With Hitlerism and anti-Semitism as their dual spearhead, speakers at the German Day celebration fomented an audience of 18,000 into a seething frenzy of hysteria in Madison Square Garden Saturday night.
Two important developments characterized the swastika-bedecked rally, which culminated many weeks of effort on the part of Greater New York’s Nazi element to present at least the semblance of a united German-American front in this area.
First was the emergence into the public eye of Louis Zahne, chairman of the German-American Independent Voters League and directing genius of the Friends of New Germany, as the dominating figure in America’s Nazidom.
Second was a clear indication of the future policies of the political committee of the German-American Conference, a group whose avowed purpose will be to order its adherents how to vote and at whose helm Zahne will hold sway as dictator.
Addressing the rally in German, the suave, American-born Zahne made little effort to veil his intention to wage war on all men in public life who are Jewish in faith or origin.
Former Mayor John F. Hylan, an independent candidate for the governorship of New York State, will be among the committee’s first endorsees, Zahne indicated.
As for the other candidates, he said, it is strange they are “all of the same type.”
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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.
