Representative Samuel Dickstein, conductor of a House investigation of Nazi affairs in the United States, yesterday combed the immigration credentials of Captain George Schmitt, Hitlerite delegate to the Stahlhelm organizations in this country.
Schmitt, admittedly here for the purpose of coordinating the American Stahlhelms with the Nazi Party in Germany, has decided it is unnecessary to present his credentials to the State Department. His decision to assume the status of an unofficial visitor to the United States came after conference with the German Consul-General in New York. The decision to withhold credentials from the United States Government comes while federal officers are still searching for Heinz Spanknoebel, fugitive head of Nazi organizations in this country, who is wanted for having failed to announce his official capacity to the State Department.
It is understood that Representative Dickstein’s investigation into the entrance of Schmitt is being undertaken with a view toward discovering whether or not the Hitlerite agent falls into the same category of officials as Spanknoebel. In the event that he does, action is anticipated by the leader of the House committee.
Schmitt, now living at the Waldorf Astoria, will make a coast-to-coast trip with the objective of “gleichschaltung” all Stahlhelm organizations, which is composed in the United States of approximately 2,500 German war veterans, 35 percent of whom have become American citizens.
At the same time he will serve as agent for his own firm, a large concern dealing in the production and sale of Rhine wines.
Before he returns to Germany, Captain Schmitt intends laying a wreath on the war memorial at Madison Square. He has not disclosed whether the tribute would take the form of that laid on the cenotaph in London by Alfred Rosenberg, a large floral swastika.
Declaring that he could not arrest legally any man with sufficient means to keep him from becoming a charge of the county, Police Commissioner Bolan declared he would not act against paid Nazi propagandists in New York on charges of vagrancy.
His declaration came in response to a plea by Mayor Julius Hochfelder, counsel for the Jewish War Veterans, who on Monday requested that all Nazi agitators be charged with vagrancy when they were found to be without visible means of support.
Major Hochfelder issued his request with a view toward securing the imprisonment of “alien enemy agitators, who live on funds sent to them by the Hitler Government in Berlin.”
“Under the law,” Commissioner Bolan said, “we must give the Nazis the same privileges of propaganda that are afforded the Communists and other organizations. We can not discriminate between political sects as long as they carry on their activities in accordance with the legal requirements of the city and country.”
The commissioner said that Nazis could not be arrested on vagrancy charges as long as they had sufficient funds in their pockets to maintain themselves.
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.
