The resolution adopted at the Cleveland German American Congress, notwithstanding the information given out by Steuben Society representatives, is the DAWA resolution. The resolution protests “against the high pressure propaganda undertaken in this country with the object of ruining German trade and creating a breach of friendship between two friendly nations” and states that “we are against all boycotts and that we recommend to all Americans that when they buy they should ask: ‘Do you boycott German goods?’ and then patronize and buy only from those merchants who do not proclaim boycotts.” And the amendment to this resolution reads:
“Resolved that we earnestly request our Government at Washington to take effective steps to stop the boycott of German goods.”
Notwithstanding that the German DAWA anti-Jewish counter-boycott organization was branded as “economically unsound with all the possibilities of becoming a racket,” and that false reports were given out by Steubenites about the secret sessions of the German American Congress at Cleveland, the Steuben Society delegates voted for the anti-Jewish DAWA resolution.
It is hard to understand what the Steuben representatives had in mind when they deceived the representatives of the press by misleading and false information, since they must have known that the truth about their cowardly conduct would become known at the close of the sessions.
The Steuben Society, at one time regarded as a dignified and representative organization of German Americans who have made a splendid contribution to American life as Americans while retaining a sympathetic bond of friendship for the land of their origin, has discredited itself by its latest act in supporting the DAWA resolution. They protest “against the high pressure propaganda undertaken in this country with the object of ruining German trade.” They proclaim that they are “against all boycotts,” but they recommend to all Americans that before buying they should ask: ‘Do you boycott German goods?’ and then patronize and buy only from those merchants who do not proclaim a boycott against anti-German boycotters. This is the kind of boycott the Steubenites favor.
The Steubenite German Americans have not protested against the anti-Jewish boycott instituted by the government of their beloved fatherland. The Steubenite German Americans have not joined in the protest of all liberals outside Germany against the inhuman persecutions and racial and religious discriminations practiced by the Hitler government upon Jews and Catholics and Protestants and intellectuals who had helped to make Germany great and powerful and respected among the nations. The Steubenite German Americans, who claim to be sympathetic to the German people, have not protested against the Nazi measures which are reducing the German people to economic ruin, to moral degradation and to political isolation. They have not protested against Hitlerite bigotry and war-madness, which must be a source of humiliation and pain to all right-thinking and liberty-loving German Americans who are genuinely concerned about the fate of the German people.
The only thing they are protesting against is “the high pressure propaganda undertaken in this country with the object of ruining Germany’s trade.”
The anti-German boycott, which is bringing the Nazi government to a state of desperation and bankruptcy, is effective because it is not merely a concrete expression of protest on the part of American Jews, of American labor, of American liberals, regardless of race or creed, but because it is also an expression of the indignation of right-thinking and liberty-loving people in many other lands-in England, France, Czechoslovakia and elsewhere. In other lands the anti-German boycott is also an effort to paralyze Nazi Germany’s preparations for a war of vengeance.
The latest reports from Germany indicate clearly that the Hitler government has brought Germany to the brink of bankruptcy and collapse. Instead of seeking ways of restoring sanity and civilization in Germany, instead of sympathizing with the deluded German people in their tragic plight caus4d by unscrupulous charlatans and irresponsible demagogues, the Steubenite representatives have Steubenite representatives have identified themselves with the DAWA, organized by the apologists of the Nazi regime which is crushing the German people at home and which is spreading the poison of Nazi regime which is crushing the German people at home and which is spreading the poison of Nazi bigotry and race hatred abroad.
We understand that there are a number of Jews among the members of the Steuben Society. It is inconceivable how they can still remain members of this society now that it has identified itself with the resolution adopted at the German American Congress in Cleveland.
As Americans, as Jews, even as sympathizers with the German people, they cannot remain members of the Steuben Society without forfeiting their self-respect and their sense of justice and fairness.
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.
