A one-year investigation of anti-American and anti-Semitic acts of vandalism and violence in the city of New York has indicated that these acts were not the result of any organized conspiracy and that there is no group directing or planning them.
This was made clear in a 170-page report submitted yesterday to Mayor LaGuardia by Commissioner of Investigation William B. Herlands. The report emphasized, however, that these acts were not accidental, but that they were largely the result of propaganda and indoctrination emanating from such organizations as the Christian Front and Christian Mobilizers. The offenders were in the main susceptible youngsters averaging around seventeen years of age, of low mentalities and from homes which left much to be desired, the report established.
The report sets forth in detail thirty-one cases of vandalism and recounts the case histories of Fifty-four offenders involved, mostly juveniles. In some cases the vandals were instigated directly by adults to commit the acts. The handling of some of the cases by the police was criticized in the Commissioner’s report which stated that there was a tendency in the Police Department to lock upon the incidents of vandalism and violence as boyish pranks, ordinary mischievousness and neighborhood hoodlumism. The report proposed the following 12-point plan for dealing with the problem:
1. Providing more effective police action and special police measures.
2. Appointment of a city-wide interracial and interfaith committee by the Mayor.
3. Establishment of local community coordinating councils.
4. Bringing home the fundamental responsibility of parents.
5. Further co-operation of public and parochial educational authorities to improve intercultural, interracial and interfaith relations.
6. Seeking of additional assistance from the churches and religious leaders.
7. Designation of panels of religious leaders to co-operate with the justices and probation officers of the Children’s Court.
8. Increased participation of war veterans’ groups in the field of intercultural, interracial and interfaith relations.
9. Additional attention of the Office of War Information to the problem.
10. Increased responsibility of various community organizations.
11. Co-operation of complainants and victims with the police.
12. Co-operation of private and semi-public fact-finding organizations with the police and the Mayor’s committee.
Urging the Office of War Information to redouble its efforts in apprising the public of the “divide and conquer” technique used in Nazi propaganda, Commissioner Herlands declared that “a persistent rumor which has poisoned the minds of many of the vandals investigated by us is that the Jews are shirking their part in the war effort; and that this is a Jewish war.”
“These rumors,” Mr. Herlands said, “are based upon Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda and are intensified by the distribution of anti-Semitic doggerels and ‘poems,” To counteract this, Mr. Herlands said, the OWI should present to the public “authoritative Information showing that all Americans, regardless of race, color or creed, are making equal contribution to the war effort.”
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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.
