"Hitler's bitterest foe": Samuel Untermyer and the boycott of Nazi Germany, 1933-1938 *.

In the early summer of 1933, photographer Berenice Abbott attempted to raise $15,000 from one hundred prominent New Yorkers to fund a documentary interpretation of New York City in photographs. Given this was in the depth of the Great Depression, it is not surprising that the response was a stack of rejection letters. (1) One of the most noteworthy responses was that of an elderly corporate attorney in his 70s, Samuel Untermyer. He wrote,

 
   I regret to say that I would not be willing to contribute to 
   any such purpose as is indicated by you. With a large part of this 
   City almost starving, and with the growing needs for relief, I feel 
   that projects of that kind can await more auspicious times. (2) 

Untermyer, however, had another reason for declining to make a donation, he had only recently become the leader of a major campaign to defend the Jews of Nazi Germany. He devoted most of the remainder of his life to this campaign until he was forced to give up in 1938 because of failing health. This article seeks to reconstruct that role and the controversies that it created.

Samuel Untermyer (1858-1940) had come to prominence during the Gilded Age as the most successful member of his family's New York City law firm, Guggenheimer & Untermyer. (3) By the end of the nineteenth century, Untermyer had become a millionaire and purchased Greystone, a country estate in Yonkers just outside New York City. He was noted for his identification with the American Jewish community. However, during the early 1920s, the Zionists behind the Keren Hayesod (Palestine Foundation Fund) were looking for a prominent person to represent their cause in the public arena. By the early 1920s, Untermyer had mastered the art of self publicity and had become one of the most visible American Jews. Untermyer was offered and accepted the position of president of the Palestine Foundation Fund, which had been created to raise money for Jewish settlement in Palestine. Contrary to the expectations of the Zionists, he proved to be very generous with his time rather than his money. (4) However, he proved to be a very effective fund raiser and became very popular with the Jewish masses. The problem for the Zionists was that Untermyer had unorthodox views on the Zionist project, (5) warning for example about the dangers of alienating the Arab inhabitants of Palestine. (6) In November 1925, Untermyer was furious to learn a decision had been made behind his back to effectively replace him with Rabbi Stephen S. Wise. (7)

The appointment of Adolf Hitler as chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933, provided Untermyer with another opportunity to serve the Jewish people. Untermyer had no doubt as to Hitler's true intentions toward German Jewry. He made this abundantly clear on April 13 at a luncheon given in his honor by the American Friends of the Hebrew University. Untermyer had provided the funds for the auditorium on the university campus in memory of his late wife. In his speech Untermyer reflected that,

 
   Nothing could better illustrate the long-sustained suffering and 
   ultimate despair and the blighting, brutalizing after-effects of a 
   disastrous war upon a once prosperous, enlightened nation than the 
   ascendancy to power of a bigoted brute of the Hitler type and the 
   tame submission to his yoke of a proud, self-respecting people. 
   Deep is our pity for the persecution, akin to that of the Dark 
   Ages, of our unfortunate brethren, it should be still greater for 
   the remaining ninety-nine per cent of the German people who are 
   thereby relegated to semi-barbarism. 
 
   It is now definitely established that there is deep-seated, 
   continuing official propaganda to minimize and mislead the Jews and 
   the rest of the civilized world as to the extent of the persecution 
   with the deliberate purpose of withdrawing interest and support 
   .... 
 
   But we are not without means of defense. The first step of world 
   Jewry must be to find ways to care for our disfranchised men, women 
   and children, and more particularly to so enlarge the scope of the 
   Hebrew University to receive our youth to whom the doors of the 
   German universities have now been closed by this brutal decree. 
 
      Our next act should be to see to it that nowhere in the world and 
   under no circumstances should a Jew, from this day forth, buy or use 
   merchandise manufactured in Germany or support Germany industry in 
   any form. The action taken in that respect by the Jewish 
   shopkeepers in London should be followed the world over. (8) 

In making this speech, Untermyer was aware that most of the leaders of the American Jewish community, in particular the American Jewish Committee, opposed a trade boycott. The Jewish War Veterans were the only mainstream Jewish organization that supported one. (9) It was also a difficult decision for Untermyer as the son of German Jews. In a letter to his friend Colonel Edward M. House, President Woodrow Wilson's private adviser, the following year he explained that,

 
   As one of German parentage, whose ancestors were for centuries 
   imbedded in the soil of that land, and as one who has spent long 
   periods of time in that country and has many dear friends there, I 
   cannot resist the strongest feeling of sympathy toward the German 
   people, nor a corresponding feeling of revulsion against the 
   sadistic cruelties of the present regime. (10) 

A few days after Untermyer's address, the Russian-born Dr. Abram Coralnik, associate editor of the Yiddish daily, Der Tog, announced the formation of the American League for the Defense of Jewish Rights (ALDJR) and the creation of a provisional Boycott Committee by this organization. (11) Meanwhile on May 7, Untermyer used a Keren Hayseod campaign speech in Boston to extend his call for a boycott to the whole American nation, with its scope to include patronage of German ships and visits to Germany. He also observed,

 
   I am, however, aware that there is a very large and respectable 
   element among our people, for whose opinion I have the greatest 
   respect, that advises against this course but fails to suggest any 
   other remedy. Their argument is based upon the fear that if the 
   boycott proves effective Hitler and his fellow ruffians in office 
   will carry out their implied threats and let loose their hatred by 
   indulging and encouraging bloody pogroms against their unfortunate 
   victims which they otherwise would not dare. 
 
