Will the Ridgewood Grove Arena of Brooklyn prove big enough to hold 5,000 German-American Nazis and 7,000 of their sworn enemies, the National Blue Shirt Minute Men, who expect to attend tonight’s meeting sponsored by the Friends of the New Germany to protest the boycott of German-made goods?
That is the question agitating the minds of a large police detachment under Inspector Edward Hanley of the Fifteenth Division who will be on hand to preserve order. At the offices of the Grove it was stated that the seating capacity is 5,000.
Sufficient fireworks have been looked for ever since the German-Americans announced their decision to hold the meeting tonight. Put the prospects of a lively evening were heightened when Benjamin Lazare, national commander of the Blue Shirts, announced that his men will picket the Grove and attempt to get inside.
“We are not looking for trouble. We hope to gain admittance into the arena without fighting for it,”
For months the Blue Shirts have been active in picketing Brooklyn stores selling German merchandise. A short time ago they challenged the German-American leaders to a debate on the merits of the boycott. The local Nazis refused, and the Blue Shirts decided to favor the Ridgewood Grove with their presence tonight.
PEACE AT ALL COSTS
Lieutenant Paul Byrne who commands the 104th Precinct is not sure just to what extent social amenities will be observed in the arena, which is ordinarily used for boxing and wrestling matches, and so police reserves will be held in readiness. He promised that “order will be preserved at all costs.”
While the Brooklyn admirers of the Hitler regime were going ahead with preparations for their big night, a summons was obtained for Reinhold Walter, head of the Friends of the New Germany, by Edgar H. Burman, national chairman of the Anti-Nazi Committee of the Jewish War Veterans. Burman charges Walter with desecrating the American flag by inserting the Nazi swastika on an American shield. Magistrate Francis Irwin in Jefferson Market Court issued the summons.
An effort will be made by Burman, he said on Friday, to amend the summons to include Joseph Schuster, the reputed leader of the Brooklyn division of the Friends who are said to have headquarters at 533 Knickerbocker avenue.
With a number of units in the metropolitan area and elsewhere already functioning, the Jewish War Veterans are attempting to launch a youth movement for combating bigotry. A blue overseas cap with gold trimming and a specially designed cane are to be part of the young men’s equipment.
A circular from New ‘Rochelle, violently attacking the Jews, was forwarded by a member to the veterans’ organization office. The circular concludes with these words:
‘JEWS AND RADICALS’
“Attend the first official attack on Jews, communists and other radicals!
“Evening of May First, 1934.
“In commemoration of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew at Huguenot Street.”
Burman also charged that the wearing of Brown Shirts at public functions in this country violates Section 246, Division 22, Foreign Relations Laws.
I. T. Flatto, Jewish lawyer who owns the Ridgewood Grove Arena, in response to a question Friday told a Jewish Daily Bulletin reporter that if he tried to stop tonight’s meeting, the 400,000 Germans in the Ridgewood area would retaliate against the 15,000 Jews.
“We can’t fight Hitler by preventing the Germans here from holding a meeting. To fight Hitler, we must fight him.” Flatto asserted.
He expressed himself as opposing the boycott which “is being run by professional Jews who can’t be retaliated against like the small shopkeepers.” Flatto also said he did not think the boycott was fair and added in regard to the meeting in the arena: “I have investigated the thing carefully, and find that this meeting is not anti-Semitic or pro-Hitler. It is simply a meeting of German-Americans who are suffering from the boycott. They will draft a resolution to President Roosevelt to help stop the boycott.
“There is no other purpose. The place will be cleared if anything anti-Semitic is uttered. The Police Department is investigating, and the contract stipulates that the meeting is to be called off if the police object.
“A few years ago I refused to allow the Ku Klux Klan to meet in the Grove because they were anti-Semitic and un-American, but this is different.”
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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.
