Supporters of the anti-Nazi boycott yesterday hailed the action of New York department stores in adhering to the boycott as a step toward the creation of a solid anti-Hitler front.
Gimbel Brothers’ Department Store and B. Altman and Company have followed the action adopted by R. H. Macy and Company in ascribing to the boycott of Nazi goods, a development regarded in anti-Nazi circles as of the utmost importance to the success of the boycott.
Decrying the delay of the Macy concern in openly announcing fealty to the boycott committee as a factor which “retarded for six months” reprisal against Hitler, the Non-Sectarian anti-Nazi League yesterday greeted Macy’s stand with satisfaction but with expressions of regret that the action was so long postponed.
“It is better late than never,” observed Ezekiel Rabinowitz, secretary of the league. “But R. H. Macy and Company,” he added, “has retarded for six months the fight of the civilized world against a government which ran amuck and which is destroying the very fundamentals of that liberty which civization has achieved through centuries of sacrifice.”
Rabinowitz referred to the “lukewarm” attitude which Macy’s took toward the boycott of German goods at a time when a declaration of boycott might have served as example to other department stores.
“As far back as September 18 of last year,” he said, “the leading retail stores gathered in conference at the request of Samuel Untermyer, who demanded that the interests of humanity be placed above selfish business interests. He asked the retail stores to declare collectively a boycott against German goods to be effective so long as Nazi atrocities continue.
“Now it can be told,” Rabinowitz declared. “Were it not for Macy’s attitude, the appeal would have received unanimous response at the time.
“The very reasons which Macy’s now advance as the cause for closing its Berlin office had been brought forward at that meeting. As a matter of fact, such prominent department stores as Lord and Taylor and James McCreery and Company discontinued buying German merchandise almost a year ago.
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.
