(By Cable from Our Berlin Correspondent)
The forthcoming plebiscite on the question of confiscating the property of the ex-Kaiser and the other members of the royal family has given the rabid anti-Semites in Germany another opportunity for attacking the Jews. The movement on the part of the liberal and democratic elements in the country to bring about the dispossession of the ex-Kaiser is regarded by the Voelkische group as a Jewish conspiracy.
A violent tirade against the Jews as the secret instigators of this movement, appearing in a current issue of Ludendorff’s organ, is characteristic of the fulminations in the Voelkische press, which have created through their agitation an atmosphere of tension and excitement on the eve of the plebiscite which is dangerous to the Jews. The Jews are here painted as veritable monsters to whom the confiscation of the ex-Kaiser’s property is “but another step in their road to power.”
The whole trouble, according to Ludendorff’s organ, is due to the Biblical injunction “Thou shalt have no other Gods beside Me.” Because of this, we are told, the Jews acknowledge no kings or rulers. “So long.” the paper says, “as the royal family, the Kaiser and the princes, were rulers of Germany–even that more or less by the grace of the Jews–they stood in the way of the power-seeking Jews. Through the socalled revolution of 1918, the princes were dethroned by the Jews and their assistants, including the Social-Democrats and the Socialists. But the Jews did not at once seize the property of the princes, because there was another problem before the Jews just as important to them as the problem of power. Well, let the delayed truth be said. The Jews cunningly delayed the dipossession of the princes until the inevitable opportunity arrived. Through the inflation all the mobile capital was devaluated, and in the course of the following two years the situation reached a point where there was no more money to be gotten and naturally the problem arose for the Jews: Where can more money be secured?”
In this way, according to the anti-Semitic organ, the Jews arrived at the plan of carrying out the dispossession of the ex-Kaiser and the princes. Some of the other statements contained in this same idiotic outburst, are illustrative of the attitude of the German anti-Semites. Thus, to quote one or two: “The Jews have only one aim, which is to become the supreme and sole rulers; that is why they want to dispossess the princes.” “The opposition of the left parties against the princes is due to their dependence on the Jews. The Jews are seeking to destroy the old German conception of faith and unity.” “Little is being said about confiscating the property of the Jews, although the Jew, as a stranger, should be the first to be dispossessed. If the misled public will vote for the dispossession of the princes, then it logically follows that the Jews must also be dispossessed and all measures must and will be used toward this end. If legal steps will not suffice, other action will have to be resorted to.”
But it is unnecessary to quote more. What is given here indicates adequately the methods employed by the Voelkische Jew-baiters and what would happen to the Jews in Germany if this group were to come to power.
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.
