700 Police at Garden Guard Against Disturbances
The DAWA (German American Protective Alliance) meeting in Madison Square Garden for the purpose of declaring a boycott against American Jewry, last night unleashed one of the strongest anti-Jewish attacks ever tolerated in this country.
The meeting, marked with a definite Hitlerite stamp which could not be disguised behind a maze of American flags and bunting, was attended by 23,000 persons who crowded all available space in the auditorium. Thousands more could not gain admission to the packed hall.
Police protection for the affair was offered by 700 members of the city force, one of the strongest police escorts ever given any demonstration in### the history of the city From early morning special traffic regulations were put into effect in the vicinity of the Garden to prevent disorder of any description.
Police guards were enhanced by what spokesmen for the Friends of New Germany estimated to be 600 “ushers.” The “ushers,” drawn from the legion of uniformed “ordnungsdienst” or storm troop department of the League of Friends of New Germany, are patterned in an almost identical manner with the Schutzstaffel or higher grade storm troops of Germany. They too served as “ushers” during Hitler’s kampf for power. The uniforms of the American storm troops, with a few non-essential changes, are the same as those of the German storm troopers.
ELABORATE POLICE MEASURES
With thousands of metropolitan Nazis and hundreds of out-of-town sympathizers jamming Madison Square Garden for “Der Tag” of Awakening Germandom, the mass meeting which launched the anti-Jewish boycott drive in America opened in an atmosphere of tense and somewhat nervous anticipation, despite a police detail representing every arm of the service.
Swastikas and similar decorations, made familiar to New York through previous conclaves in Ridgewood Grove, Schwaben Hall and Yorkville Casino, formed the background. The huge audience gave close attention to the passionate exhortations of speakers and responded with vigorous vocal and manual approbation.
Outside the Garden the milling crowds were kept under control by one of the largest police details ever assigned for any meeting. Deputy Chief Inspector David J. McAuliffe was in charge of two captains, forty-five sergeants, 500 patrolmen on foot, forty mounted patrolmen and their captain and more than 100 plainclothesmen.
Hundreds of Nazis arrived in the city throughout the day. Those who did not come by train drove in their automobiles, but attempts to park in the vicinity of the Garden proved of no avail, because since 8:30 in the morning a special detail of police kept all adjoining streets clear, and arrangements were made for diverting traffic in the evening. Exception was made in the case of Polyclinic Hospital in West Fiftieth street, where doctors’ and visitors’ automobiles were permitted to come to a standstill.
REFUSE TO BAN RALLY
From preliminary indications, little trouble was to be expected. Although the meeting in the Garden constituted one of the most formidable threats ever made against American Jewry, all hope of having the meeting banned was abandoned early in the week with announcement by city authorities that they did not intend to interfere with the Nazi’s “constitutional rights of free speech and rights of assembly, repugnant as it may be to certain classes.” Both Mayor Fiorello LeGuardia and Aldermanic President Bernard S. Deutsch refused to countenance the demands of individuals and groups that the meeting be banned.
Police were stationed strategically at all approaches to the great assembly hall; and uniformed patrolmen and plainclothesmen detectives mingled with the massive throng, prepared to put down any possible insurrection.
Some discussion among the spectators was quickly put down by police before the meeting was called; but at no time during the seating of the big crowd did disorder become too great for masterful management by representatives of the law.
FEELING RUNS HIGH
The meeting, held by the Friends of New Germany to gain new adherents to their anti-Jewish boycott organization, reeked with unrestrained resentment against “the Jewish boycott of German goods.” From some authorities it has been learned that it was to be a signal for a nation-wide boycott of Jewish merchants throughout the country, inspired and sponsored by the League of Friends of New Germany, which maintains headquarters in a score of key cities throughout the country.
“All Congressmen but Dickstein,” creator of a resolution to investigate Nazi affairs in this country, were invited to attend, according to a spokesman for the Friends of New Germany, who stated that many of the national legislators were present personally or had representatives at the meeting.
THREATEN PUSHCART MEN
While last minute preparations for the monster meeting were going on, Jews in the pushcart district of Park avenue above 100th street were infuriated by a “German-looking” individual who approached a Jewish street vendor and pressed the broken-off tip of German-made nail files looking like miniature daggers, into his hand, saying, “This is only a sample. The big ones we are saving for the Jews.”
A somewhat similar procedure was followed in the pushcart section of Brownsville a few days ago when a woman, followed by two men, gave out key rings with a token of pressed fiber commemorating, on one side, the George Washington Bicentennial and, on the other, depicting a large swastika.
Despite the fact that the names of the speakers were not released until the last minute and details of the evening’s proceedings were extremely meager, the Friends of New Germany claimed a complete sell-out and the appearance of the Eighth avenue arena tended to corroborate their claims.
VIERECK ATTACKS BOYCOTTS
George Silvester Viereck, former German government propaganist and present day Nazi sympathizer, one of the early speakers of the evening, told the huge throng that he was against all boycotts, Jewish and German. “I am not a member of the League of the Friends of New Germany,” he asserted, “but I am a friend of the New Germany.” Viereck maintained “I am not an anti-Semite and never will be an anti-Semite.” Loud cheers greeted his stock defense of Nazidom: “Whatever our attitude toward Hitler may be, there is no doubt that there was no alternative for Germany except Hitler or chaos.”
A number of anti-Fascist groups threatened to demonstrate outside the Garden and even attempt to gain entry. Benjamin Lazare of the Blue Men, a militant anti-Nazi organization told the Jewish Daily Bulletin that 8,000 of his men have been ordered to attend the meeting as individuals, but with strict orders to abstain from violence of any kind. Lazare assigned Robert Cohen and Henry Malkin, as escorts to two women stenographers of the organization, who were in the Garden.
“We have no intention of disrupting this meeting,” Lazare declared. “On the contrary, we are glad that it takes place at the same time that a Congressional committee is investigating Nazi activities.”
Although no official call was issued for the Communists to attend, they were expected in considerable numbers.
The anti-Nazi Minute Men also planned a meeting last night.
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.
