The entire German press unleashed a furious attack on Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia today for having suggested in New York yesterday that the World Fair have a chamber of horrors with the “brown-shirted fanatic” Chancellor Adolf Hitler its chief attraction.
Der Angriff, Propaganda Minister Paul Goebbels’ organ, led the attack with a front page editorial captioned: “New York’s Chief, Jew LaGuardia, Insults Our Fuehrer in Criminal Manner.”
Couched in language for the most part unprintable in American newspapers, the article contains a veiled threat against the United States.
“We may take an interest in American events,” it states, “that may not be too agreeable.”
Among the epithets hurled at New York’s mayor by the Angriff and the Deutsche Nachrichten Bureau, official German news agency, were these:
“Jewish bug….cheap Jewish apostle with his cheap Jewish brain…dirty Talmud Jews.”
Recalling Magistrate Louis Brodsky’s description in the famous Bremen riot case of the Nazi swastika as the “black flag of piracy,” the Angriff charges Mayor LaGuardia with having instigated the “Jewish communists” in the tearing down of the Bremen’s emblem.
“The climax, however,” it declares, “was reached with his orgy of insults before thousands of Jewish women. This cheap Jewish apostle cannot grasp with his cheap Jewish brain what it means to insult the leader of seventy million people.”
The article voices regret that the city of New York “should be punished by having three million Jews in addition to a man like LaGuardia.”
The DNB said in a release to all German newspapers:
“We wonder why American citizens who are interested in the maintenance of peace leave this dirty Talmud Jew in his position.”
Declaring the editorial attacks were the most venomous ever made here on an American official the Havas News Agency reported a good part of the tongue-lashing would not bear translation in accepted terminology. Not content with charging immorality against LaGuardia himself, one newspaper stated flatly the 1,000 Jewish women before whom the Mayor made his speech were all women of ill-repute.
Several editors openly regretted they could only lay hands on the “blackguard LaGuardia” through the printed word, rather than with their fists. All demanded that Washington take “appropriate measures” to satisfy the formal complaint immediately lodged with Secretary of State Hull by the German Embassy.
Help ensure Jewish news remains accessible to all. Your donation to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency powers the trusted journalism that has connected Jewish communities worldwide for more than 100 years. With your help, JTA can continue to deliver vital news and insights. Donate today.
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.
