of plans for a German Day celebration at Madison Square Garden on December 6 at which, the United German Societies delegate insists, Ambassador Luther will speak. The committee will also decide upon funds to be spent in fighting the boycott of German goods in a nation-wide campaign.
Robert Rosenbaum, delegate to the conference for the Federation of German-Jewish Societies, did not receive an invitation to attend the meeting at which these resolutions were passed.
Under the leadership of Victor Ridder, president of the German-American Conference, and his brother, Bernard, publishers of the leading German newspaper in New York, the New Yorker Staats Zeitung, the German-American Conference re-adopted plans of the United German Societies for celebration of German Day, a fete which was banned by Mayor O’Brien in the interests of peace and order when it was learned that Nazi elements had taken over conduct of the affair.
At the conclusion of the meeting, representatives of the United German Societies, which has recently come under the control of the League of Friends of New Germany, a Hitlerite group, announced that they would not have permitted the sponsorship of the new German Day celebration at Madison Square Garden on December 6 to pass into the hands of the Steuben Society if they were not sure that Hitler’s ambassador to Washington, Dr. Hans Luther, would be a speaker on the program. The presence of the ambassador is automatically conditioned on the display of the swastika emblem.
According to a resolution passed by the Federation of German Jewish Societies a few weeks ago, members of these organizations will take no part in celebrations at which the swastika emblem is displayed. In the present instance, unless there is a sudden and unexpected reversal of disposition on the part of the German Jews, the celebration will be undertaken purely by “Aryan” members of German-American organizations.
The attitude of Mayor John P. O’Brien could not be determined Friday. The mayor told the press he had not had time to read the newspapers regarding the new German Day plans and consequently had not formed an opinion as to whether or not he would suspend the celebration.
Led by Victor and Bernard Ridder, Mr. Weiler, Dr. Alfons Richter, and Dr. L. Oberndorf, the discussion of the move to counteract the anti-German boycott and anti-German propaganda met with little opposition from the attendant delegates.
Dr. Weiler, delegate from the German-American School Verein, cited an incident in which a teacher in the New York Public Schools had lectured her pupils, advising them to tell their parents to boycott German goods.
“It is our duty,” Dr. Weiler declared, “to take mass action in our fight to protect ourselves and Germany. It is our sacred obligation to the old fatherland to show that we hold Germany’s name in honor. We are no citizens of the Second Class in this land, and it is our right and duty to show the entire world that we are prepared to take action against slander.”
Dr. Oberndorf called for organization throughout the United States to overcome propaganda directed against Germany.
A committee will meet in Lu-chow’s Restaurant on Fourteenth Street Monday afternoon to perfect plans for the execution of resolutions adopted at the meeting Wednesday.
The German-American Conference resolved that all member federations would be required to reaffirm their loyalty to the conference, whose principles, it was said, are based upon the United States Constitution. All unattached German vereins and individuals of German descent will be asked to align with the conference.
The results of such action would primarily create a definite distinction between Aryan and non-Aryan descendants of Germans in this country, it is felt; and, consequently, definitely divide the sentiments of Americans with the possibility of conflict remaining a remote, but none-the-less present, probability.
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