The anti-Semitic wave General Charles H. Sherrill, American member of the International Olympic Committee, predicted if the Jews continued there opposition to the Olympic games has arrived, he declared in an interview today.
General Sherrill also stated that Jews were disproportionately represented in public life, pointing out there are two Jews in President Roosevelt’s cabinet.
“I can tell you there already is an anti-Semitic wave in the United States,” he was quoted. “Telegrams and letters of abuse, shameful things, have been pouring in since I returned.” The statement was made in a newsreel interview.
Answering the criticism voiced by former Supreme Court Justice Jeremiah T. Mahoney against his statement, Gen. Sherrill asked, “Why doesn’t Jerry’s solicitude for Jewish athletes apply to home grounds? He is a prominent member of the New York Athletic Club, to which Jews are not admitted to membership.”
He reiterated his friendship for the Jews and said he had done more than any other man to aid the German Jews by securing invitations for two Jews to tryout for the German Olympics team. (Miss Helene Mayer, one of those supposed to have been invited, denied in Oakland, California she had received the invitation.)
Meanwhile, a storm of resentment was arising over Gen. Sherrill’s characterization of the anti-Olympics sentiment as purely Jewish.
William B. Chamberlain, executive secretary of the Committee on Fair Play in Sports, whose request that Gen. Sherrill join the anti-Berlin-Olympics forces had occasioned his statement, today told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that if Hitler himself came here his statement would not differ materially from the general’s.
Pointing out Gen. Sherrill had spent four days with Hitler in Nuremberg, Chamberlain said his views were undoubtedly obscured by this visit.
Following this barrage against the Berlin Olympics, it was reported Avery Brundage in Chicago, president of the American Olympic Committee, was taking a mail poll of the 62 members on withdrawal of the American team.
Frederick W. Rubien, secretary of the committee, would neither deny nor confirm the report but said Mr. Brundage would make an important announcement within a few days.
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.
