Armed police guards yesterday were stationed before the Atlas Printers’ shop at 7th Ave and 35th St., following the receipt of a threatening letter which was apparently written by Nazi supporters in New York.
The note, crudely printed with crayons, was illustrated with a picture of an exploding bomb and demanded that an anti-Nazi show window sponsored by the Atlas Printers be removed “by eleven o’clock” to avert blowing up the front of the shop.
Police yesterday studied the letter in an effort to secure clues which might identify the senders. In the meantime shopworkers prepared to defend themselves against the threatened bombing.
Jack Applebaum, general manager of the shop, declared last night that he would not remove the anti-Nazi display until the end of the week, and he indicated a willingness to meet the writers of the letter.
URGES GERMAN BOYCOTT
“They can’t scare me”, he stated. “I only hope they do show up on schedule. I’d be more than pleased to get my hands on them.”
The object of the controversy is a large window display urging Americans to boycott German goods and oppose the current Nazi administration. For the last week large crowds have collected before the window; but aside from the letter and an unsuccessful attempt on Sunday to cut away the glass pane, no protest has been registered. The establishment is located in a district largely composed of Jewish firms.
The display is done in many colors and extends the length and breadth of a large window. In large letters at the top of the illustration “German Kultur” is emblazoned across the entire window. High on the left end is written “1914”, and this is represented by a colorful painting of the torpedoing of the Lusitania. At the other end, under the figures “1933” a pyre of burning books is done in colors.
THE GERMAN “PIGS” LABELLED
The text of the poster in bold print reads: “Do not buy German and have American dollars feed these German pigs”. The “pigs” are pictured as seven stalwart porkers, six of them labelled respectively, General Werner von Blomber, Dr. Wilhelm F. Frick, Baron Constantin von Neurath, Hermann W. Goering, Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels, and Franz Seldte, while the unlabelled pig in the center has the trick moustache, soulful eyes, and extravagant hair part of Adolf Hitler. They eat at a trough in which “hate, malice, greed, murder, revenge, and deception” are piled high.
Mr. Appelbaum, designer of the display, described his purpose as an attempt to create an economic boycott against the Nazi administration in Germany.
“We are in no way unfriendly toward the German people”, he explained. “My hope is merely to bring to American people full realization of the racial bitterness of the Nazis and to incite Jews and Gentiles alike to fight against this, not with bloodshed but rather through pacific economic retaliation.
“Our grievance is against a ruthless German dictator who would destroy Jewish contributions toward the advancement of the world.
“The poster is free from any commercial motive on my part. I shall be pleased to give it free to any concern caring to exhibit it.”
Mr. Applebaum said that requests for pictures of the window had come from practically every large city in the United States and from foreign countries, including a number of South American states.
The text of the threat follows: “If you don’t clear the window by eleven o’clock a nice bomb will be set for you blood-sucking Jewish rats. German students in favor of Hitler. K.K.K.” The note was mailed at Post Office Branch H.
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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.
