One of the principal witnesses in the forthconing investigation of conditions at the Welfare Island penitentiary in New York, a front page story in newspapers all over the country, is Dr. Louis Berg, a practicing physician in Manhattan. Dr. Berg has been visiting the prison in a professional capacity for four years, receiving no pay.
Two years ago he wrote a book called “Prison Doctor” which detailed his observation of conditions on Welfare Island noted during his bi-weekly social service calls. It contained evidences of shocking depravity, thievery and rule by hardened creminals. When the book was published, the then Commissioner of Corrections Patterson called the doctor to his office and said that it had “greatly annoyed” him. It received widespread attention from penologists everywhere, however, and though no action was taken by the past administration, the book deserves some credit for having inspired the recent cleanup.
Since the pulication of his first book, Dr. Berg has been storing up facts unearthed at Welfare Island for use in a second. These facts are now assembled and ready to be delivered over to the authorities in charge of the imminent municipal penal investigation.
The most rabidly anti-semitic sheet in Germany is Der Stuemer, edited by Julius Streicher. It is a garish compilation of editorials, cartoons and items of such a character as to convince the unbigoted reader that here is a paper which certainly qualifies as the official organ of the insane. Such fanatical statements and inflammatory articles as find their way into print under Herr Streicher’s masthead can only indicate the unbanlanced ravings of a disease ravaged mind. This contention is borne out by the fact that Dr. Streicher has long been a troublemaker and pornographer in his journalistic enterprises and has been flung into prison three times on charges growing out of degenerate practices. The Third Reich has strange heroes.
Broadway is still safe for Democracy; too safe to suit Bavaria Films, Inc., a German producing company whose Nazi propaganda film, “Storm Trooper Brand” was recently sent over to its New York office for American release. All the exhibitors and distributors, not excepting the Jewish firms, have been approached. But so far there have been no takers. As one prominent distributor put it: “Anybody could have it for practically nothing, but it would be suicide. A feature with a Nazi hero would be as welcome in the United States as Mae We playing Alice in Wonderland.”
Neighborhood theatres, even #
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.
