Wels Defies Hitler's Terror
Wels Defies Hitler's Terror goeitJi*! Leader Speaks for Hi* Great Cause in Face of Brown-Gad Murder-Hordes—Text of Speech Available for the First Time. ayELs said: The Social Demo™ cratH...
...But you want to take away from the Reichstag that power...
...The connection of your revolution to Socialism consists in this, that you have tried to destroy the Socialist movement, which for decades has spread the ideals of Socialism, and which it will continue to do in the future...
...and many others, representative of the various sections of the labor and progressive movement...
...Their demotion to ohi Cause, their confidence in their jinal victory for a n odd of the wo> Iters are the guarantee for a bnght future, and the future liehni'is to the working el ami * * * Here Hitler b-jcame mi aged and interrupted Wels, who was shout ed down by the Nazis and thai] sycophantic allies...
...During his incarceration in the asylum, Goring got hold of an iron bar and aimed a terrific blow at one of the male nurses...
...Nathan Chanin, Jewish Socialist Verband...
...Among the speakers who have been invited to address the gatherin gon April 15 are John Haynes Holmes, Norman Thomas, Morris Hillquit, Heywood Broun, Abraham (alian, Oswald Garrison Villard, John Dewey, B. C. Vladcck...
...The Social Democracy gained and became the strongest party under the Kaiser, and we will come out stronger Trum these new oppressions...
...The German Social Democracy letlarea in this fateful hour that we stand for human rights, for justice, for Liberty and Socialism...
...Ideas and principles are indestructible...
...This hero has been absolutely unhindered in his rule over Prussia...
...David Dubinsky of the I. L. G. W. U...
...The Social Democratic Party known that the use of political sewer to set aside the rights of iw citizens will not last...
...In answer to a request by a committee ef the Communiat Party for a so-called "united front" against Fascism, the Conference stated that it lacked authority from any of its national and international parent bodies to unite with a party which, while making gestures in the direction of a united front, has aince its inception followed a policy of disuniting snd disrupting the laboring elementa of the world...
...The correspondent writes thai Goring came to Sweden as a ref ugee in 1925, an active Nazi fleeing from justice in Germany...
...The text that follows comes from the Social Democrat of Prague, the official organ of the German Social Democratic party of Czechoslovakia...
...Under the "national revolution" this man is the absolute ruler of the state over which once ruled Frederick the Great...
...It was the first time in his life that Hitler hati faced opposition, and he was un able to endure it...
...That is all the German people were permitted to know of what the Socialists did in that session...
...Ae soon as the Communist Party "discontinues its policy of destruction of our united international labor strength, a united front will be possible not only against Fascism but against all the forces of capitalism which are grinding...
...Before he wa» transferred to Langhrn Communal Asylum he was treated in a private hospital in Stockholm...
...It i* significant that only guarded references to revelations to that effect in London newspapers were permitted to appear in the American press, and those mainly in the form of rabid denunciations from Berlin of the London and Stockholm papers that printed the information...
...Jos eph Paul Goeb bels the honoi of being the chief instigator of anti - Semitic outrages and of terror a g a i nst democracy, liberty and the labor m o v ement, lniK 1.....it revealed as a graduate of the Langbro Communal Asylum in Stockholm, where he was confined as a dangerous lunatic...
...workers as to the danger of Fascism...
...down the strength of labor...
...Hitler's own paper, the Munich Volkiseher Iieobaehter, reported the proceedings in full, except for two sentences to the effect that Wels spoke for his party, and was "followed" by Hitler...
...It is also reported that he forged doctors' prescrip I ions to get drugs, and that he wa1 treated in a Stockholm hospital a> a drug addict as recently as 1927...
...He was a tall, handsome young fellow, enormously popular is the party, a brilliant lecturer and often candidate on the party's tkket for various offices...
...I have not been able to verify is that he was first sent to the private hospital because he started firing a pistol in a Stockholm street...
...Ton cannot turn back the wheels sf progress...
...their loyalty and de vol ton hat the admiration of the woild...
...We Bend our greeting* to our comrade* all over (lerntany...
...We fiend our greeting* to all who Hvffer, to all whom yon oppret...
...By Wm...
...We had to wait for the receipt by mail of London papers before getting the full infor million According to the Stockholm cor respondent of the "London Herald," the daily of the Labor Party, Gtiring had been confined as a drug addict in a private asylum until "he became so dangerous and threatening thai he could not b« kept in the hospital, and they wer<< obliged to send him to the asylum...
...others who will participate are Joseph Baskln of the Workmen's Joseph Schlossberg of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers...
...The printing of 600,000 leaflets on the subject of Fascism has been ordered and it is proposed to flood the city with the facts of the Hitler terror and its menace to democracy the world over...
...M. Feigenbaum A Lunatic at Large TplK ^ieat slate ot Prussia, constituting two thirds of German* and including Merlin and many other great cities, all its industries, institutions, universities, museums, public works, and itforty odd million people arc under the absolute rule ol a madmat' wlio lias done time as a drug addict in' an insane asylum Captain Hermann Wilhelm Cor-' mg, President of the Reichstag...
...And we will not cease to keep sure that sense of justice and to appeal to it...
...COURTENAY LEMON DIES /VLD-TIME Socialists will be " saddened to hear of the death ft Courtenay Lemon, one of the snst brilliant of the younger Sotjallsta of an earlier generation...
...ayELs said: The Social Demo™ cratH I'd"ty was burdened *jth all responsibility in the darkest days of Germany ; and far thi-i we are stoned...
