Relatives and “warm, personal friends” of Carl Schurz, German-American patriot of the nineteenth century, late yesterday had received no reply from Wilbur K. Thomas, secretary of the Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation in Philadelphia, to their protest against the use of Carl Schurz’s name by the Foundation.
The protest, signed by twelve persons, including Oswald Garrison Villard and Professor E. R. A. Seligman, charges that the Foundation “continues to aid German universities and otherwise deal with the despotism which has succeeded the Republic of Weimar.”
Other signers are Marie J. Monroe, Wilhelmine Schiffer, Nannie J. Lackner and Antoinette Hyde, nieces, and Jean J. Anderson, grandniece of Carl Schurz; and Frederic Bancroft, Worthington C. Ford and Harold G. Villard.
Use of the patriot’s name in connection with the Carl Schurz Vereinigung in Berlin, which “has been taken over by the Hitler State.” is also attacked.
“Nothing could be more grotesque.” the protest declares, “than the use of the name of Carl Schurz in any such connection. He was a rebel against the despotism of the King of Bavaria and the King of Prussia, took up his sword against them and escaped with his life only by a miracle. In America he was one of our greatest democrats, to the end of his days unswervingly opposed to anything smacking of despotism….
“A friend to many Jews, he never failed to denounce anti-Semitism. A distinguished veteran of many battlefields, he abhorred from the depths of his soul every manifestation of militarism, every militaristic regimentation, every effort to uniform and goose-step the youth of the nation….
“Justice to this man, to his life and his noble teachings, makes it impossible for us to withhold the most vigorous and outspoken protest against the use of his name in connection with the societies we have cited. We earnestly ask that it be immediately discontinued.”
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.
