Doug Brinkley, the Hitler apologist, who is touring the country to “tell the truth about Germany,” succeeded in getting audiences of only 200 each in Milwaukee and Madison to hear his version.
In Madison, Brinkley managed to get the sponsorship of representatives of the established German societies for his meeting. In Milwaukee, only a committee made up of members of the Friends of New Germany arranged the lecture.
Brinkley’s appearance in Milwaukee was countered by a demonstration of 400 radicals a half block from the hall in which he spoke. The rally was led by the local chapter, American League Against War and Fascism. Speakers denounced Brinkley as a “paid tool of Hitler” and assailed Nazism for its atrocities.
The Brinkley meeting within the hall was the first directed by local pro-Nazis in which no German flag, swastika banner, or other fascist insignia was on exhibit. Newspaper attacks upon past displays of these foreign symbols in Milwaukee was believed responsible for their absence on this occasion.
In both Milwaukee and Madison, Brinkley waxed ecstatic about the “unity and order” Hitler has brought Germany.
All those military machines “wicked journalists” say Hitler is building up secretly and in defiance of the Versailles treaty are “mere camouflage,” explained Brinkley. They are just cardboard or wood instruments painted and fashioned to look like Big Berthas and tanks, Brinkley let it be known.
In defense of the persecution of German Jews, Brinkley aired the oft-repeated figures about the dominance of Jews in the professions, banking, newspapers, etc.
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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.
