Letters showing how an army lieutenant let his anti-Jewish prejudices influence his treatment of soldiers today brought a demand to secretary of War Henry L. Stimson for a court martial and investigation.
The name of the lieutenant is withheld pending official action, but Rep. Marantonio of New York made public photostatic copies of two letters, addressed to his ?lonel, in which the lieutenant expressed bitterly anti-Semitic sentiments.
The first letter, dated Aug. 8, 1943, included the following statement. "It is the first unit ever saw that didn’t have a hunch of Jewish officers in it. We do not have a one. Thank God for it."
The second, dated Sept. 2, 1943, began with an expression of thanks, for the ?clonel’s help toward a promotion, and continued, "I don’t know whether or not I ?entioned it in my previous letter, but there isn’t a single ‘kike’ officer in the group and I am happy for it. We have a few enlisted men of Jewish persuasion but they can be handled. In fact, my personnel Sergeant Major is one. I read the riot ?ot to him and then gave him a 14-day furlough in which to think it over. If he comes back unchanged he will simply have to be reassigned and stripped of his stripes."
Marcantonio asked Stimson to ascertain the identity and present status of the Sergeant Major, saying that the Army "is endangered as long as men can, for no reason other than a Hitler-like religious and racial prejudice, discriminate against soldiers under their command."
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.
