ago to deliver “one of the most loathsome and violent attacks on Jews ever experienced in the metropolitan district,” Emerson remained silent.
REITERATES DENIAL
He said he had testified recently before the federal grand jury, which is now investigating the activities of the fugitive Hitlerite, Heinz Spanknoebel, and declared he was not officially connected with the Berlin government. He stated that he is ready to make similar assertions before any other court in the United States.
On stationary bearing the letterhead of the law firm of Burlingham, Veeder, Fearey, Clark, and Hupper, George Emerson, a member of the firm, forwarded to the Jewish Daily Bulletin Col. Emerson’s protest. It follows:
“Nov. 27, 1933.
To the Editor of the
Jewish Daily Bulletin,
“In your issue of Nov. 26th you published misinformation about me, published in the New York Nation of Nov. 29th but evidently furnished to you early enough for you to have ascertained the truth from me, inasmuch as I was within easy reach.
“In your extract from The Nation you repeat a false statement contained in an article by Herr Ludwig Lore, who described me as a representative of the Nazi Party in the United States, stating that I had been appointed as such on Nov. 7th.
“In fairness to me I request you to publish in the Jewish Daily Bulletin my own statement, I have already made to the editors of The Nation, that I am not the representative of the Nazi Party interests in New York and that no such appointment ever came to me. On the face of it this silly story should have been recognized by you as false, as well as by the editors of The Nation, since I am known to you as an American citizen and I have personally informed you that I am not a member of the Nazi Party. It is well known and has repeatedly been published in the leading papers of New York that only German citizens of long standing in the National Socialist Labor party are permitted by Adolf Hitler to represent his Nazi party anywhere.
Sincerely yours,
“Edwin Emerson.
“17 Battery Place, New York.”
WHAT HE WROTE HEINZ
Under the same cover was enclosed a letter addressed to Heinz Spanknoebel by Emerson on August 10, which appears to be a denial of relations between Emerson’s organization, “The Friends of Germany,” and that of Spanknoebel, “The Friends of New Germany.” It also sets forth a refusal on the part of Emerson to abide by Spanknoebel’s official orders; but the letter was dated approximately three months prior to Emerson’s publicized alleged appointment as Nazi representative in the United States.
Col. Edwin Emerson has frequently appeared in the news columns since the outbreak of the World War. During the war he was allegedly held prisoner in Turkey and later transferred to Germany. During his internment he was granted unusual liberties of movement. He wrote for the Continental Times, a journal published in English in Amsterdam and considered at that time unfriendly to the Allied cause.
When interviewed by a reporter of the Jewish Daily Bulletin who has recently been in Germany, Emerson was told of statements by a number of Americans long resident in that country which pointed to his activities in the designing and dissemination of pro-German propaganda during the war. It has been said by those who knew him in Berlin during the World War that he made several speeches upholding the German cause.
PROPAGANDA CLEARING HOUSE
By his own assertions, Mr. Emerson is “not interested” in what the reporter heard in Germany, nor is he interested in the impression he created among fellow Americans during the World War in enemy country.
Shortly after Hitler became chancellor of the Third Reich, Emerson’s office, immediately across the hall from the German Consulate at 17 Battery Place, became a clearing house for pamphlets and newspapers of all descriptions, printed in Germany and setting forth the virtues of Hitler’s policies, including persecution of the Jews.
At the same time Emerson became active in upholding the Hitler government in speeches before German organizations and in articles published in German-owned newspapers in New York.
At least one visitor to Germany, Joseph O’Donohue, who, according to the account given by an American correspondent in Berlin, came to Germany to study Nazi-ism with a view toward propagandizing it in America, came to the fatherland with references from Emerson.
THE GERMAN ACCENT
At the time of the Jewish demonstration in New York in protest against Hitler’s treatment of Jews in Germany, Emerson wrote an article derogatory to the Jews which appeared in Amerika’s Deutsche Post, a pro-Nazi newspaper.
A few weeks ago he spoke before a congregation in White Plains and launched an attack upon Jews, which has since caused a decidedly unfavorable reaction toward him in both Jewish and Christian circles in New York.
Emerson was born in Dresden, Germany, and speaks English with an unmistakable German accent.
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.