...Another statement," writes the correspondent, "that...
...Mass Protest Against Hitler Terror and Fascism on April 15 'JTHE Socialist and Labor Conference agains( Fascism, recently organized for the purpose of combating the Hithfr terror in Germany and the menace of Fascism all over the world, at its session mapped out a program of emergency action in the matter of Hitler persecutions of Labor and the Jews and established a permanent machinery for the enlightenment of the America...
...He also said, "Yon cannot expect me to protect Jewish traitors and scoundrels...
...Three years ago Lemon retired Jth his wife to a farm at Hills...
...His hill for dk tatorial powers was then passer) the only votes cast against it being those of the 91 Socialist Deputies not at the moment in jail o murdered...
...The anti-Socialist laws of Bismarck could not destroy the Merman Social Democracy...
...And you call that a revolution 1 That revolution is to destroy the present democratic system, but the people will expect positive deeds...
...Henry Fruchter, the Secretary of the Conference, urges all organizers and secretaries of branches of the Socialist Party to immediately establish their machinery for the efficient participation in the demonstration, with the fullest turn-out of groups and organizational units with banner*, placards, etc...
...TPHE NEW LEADER is proud to present to American readers for the first time the text of the defiant speech of Otto Wels, Chairman of the German Social Democracy, in the Reichstag session of March 23...
...In the face of mass terror, in the presence of armed brownclad hordes, in the face of the massed might of Fascism, Wels bravely spoke for his party, his cause and his ideals until he was interrupted and stopped by the enraged Hitler himself...
...The correspondent from Stockholm writes: "Today I saw s photograph of a registration card from the files if the Stockholm Communal Asylum which shows that Captain Wilhelm Hermann von Goring, by order of the police, was taken to the asylum in an ambulance car on September 1, 1925, and remained there until November 19, 1925...
...I accept full responsibility...
...The law to permit the government to rule without parliament does not give you the power to destroy ideas...
...When violence against Socialists, trade unionists, pacifists, Communists, Jews and even Catholic Centrists was raging most savage ly and when even Hitler sought to check the wildest excesses, Goring made a speech in which he said every Nazi accused of excessei "was acting for me...
...Oar work for the rebuilding of ¦pjbuntry, the rehaffilitation if ¦ economic condition-, 111<> pcntini of the occupied territories of Germany, will go down in history...
...Before he was twenty Courtenay Lemon joined the staff of the Worker, the Socialist weekly edited by Algernon Lee, and there he w»e associated with such men as Bea Hanford, Peter E. Burrowes, Horace Traubel, James Oneal and ethers...
...The circulars will be available within two days and the branch organizers are requested to cooperate with the office in the most widespread distribution of the literature...
...Even you yourself had to embrace the word Socialism...
...You call yourselves National Socialists...
...We demanded and we secured •qunl rhjhts for •II the people, aid we established e o r i a I Justice We were instrumental i n As creation of a Germany in I which not baress snd dukes esJored opportunities, but where every citiSsn of the humblest had a chance te Worn' a leader in the nation sad the possibility of rising to the head of the State...
...We see how you use your power, but the sense of justice of the people is a sswer With which you must reckon...
...As its first act in protest a monster mass demonstration has been called for Saturday afternoon, April 15, at 1 p. m., in Union Square...
...Lemon was only fifty, but he had keen only a memory to old-timers hi the movement for oven twenty rears...
...The press of Germany, and foreign correspondents in Berlin, are so gagged that practically nothing of Wels' speech was permitted to be made public...
...Wels Defies Hitler's Terror goeitJi...
...The Reichstag would adopt by a tremendous majority every proposition you would bring in for the benefit of the workers, officials and public employes, for the benefit of the workers on the land, and for the middle class...
...We will gain new force and new vitality from your latest attempt to suppress us...
...A call has been issued by the leaders of labor unions, fraternal organizations and Socialist branchee to call their individual unit meetings for the purpose of summoning their participation in the Union Square demonstration...
...The Weimar Constitution is not a Socialist document, but we stand by the principles of that Constitution, establishing equal rights and social justice for all the people...
...With the launching of the New Tork Call in 1908 Lemon became dramatic editor, and did notable *Wk in that field, later becoming1 Play reader for the Theatre Guild ™e also worked in an editorial apscity on the Hearst newsppors, and he was associated with «tnk Harris in editing- Pearson's sjegazine...
...The temporary office of the Conference is at 7 East 15th Street, New York...
...He had become a drug addict during the war, during his service as a "hero" In Baron von Richtofen's "Flying Circus...
...There the nurse of the hospital told me that he became so dangerous and threatening that he could not be kept in the hospital, and they were obliged to send him to the asylum...
...You cannot aVay thin without disowning your Sam leader...
...If they come squealing to me for protection they will not get...
...N. Y. He died at the New wk Medical Center...
...The American press reported only one sentence of Wels' speech, "You can take our liberty but you cannot take our honor," but it was torn from its content and as it was printed it was meaningless...
...If you gentlemen of the National Socialist Party desired Socialist reforms you would not have to pass the sort of laws you arc trying to enact now...
...In luioilhii.ii in, terror and murdei those comparatively placid day: were considered hoodlumism, ter ror and murder even if the hoodlums pretended to be acting in a 'national interest" they themselves defined...
...Reichs Commissioner of Prussia and absolute commander of 150,000 police, who shares with the crippled Dr...
Vol. 15 • April 1933 • No. 14
