Metropolitan police today made known that they have arrested the “deputy commander” of George Lincoln Rockwell’s “American Nazi party” along with a Jew active in local Jewish communal affairs. Charges of disorderly conduct were lodged against the two men.
The Rockwell official was J. V. Kenneth Morgan, 34, of Alexandria, Va. The Jew was Irving Berman, 48, an engineer, of near by Falls Church, Va. Mr. Berman is a respected member of the Jewish community. He was described as having deplored the continued open dissemination of Nazi propaganda on Washington street corners.
Morgan and Berman were released on payment of collateral and will appear for trial tomorrow in municipal court. The arrest occurred on a downtown Washington street corner where Morgan and Rockwell were distributing pro-Nazi and anti-Jewish propaganda tracts to passers-by. Police officers said Berman and Morgan became involved in a scuffle over the tracts. Both men were seized by police. Rockwell was not arrested.
Police described the tracts as “abusive literature condemning Jews and Negroes.” The incident marked the continued campaign of Rockwell and his followers to enlist support in the Nation’s capital for the neo-Nazi movement.
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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.