The attention of President Kennedy to the inciting anti-Jewish propaganda carried through the U.S. mails by the American Nazi party was drawn today by a delegation of the Jewish War Veterans which was received in the White House.
The delegation, headed by the J.W.V. National Commander I.L. Feuer, showed President Kennedy postcards dispatched by George Rockwell’s group through the U.S. mail carrying heavy stamped inscriptions “Jews Get Out” and “Bring Back Auschwitz”. The cards bore swastikas and the return address of the Nazi group.
(Yiddish newspapers in New York today received identical postcards from Rockwell’s American Nazi party, bearing the stamped message in German: “Juden Raus,” (Jews Get Out!) The postcards, which were plainly marked with the return address of Rockwell’s hate group in Arlington, Va., were postmarked in Washington, D.C. and bore a swastika mark in addition to the two-word message.)
Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy today indicated he is opposed to placing Rockwell’s “American Nazi party” on the Justice Department’s list of subversive organizations because the listing would give the Nazis free publicity.
Asserting that the Justice Department and “all sensible Americans” despise the Rockwell doctrines, the Attorney General said that the Nazis were being closely watched but that listing as subversive would give Rockwell a national public form to spread his “obnoxious doctrines.”
The Attorney General contended that the practical way to deal with Rockwell and his followers was for local authorities to prosecute them when they violated local laws. The Attorney General made his views known in a letter to Sen. Kenneth B. Keating, New York Republican, who had urged Mr. Kennedy to take that action.
SEN. KEATING INSISTS ON PLACING THE ROCKWELL GROUP ON SUBVERSIVE LIST
Sen. Keating, a member of the Senate Internal Security Committee, expressed “keen disappointment” over the refusal by the Attorney General to place the American Nazi party on the subversive list. “We can no longer pretend that this is an unknown, unpublicized organization which can be ignored out of existence. Its operations have become notorious and it shows no signs of being blanked out of public attention,” he said.
Sen. Keating explained that his proposal to list the Nazis along with the Communists and Ku-Klux-Klan was for the guidance of Federal personnel officers. The Senator said it was “outrageous if any of these brown-shirted bullies” were on the federal payroll. “At least one active supporter of this organization is employed by the Government at this very moment,” he stressed.
According to the Senator, Federal action, rather than words, was needed. He voiced hope that the Attorney-General will reconsider his position. “In the past, such organizations as the Ku-Klux-Klan and the Silver Shirt Legion of America have been designated as organizations which have adopted a policy of advocating or approving the commission of acts or force and violence to deny others their rights under the Constitution of the United States’,” Senator Keating pointed out.
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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.
