German-american Press in United States Charged with Resuming Anti-jewish Propaganda

Important sections of the German-American press are back at their pre-war stand, more blatantly anti-American, anti-democratic and anti-Semitic than ever, according to a national survey conducted by the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, details of which were released today by Richard E. Gutstadt, National Director of the League. The study, directed by Arnold Forster, National Director of the Legal Department for the ADL, was based on an analysis of the 150 newspapers which make up the German-language press.

Mr. Forster today urged the Federal Communications Commission to investigate the broadcasting activities of Upton Close, news commentator accused of anti-Jewish bias. “Close is a clever propagandist,” Forster said. “He has shrewdly avoided the use of outright anti-Semitism in his current broadcasts. Prevented from spewing his anti-Semitism out on the airwaves, he employs a tricky device to disseminate his hatred. At the end of each broadcast, listeners are asked to write in. When they do so, they are favored with copies of his weekly hate sheet, ‘Close-Ups,’ published in Detroit, Michigan. The listener’s name is also added to the Merwin K. Hart mailing list and he then becomes the recipient of a double-barreled load of hate.”

In his report on the German-American press, Forster says: “In the pre-war period the German-American press was largely controlled by the Nazi regime in Germany and native-pro-Nazi groups. Thus it echoed the fascist ideology and supported the Nazi movement in this country. But Pearl Harbor smothered the viciously pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic line of these papers. After V-E Day, however, the German-American press resumed its attacks against the international and domestic policies of the United States, and now, scarcely a year after the defeat of Nazi Germany, Hitler’s satellite press in America is linking anti-Semitism with attacks on international cooperation.”