New Haven Audience Stirred to Anger by Fascist’s Defense of Hitler Policies

A charge that Hitler is “simply carying out good Jewish tenets in his treatment of the Jews”, made by Lawrence Dennis, editor of “The Liberator”, an American Fascist journal, almost precipitated an outbreak here recently in the First Methodist Episcopal Church where Dennis, invited by the New Haven forum, spoke on “America Faces Fascism.” Rev. George S. Lackland, president of the forum, interrupted the speaker several times and appealed to the “sportsmanship” of the audience to allow Dennis to conclude his talk. Forced by the continued heckling and jeering of the audience, the Rev. Lackland promised that a representative of each group present might answer Dennis at the end of his talk.

“Hitler is merely adopting the policy of ruthlessly crushing foreigners as advised in the Old Testament”, Dennis said, and was immediately greeted with cries of “Shame!” and “Liar!” Continuing, he said that anti-Semitism in Germany was merely a local feature and should not be confused with the social and economic policies of Fascism, adding that Fascism in America would not necessarily be anti-Semitic.

“I ma not personally anti-Semitic, but I cannot speak for others who believe as I do in the coming Fascism of this country. It would be to my advantage to say that I am, for there are many people who would wish me to say I am not.”

When asked whether Fascism stands for peace Dennis thought for a moment and said: “That’s a hard question to answer; if we have what we want, of course there’ll be peace.”