The American Jewish Congress has addressed a request to Ralph Beaver Strassburger, Pennsylvania publisher to withdraw his appointment of Paul Joseph Goebbels, Minister of propaganda and enlightenment of the German Reich, as judge of the $1,000 literary award he makes anually.
Dr. Goebbels was named to replace Thomas Mann, internationally known author, whose works were proscribed by the Nazis and publicly burned on May 10th, because of their liberalism.
The American Jewish Congress, in a communication addressed to Mr. Strassburger, and signed by Bernard S. Deutsch, as President, points out that the appointment of Dr. Goebbels is direct sanction of his policies. It would have been singularly appropriate, says the communication, to have renamed Thomas Mann, precisely because he was proscribed.
The American nation, dedicated to the principle that all men are free and equal, repudiates the policy of oppression practiced against the Jews by the Hitler government, says the communication. As a newspaper publisher and molder of public opinion, it continues, it behooves Mr. Strassburger, to really enlighten the American people as to the facts of the persecution of Jews in Germany.
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.
