Marking the increasing audacity with which New York Nazis are operating in their efforts to incite race hatred and institute an American conquest of the Jew, Theodore Jasson, economic writer and manager of the Laurencie candy shops, yesterday disclosed that local Nazis have written him threatening letters in reprisal aaginst the display of an anti-Hitler sign before his shops.
“I have received a number of letters from Hitlerite sympathizers recently,” Jasson said yesterday. “Two of them particularly threatened violence and carried scurrilous attacks on the Jews. One week ago I secured the arrest of a man who entered my store to argue with me on my anti-Nazi viewpoint.”
Jasson explained that three months ago he had hung signs before his shop announcing, “In the interests of humanity we are boycotting German goods.” He said that he attempted to secure the support of a number of other Jewish merchants in the neighborhood of his main store at 2413 Broadway but that his efforts failed when other traders admitted that their sympathies were against Hitler but that they did not believe in demonstrating their attitude.
JEWS DEBASED
“Shortly {SPAN}#er{/SPAN} I had received the letters from New York Nazi sympathizers, letters typewritten and anonymously initialed and debasing the Jew in unprintable terms. I attempted to swing other merchants into the fight against Hitler’s attack upon humanity. I received no response. So I took the anti-Hitler signs from the front of my stores. This is not a one-man boycott.”
Extending their intrigues and organization to an extent unparallelled in American history, Hitlerite agents in this country are utilizing every form of communication as a medium of pro-Nazi and anti-Jewish propaganda. Instances of violence and black-hand operations have recently come to light to be traced to Nazi origin.
One of the most recent instances of Nazi violence came to light when an attempt was made on the life of a restaurant owner a week ago. The proprietor of a well-known Bavarian cafe on 86th Street recently discharged the violinist in his orchestra. The musician, having been in the cafe’s service for four years, felt that his discharge was unjustified, sought the help of the local Nazi group and returned to the cafe to seek justice. Witnesses to the affair state that the Nazi escort handed the violinist a gun which the latter fired twice. The attack left the cafe-owner whole, but two well-drilled holes in the radio set remain as evidence of the assault. Neither side wished publicity, so they agreed to let the matter drop.
BOYCOTT EFFECTIVE
Among those who have recently become victims of Nazi threats is the operator of a candy store in the West Eighties. The boycott of German candies by Yorkville stores, chiefly operated by German Jews, has been a source of consternation to Nazis and a point upon which considerable agitation has developed. When Jewish store owners announced that they no longer handle German candies they received a number of anonymously written letters and personally delivered verbal threats against their enterprises.
Yorkville restaurants have become cockpits for the settlement of German political differences. German proprietors of these cafes in a few instances have made plain the fact that Jewish patronage is not wanted; while in vastly more cases German guests have openly demonstrated scorn for Jewish diners. Hostilities have been reported on both fronts. The bruised eye of one cafe-owner, who left his establishment during a recent celebration to march down Eighty-sixth Street shouting, “Heil Hitler!” is one of the many tokens of the feeling existing in Yorkville.
Nazi co-ordinators have recently imported a number of propaganda films from Germany, which they are using to supplement the oratory of Hitlerite lecturers. The films and speakers are now making the rounds of German societies in an effort to prove by the “candid camera” that all is well in the Third Reich. They are understood to have had considerable effect in the “gleichschaltung” of many German groups who have recently rallied behind the swastika banner. Private showing of the films are held in social and club halls.
EXILES HUNTED
German-Americans who have relatives remaining in Germany are constantly reminded of the fact by Nazi cell leaders, when rebellion is threatened. A word against the Hitler government, an overt act designed to expose the Nazi network in the United States, or public or private disagreement with the policies of the National Socialist administration is sufficient to bring down upon the heads of their German relatives the wrath of the brown battalions of Germany. In the matter of collection of dues and demand for unqualified subscription to Hitler’s policies Nazi leaders here use powerful weapons bludgeon-like over the heads of expatriated Germans. The latter are told that the Jews here might make earning a livelihood impossible for them, in which case they will be forced to return to the Fatherland. The treatment to be given them upon their repatriation depends upon how well they play Nazi ball in the United States.
“HITLER YOUTH”
Among their activities the League of Friends of New Germany has included the organization of a “Hitler Jugend” (Hitler Youth) movement in the United States. By means of parties, gifts and various festivals which would appeal to the tastes of young Germans and German-Americans living in the United States, the league has succeeded in forming a considerable group. They are bidding for a greater membership in this society, which has for its ideals the perpetuation of Hitler’s policies.
Attendance at the meetings of the League of Friends of New Germany has continually grown. They meet every Tuesday night at the Turn Halle at Lexington Avenue and Eighty-fifth Street, where the Jews, Versailles Treaty, anti-German boy-cott, and current issues not to their liking are roundly scored. To prevent embarrassing heckling a number of former prize-ring figures, professionally glorified with cauliflower ears, ill-set fractured noses, and “punch drunk” expression, man the doors and serve as bouncers. These “strong arm men”, having retained little of their prestige as preliminary fighters and “ham and eggers” and still less of their earnings in the squared circle, perform as bouncers for from $2 to $3 nightly at meetings of the Friends.
Speakers at these sessions, firm in their convictions that the New York Times is an organ of “International Jewry”, have taken pains to attack that and other liberal newspapers. “Spell the word ‘Times’ in Jewish fashion (backwards),” one ingenious speaker said, “and you will see what it really is. Semit!”
Expanding both by attracting greater membership to the various cells and by institutiong new cells throughout the country, the League of Friends of New Germany have assumed considerable strength. Their members have been planted in a number of large offices, where they attempt to sway the sympathies of their fellow workers. In one large New York Jewish-owned concern, wherein eighty workers were German, five of this number were recently fired for attempting to align the remainder against their employers.
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.
