An official of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of St. Louis said today the Council had met yesterday and reaffirmed a position to seek to quarantine a planned march and rally of the National Socialist Party here next month.
Norman Stack, JCRC executive director, said the march and rally were scheduled in connection with a planned “national convention” of the American Nazis on March II. Walter Able, Assistant St. Louis highway director, said the local Nazi group had been issued a permit to stage a parade on the city’s south side in conjunction with the convention. Able said the parade permit could be revoked if the threat of violence arose.
Stack told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he doubted there was a single Jewish family in the city’s south side and that, in this respect, the situation was markedly different from the Chicago suburb of Skokie, where another tiny band of American Nazis is seeking court permission, in a lengthy court battle, to march with swastikas through an area which is the home of 7000 Holocaust survivors.
THREATS OF VIOLENCE
Stack said the virtual absence of Jews along the planned St. Louis Nazi march route and the site of the planned rally, as well as the convention site, meant that there was no likelihood of clashes from local Jews, but admitted there had been “threats of violence,” which he declined to amplify. He said he understood the city permit for the march was for 100 marchers but he doubted that many would show. He said the local Nazi group was “less than a dozen” in membership.
Stack said a JCRC statement planned for transmission to local Jewish leaders reaffirmed a policy developed from a bid by the local Nazis last October to speak in front of city hall in Florrisant, a St. Louis suburb. Stack said the Nazis were denied permission to speak. He said that problems might develop for the March II convention from an announcement last night that the local Nazi “leader” has been arrested for buying and selling stolen property.
Stack added that the JCRC took the position that the “easy thing” for Jews to do in such situations was to “react emotionally” while the difficult thing to do was to “restrain oneself.” He said that, as in the Florrisant situation, the JCRC planned to make its position known to all Jewish leaders in St. Louis and to ask their cooperation in bringing the message of restraint to St. Louis Jews generally.
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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.
