Democracy Destroyed The First 100 Days of Nazi Rule

Day 57, Monday 27 March 1933: New York rallies against Nazi antisemitism; Berlin gives the party a free hand

Day 57 of 100

New York rallies against Nazi antisemitism; Berlin gives the party a free hand

In New York more than 20,000 people packed Madison Square Garden, with tens of thousands more in the streets outside, to protest against the persecution of Jews in Germany. In Berlin the government let it be known that it would not obstruct the Nazi party’s planned ‘defence’ against foreign ‘atrocity propaganda’, and named a boycott of Jewish shops as one of its means. Meanwhile Kruckenberg’s rebuilt rail Zeppelin glided into Berlin and shoppers were warned about dearer margarine.

Head-and-shoulders studio portrait of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise in a dark suit.
Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, honorary president of the American Jewish Congress, who opened the Madison Square Garden protest on 27 March 1933. Studio portrait by Harris & Ewing. For context Harris & Ewing, photographer. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Since Hitler’s appointment Nazi attacks on Jews and their shops had multiplied, and newspapers and public figures abroad were criticising them openly. The Nazi leadership called this criticism ‘atrocity propaganda’ (Greuelpropaganda), spoke of a Jewish ‘boycott agitation’ against Germany, and blamed Germany’s own Jews for it. Hitler and Goebbels discussed countermeasures at Berchtesgaden on Sunday 26 March; on Monday the government signalled that it would let the party act, and the party press promised measures ‘in the sharpest form’ the next day. The protest in New York that evening, though its speakers stressed that they had no quarrel with the German people, became part of the regime’s justification for the boycott of 1 April.

Politics and power

Government, terror and persecution

  1. Propaganda Berlin

    Government signals a free hand for a boycott of Jewish shops

    A statement issued in Berlin said the ‘defence movement’ against ‘atrocity propaganda’ (the regime’s term for foreign reports of Nazi violence) would keep within the law, and that the Reich government would therefore put nothing in its way. It named the promotion of a boycott of Jewish shops as one such means of ‘defence’ and said the government would simply look on and wait, as foreign governments supposedly did towards the reports.2,10

  2. Persecution Munich; Berchtesgaden

    Nazi party promises action ‘in the sharpest form’

    From Munich the party’s press service announced that the NSDAP would now take up its ‘defensive struggle’ against the foreign reports in the sharpest form, with orders to follow on Tuesday. The day before, Hitler and Goebbels had spent several hours at Berchtesgaden discussing the new Propaganda Ministry and, reportedly, how to counter the foreign press.2,3

  3. The states Berlin

    Braun’s Prussian cabinet formally steps down

    Members of the former Social Democrat-led Prussian government of Otto Braun, long displaced by Reich commissioners, told the Reich Commissioner for Prussia, Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen, that it now regarded itself as released from its duties under the Landtag decision of 22 March. Several of its members, Braun among them, were already abroad. Göring, as commissioner for the Prussian interior ministry, told the police that the former ministers had diverted 1.4 million marks meant for police equipment to party purposes and announced the seizure of their assets; this was his accusation, not a court finding.3,7,8

  4. Terror morning, Berlin-Moabit

    Vorwärts journalist arrested at the Moabit criminal court

    Dr Leo Rosenthal, an editor of the banned Social Democratic daily Vorwärts, was arrested on Monday morning as he entered the Criminal Court building in Moabit.3

  5. Persecution Berlin

    A Jewish judge’s transfer halts a Berlin fraud trial

    The trial of Willi Seiffert, a director of a Berlin property company, due to open before the 4th Criminal Chamber of Landgericht I, was adjourned to 4 April because the reporting judge, who was of Jewish descent, had been moved to a civil chamber with effect from 1 April.6

