Ruth’s German American identity

Words or phrases associated with Babe Ruth: The Bambino, The Sultan of Swat, the curse, 60 home runs in a season, 714 in his career, overweight, crude, the called shot. Words or phrases not commonly associated with Babe Ruth: Condemner of Nazi Germany.

But that’s what he was.

On Dec. 22, 1942, Ruth appeared in an advertisement along with many other notable German Americans that ran in the New York Times and many other major U.S. newspapers, in which he spoke out against the slaughtering of Jews under the Hitler regime. Of the 50 German Americans in the ad, Ruth was by far the most famous.

The idea for this advertisement began with journalist Dorothy Thompson, who realized that the Roosevelt administration was not going to intervene even though they knew that Nazis had already killed thousands of Jews in Europe. They refused to open their borders. The only response the administration had was to issue a declaration condemning the mass killing of Jews.

So Thompson went to the World Jewish Congress with her proposal and they agreed to pay for the ad.

The advertisement read: “We Americans of German descent raise our voices in denunciation of the Hitler policy of cold-blooded extermination of the Jews of Europe and against the barbarities committed by the Nazis against all other innocent peoples under their sway…These horrors are, in particular, a challenge to those who, like ourselves are descendants of the Germany that once stood in the foremost ranks of civilization.”

The timing of the advertisement was perfect. The Roosevelt Administration’s hope was that U.S. citizens would soon forget about the problem in Europe, but this kept it in the forefront of people’s minds.

What is best known about Ruth’s life off the baseball field is that he ate and drank, a lot. He was known for being a crude prankster, which did not always go over well with teammates.

However, clearly there was a side to Ruth that the public did not see as much; a side that stood up for injustices, even when the president of the United States would not.