Nazi Intolerance Denounced by Writers

In a radio symposium on “Literature Freedom and Nationalism,” four prominent New York members of the American Centre of the P. E. N. Clubs, international organization of writers, severely criticized the intolerant nationalistic spirit that led to the banning of a group of authors and the burning of their books at a public auto-da-fe in Germany. All joined in a plea for intellectual and literary freedom.

Will Irwin, president of the American Centre of the P. E. N. Clubs, referred to the events in Germany as Nazi “tragic comedy”. He recalled that under pressure, or on their own initiative, the German P. E. N. Clubs had expelled all Jews, all supporters of the Weimar Republic, all communists and all pacifists. Mr. Irwin pointed out that the “coordinated” German P. E. N. was sending delegates to the annual world congress, to be held in Jugoslavia. The American delegate to the conference, Dr. Henry Seidel Canby, had been instructed, he said, to offer for endorsement a resolution adopted by the New York Centre setting forth among other things, that literature knows no frontiers and that “in all circumstances, particularly in times of war, works of art, the patrimony of humanity at large, should be left untouched by national and political passions.”

The other speakers were Mrs. William Brown Meloney, editor of the New York Herald Tribune Magazine; Alfred Dashiell, managing editor of Scribners Magazine, and Dr. Henry Goddard Leach, editor of Forum Magazine.

Dr. Goddard declared, “the recent extravagance of German nationalism seems incredible, and the suppression of certain German writers marked the high-tide limit to which such political buffoonery can go.” He contrasted Germany’s record with that of Denmark, where patriotism salutes and follows the leadership of the arts and letters. Dr. Leach voiced the hope that Chancellor Hitler would surprise the world by a gesture of national moderation and world reconciliation.