Successor in the public eye to the “disbanded” American Nazi party is the “Friends of New Germany,” Hitlerite and anti-Semitic group which has re-opened the old Nazi headquarters at 309 East 92d Street here as a clubhouse and organization center.
Situated in a shabby section of Yorkville, hidden behind a dirty and unauspicious window-front, the main meeting hall of the Friends of New Germany is now the gathering place for those who are carrying the brunt of the Nazi-inspired anti-Semitic attack in this country.
Erich Wiegand, young militant German who was a member of Hitler’s original Storm Troops in Germany and has been in the United States for the last two years, serves as master of ceremonies at meetings, days and night. While the names of the real leaders still remain a mystery, Wiegand admits he is the “front” man and active organizer.
It is the Friends of New Germany organization which will arrange for the distribution and showing in this country of the propagandistic motion picture exalting Hitler and his followers which the industrious Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels, Nazi minister of propaganda and public enlightenment, will send here from Germany next month.
ADMITS ANTI-SEMITISM
The picture, according to present plans, will be shown at the missionary meetings which the organization holds with great frequency in every center with a large German population, and it is expected to provide valuable aid to the pro-Nazi orators in their efforts to convert Germans and German-Americans to espousal of the Hitler program.
The Friends of New Germany, according to Wiegand, is not concerned with American politics, and confines its activities among the Germanic elements of the population here. He admitted that his organization is anti-Semitic and distributes anti-Semitic propaganda, and that such literature is available for the asking.
Many who are not eligible for membership in the Friends of New Germany organization, but who are interested in supporting Hitler and in furthering his anti-Semitic aims, visit or are brought to headquarters
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.
