“jews Persecute Me”—hitler

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ing into the battle area.

A few initial skirmishes with Congressman John W. McCormack of Massachusetts, who is presiding, deflated him, however, until one or two spasmodic kicks on the part of the Nazi-paid magazine writer were all that remained of his antagonistic spirit.

Placed on the witness stand and asked to swear an oath that he would tell “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” he refused. He did agree, however, to make an unsworn statement to the same effect, and McCormack consented to allow him to testify on that condition.

He readily admitted many facts concerning his connection as a mercenary in the employ of the Hitler web. Most of what was brought out during his testimony at yesterday’s hearing already had been disclosed at hearings in Washington last month.

He corroborated evidence which the committee had previously uncovered that he had received $500 a month from Otto Kiep, former Nazi consul general here, as a retainer for advice on German-American relations.

ADMITS CASH PAYMENTS

He said he had been under contract on these terms for four or five months, and while he had not entered money received for these efforts in a cash book, he had included mention of it in his income tax returns, he declared.

Viereck further admitted that he had received payment for these services in cash.

Testimony in Washington last month indicated that the writer had received $1,750 a month in salary from Carl Byoir & Associates, Nazi-paid publicity firm whose head is a Jew, and that he also had been given money to cover the expenses of hiring a secretary and renting an office. This payment was in return for favorable publicity he presumably would be able to obtain for the Hitler regime.

Viereck yesterday admitted that he had been instrumental in procuring for the Byoir firm the contract to publicize German railways and to do press relations and circular work for the German Tourist Agency.

MCCORMACK REBUKES ATTORNEY

Langley, the writer’s attorney, made persistent attempts to read a prepared statement before the committee. He finally incurred the rebuke of McCormack, who told the lawyer he was present only by virtue of the investigation body’s good nature.

Viereck testified that he was born in Munich in 1896. His father and grandfather, he said, were American citizens. This statement conflicted with what he had said in an interview with newspaper men on June 7. This interview was read into the record in its entirety.

McCormack took issue with Viereck over one statement the writer had made in this interview, as reported by the newspapers. The Nazi apologist had been quoted as saying, “If it is right for Russians to hire Mr. Ivy Lee, why is it wrong for German railways to hire Mr. Carl Byoir?”

The Congressman asked Viereck whether he had definite knowledge that Lee represented the Soviet government in this country. After a number of false starts, which caused McCormack to call him sharply to order, Viereck finally admitted his “knowledge” was purely a matter of hearsay.

This confession brought forth a stern rebuke from McCormack.

Viereck said that before obtaining his contract with the Nazi government he had talked with officials of the propaganda office and the department of economics in Berlin.

He had received payment for his services in cash, he said, because he feared “the Jewish espionage system in Bolshevist banks,” which he professed himself as believing is worldwide in extent.

Bolshevist Jewish spies, he declared, might have caused him discomfort by “misrepresenting” the amount of the payments he had received, if they had been able to find evidence of them in check form.

He told a touching story of his meetings with Hitler in 1926, and particularized about a conversation he had had with Der Fuehrer at a German seaside resort in September of that year.

“When I pointed to a sign reading, ‘Jews do not bathe here,” Viereck said, “he (Hitler) replied that the sign was unauthorized. Herr Hitler then turned to me and asked whether it was not true that Jews were excluded from certain beaches in the United States.

“Much to my humiliation I was forced to tell him that this was true. He later said that he did not persecute the Jews, but that the Jews persecuted him. Such Jews as were not opposed to the Nazi regime would not be troubled,” he declared.

‘FRIEND TO GERMANY’

He had refused to recommend Ivy Lee for the job of publicizing the German railways, the Hitler hireling explained, because he had been under the impression that Lee was in the employ of the Soviet government.

He described himself as a person who always has been a friend to Germany—first to the old German monarchy, later to the German republic and now to the New Germany.

He admitted he had aided Byoir in putting out economic bulletins designed to better Germany’s trade relations with the world and to increase tourist travel in the Reich.

After Viereck left the stand, Victor Ridder, one of the publishers of the Staats-Zeitung, was called to the stand. Ridder briefly reviewed the Nazi capture of the German societies in New York and particularly of the United German Societies, which he said were taken over by Nazis last fall, when the Jews were ousted.

He described a visit to his office by Heinz Spanknoebel, former Nazi kingpin in the United States, who he declared had presented credentials from German officials empowering him to direct the editorial policies of all German newspapers in this country. Spanknoebel is now a fugitive from an indictment here.

He threw Spanknoebel out of his office, the publisher told the committee.

HAAG REVEALS METHODS

Werner Haag, who is not an American citizen, described his relations with Spanknoebel while the latter was organizing and running Das Neue Deutschland, predecessor to the Deutsche Zeitung, Nazi organ in this country.

He and Heinz Spanknoebel, he explained, were successful in persuading the Hamburg American and North German Lloyd Lines and the German railways to contribute $800 monthly toward the newspaper for “advertising.”

Contracts for this advertising contained no specifications as to lineage, Haag admitted.

At the time, he said, the flourishing little sheet was read by several persons. In fact, it had a total circulation of 400.

When Spanknoebel fled to Germany, Das Neue Deutschland was sold to its successor, the Deutsche Zeitung, for the somewhat exorbitant price of $1.

FEARS REPRISALS ON FAMILY

Haag was with Spanknoebel when he made his intimidation skirmish into the Ridder offices, which ended in Spanknocbel’s exit.

Haag was followed on the stand by Walter II, Schellenberg, who told the committee that he had first come to this country in 1919, and that he had since returned to the Reich three times.

The last time he was in Germany, he said, he had drawn $4,500 in five months from Robert C. Mayer & Co., Inc., a banking firm with offices in New York City, which he said employed him.

Schellenberg testified that he had aided Fritz Gissibl in organizing and promoting the Friends of New Germany. During his most recent trip to the Reich, he declared, he had discussed the “Friends” and its predecessor, the National Socialist Party in this country, with Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s present minister without portfolio, and Wilhelm Bohle, head of the Nazi Foreign Department.

SAW S. A. MEN ON SHIP

Beatrice B. Beecher, a granddaughter of Henry Ward Beecher, Civil War abolitionist, told the committee she had met Spanknoebel at former Consul General Kiep’s home in New Jersey in company with Col. Edwin Emerson. They had advised her to go to Germany to observe conditions there with her own eyes, she said.

When she went aboard the S. S. Resolute of the Hamburg American Line, she testified, she saw no less than 100 storm troops in uniform.

In response to accusations made by George Sylvester Viereck during the noon recess stating that he considered the Jewish Daily Bulletin and the Philadelphia Record as having gained access to records of the private hearings of the committee, Congressman Dick-stein said later in the day that the particular testimony to which he referred had been taken by a non-governmental reporter from Washington. Both he and Congressman McCormack assured the public that they would bring the matter to the attention of authorities and demand that the proper action be taken with regard to the reporter of the proceedings.

The last witness of the day was Miss Bertha Ziegler, who claims to be the owner of the firm of F. X. Mittemeier at 229 East Eighty-sixth street. The concern imports from Germany and sells Nazi literature, most of which is of a scurrilous anti-Semitic nature. The concern is known as the “custodian of books and literature of the Friends of New Germany.”

We never make demands upon our readers. But—patronizing our advertisers does help us considerably.