      That is what they started to do and what I fear they will do in 
   any event unless restrained by some remaining shred of fear of the 
   opinion of the civilized world. (12) 

The speech was considered sufficiently important for the German Embassy in Washington to send a report to Berlin and from this time onward Untermyer's anti-Nazi activities were closely monitored by the Germans. (13)

Henry L. Feingold has written of the conflict between arriviste Jews from Eastern Europe and established Jews from Central Europe. Many of the arriviste leaders held radical left-wing political beliefs and were outside the mainstream American society and economy. The founders of the ALDJR were radical East European Jews and recognized that their cause required a leader who was able to appeal to the general Jewish community and operate within mainstream American society. However, most established Jewish leaders still opposed an economic boycott of Germany. Untermyer was one of the few exceptions. He was also a Wall Street lawyer, a former vice-president of the American Jewish Congress, and a prominent Democrat. Ezekiel Rabinowitz, the Executive Secretary of the ALDJR, decided to approach him. Untermyer agreed to make a plea for unity on the question in a speech on May 12. (14) Rabinowitz was delighted by the enthusiastic response by the Jewish masses to Untermyer's speech. He offered him the presidency or honorary presidency of the ALDJR and invited him to speak at a boycott conference to be held at the Hotel Astor on May 14, an invitation that Untermyer accepted. (15)

The first conference of the ALDJR attracted nearly 600 delegates representing 288 organizations in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. It was addressed by New York City Mayoral candidate Fiorello H. LaGuardia, Untermyer's friend James W. Gerard, a former United States Ambassador to Germany, and Jacob De Haas, a well-known Zionist. (16) In his address, Untermyer described Germany's policy towards its Jewish citizens as a "cruel campaign of extermination." He also condemned the 'timid' American Jewish leaders who opposed the boycott but proposed no alternative means of defending their brethren in Germany. He also noted that,

 
   It has been brought to my attention that since this boycott was 
   announced the ... brands and tickets, or what-not, that are 
   required to be on all imported goods, are being removed, and that 
   some of the greatest offenders are the proprietors of department 
   stores. I do not believe that the heads of these stores, many of 
   whom are Jews, know what their subordinates have been doing in this 
   direction, and am sure that when their attention is called to these 
   violations of law they will be immediately corrected. The Jewish 
   people should, however, in their own defense, be careful to see to 
   it that they are not imposed upon and should withdraw their 
   patronage from any merchant who seeks to deceive them. 
 
      Meantime, the attention of the authorities in Washington should 
   be called to these violations of law, and they should be asked to 
   enforce the penalties prescribed by the statutes. (17) 

The conference resolved to mount a boycott of German goods and services, in cooperation with the committee of Jews in Britain represented by Lord Melchett. (18) A month later, Untermyer formally accepted the ALDJR's invitation to serve as honrary president of the National Boycott Committee of America. (19)

Untermyer soon came under attack from other American Jewish leaders for meddling in a matter outside his area of expertise. In a note attached to a special circular report sent to Untermyer, Morris Waldman, Executive Secretary of the American Jewish Committee, observed,

 
   Above all, it is imperative that in this grave and highly delicate 
   situation, no individual should speak or act for the Jewish people, 
   but all should entrust the responsibility to recognized 
   organizations like the American Jewish Committee and B'nai B'rith 
   who have been dealing with these problems for many years. 

Untermyer replied:

 
   I have given considerable study to this subject and gathered a mass 
   of information, all leading to the conclusion that the Hitler party 
   is bent upon the extermination of the Jews in Germany, or upon 
   driving them out of the country. The men in control are bigoted 
   fanatics to whom neither reason, justice nor humanity makes the 
   slightest appeal. Their hatred is deep-seated and nothing but the 
   fear of consequences will affect them. 

This reply provoked an even stronger rebuke from Waldman, who commented,

 
   Strong as your convictions, which we respect, may be, I keenly 
   regret, frankly, that a man of your outstanding position in the 
   community whose utterances exert a great influence upon public 
   opinion, did not consult with the American Jewish Committee to 
   ascertain the reasons for their attitude, and what methods they 
   have been following, before giving public utterance to views which, 
   you must have known, would be widely published and profoundly 
   influence public sentiment. (20) 

In late June, together with LaGuardia, Gerard, and others, Untermyer addressed the Women's Conference on the Boycott at the Hotel Astor. The conference launched a nationwide boycott of German goods and services. It supplemented a boycott by professional trades and industries previously begun by the ALDJR. (21) The boycott had four stages. The first involved discovering which businesses stocked German goods, either overtly or covertly. Intelligence was acquired from one of three sources: information from concerned citizens; questionnaires sent out to businesses by the ALDJR; and interviews or fieldwork by members of the ALDJR. The second stage involved writing to businesses and asking them to comply with the boycott. When appropriate, the ALDJR provided information about American or other non-German substitutes. If the business refused to comply, the ALDJR instituted a boycott of that concern. Sometimes circulars were distributed informing customers of the firm's links with Germany. After the ALDJR was reorganized as the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League to Champion Human Rights, the names of offending firms would be published in the organization's journal, the Economic Bulletin. …