Under close questioning by members and counsel of the Dies Committee investigating un American activities. Fritz Kuhn leader of the German American Bund today admitted efforts to form a united front with organizations having similar aims. He said nothing had come so far of these efforts but he was still hopeful.
Declaring he was seeking to promote an alliance between the Bund the Christian Front and other “anti Communistic” groups Kuhn said “You call them Fascist but I call them patriotic organizations” Among the meetings held in an effort to obtain unity he said was one in Kansas City in August 1937 and another last Winter in Long Island City which was addressed by Major General George Van Horn Moseley retired.
In the course of the second and concluding day of questioning Kuhn also testified that Attorney General Frank Murphy had addressed a Bund meeting in Detroit in 1936. He was quizzed about relations with Nazi groups in Germany denying and direct connection with Berlin. There were several heated exchanges between Kuhn and committee members.
Kuhn yesterday demanded that the committee subpoena Bernard Baruch on the ground he had interviewed Joseph Stalin in 1936 and had said the Communistic system was better than the American Kuhn said he had read such interviews in all leading New York news papers. Today Representative J. Parnell Thomas News Jersey said an exhaustive search made of the New York Times and Herald Tribune showed no such interview. The only Baruch statement was a denial that he had ever conferred with Maxim Litvinoff while in Russia. Kuhn was ordered to submit clippings to the committee on his return to New York.
When the committee ended its session and Kuhn was permanently excused he told newspapermen that the committee had not shown any proof that the Bund was un American or had a connection with Germany. He said the hearing was a “waste of time” and would cost Chairman Martin Dies and Representative Joe Starnes their political futures.
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.