Everyday life

What else was happening in Germany

  1. Technology 16:30, Berlin

    The rebuilt rail Zeppelin arrives in Berlin

    Franz Kruckenberg’s streamlined railcar, the Schienenzeppelin, had been substantially rebuilt since its trial runs of the previous year; for reasons of economy the propeller drive had been dropped. It left Hannover main station at 13:10 and reached Berlin at 16:30, a few minutes behind time, and was taken straight to the Grunewald main workshop for inspection before new trial runs.5

  2. Economy Berlin

    Shoppers warned of dearer margarine

    With a new decree favouring home-produced animal fats about to raise the price of margarine, the Reich price commissioner said he would watch margarine and cooking-fat prices closely and might close businesses that overcharged; he also warned against hoarding. Newspapers reported a plan to issue some 25 million ‘fat money’ cards so that the unemployed, pensioners and low earners would be compensated from the proceeds of the margarine levy.8,9

  3. Society

    Stamps for the Day of Potsdam

    The Reich Post announced that before Easter it would issue a commemorative postcard showing the Garrison Church in Potsdam, where the Reichstag had been opened on 21 March, together with stamps bearing the portrait of Frederick the Great in 6, 12 and 25 pfennig values.7

Voices

The only thing to do with it ... is to drag it out into the open sunlight and give it the same treatment we gave the Ku Klux Klan.

Alfred E. Smith, former Governor of New York Speaking at the American Jewish Congress protest meeting in Madison Square Garden, New York, on the evening of 27 March 1933, as reported by the Associated Press.1

Elsewhere in the world

  • United States

    Protest meeting in Madison Square Garden

    The American Jewish Congress filled all of Madison Square Garden’s roughly 23,000 seats soon after 7 pm; the police commissioner estimated another 35,000 people listening to loudspeakers in 49th Street. Speakers included the former New York governor Al Smith, Senator Robert F. Wagner, William Green of the American Federation of Labor and Episcopal Bishop William Manning. Rabbi Stephen S. Wise said the protest was aimed not at the German people but solely at the Nazi government’s anti-Jewish policy.1

  • Japan

    Japan gives formal notice of leaving the League of Nations

    On Monday afternoon the Japanese government formally notified the League’s Secretary-General in Geneva of its withdrawal. Under the League’s Covenant it would take effect only after two years, during which Japan kept its rights and obligations as a member.4

More pictures

A long, low, streamlined railcar with a large propeller at its rear standing on tracks at a railway station.
Kruckenberg’s rail Zeppelin leaving Spandau station after its run from Hamburg in June 1931, still in its original propeller-driven form. By March 1933 it had been rebuilt without the propeller. For context Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-11903 / CC-BY-SA 3.0. CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons

Sources

  1. Al Smith Leads Jewish Protest (Associated Press report, New York, 27 March 1933) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, History Unfolded
  2. Biberacher Zeitung, 28 March 1933: ‘Abwehr der Greuelpropaganda’ and ‘Schwerwiegende Entschlüsse der Parteileitung der NSDAP’ Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 2
  3. Dresdner Nachrichten, evening edition, 27 March 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 1
  4. Hohenstein-Ernstthaler Tageblatt, 28 March 1933: ‘Japans amtliche Austrittserklärung in Genf eingelaufen’ Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 2
  5. Wittener Tageblatt, 28 March 1933: ‘Umbau des Schienenzeppelins’ Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 2
  6. Duisburger General-Anzeiger, 28 March 1933: ‘Seiffert-Prozeß vertagt’ Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 2
  7. Erzgebirgischer Volksfreund, 28 March 1933: Reich Post commemorative stamps; Göring’s decree on the former Prussian ministers Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 3
  8. NS-Kurier (Stuttgart), 27 March 1933: price commissioner on margarine; end of the Braun government Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 2
  9. Hamburger Tageblatt, 27 March 1933: ‘25 Millionen Fettkarten für Minderbemittelte’ Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 2
  10. „Judenboykott“ am 1. April 1933 (research guide) Bundesarchiv

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