Jews of Austria Fear Heimwehr Propaganda is Leading to Civil War

That Austrian Jews are afraid that the propaganda being carried on today by the Heimwehr may lead to civil war, in which the Jews will be the first sufferers, is the statement made in a recent article in the “Central-Verein Zeitung” of Berlin by Oscar Hirshfeld of Vienna. Says Herr Hirshfeld:

“What Austrian Jewry together with all peaceful citizens of the country absolutely condemns is the continual incitement to civil war on the part of the Heimwehr. It has already brought great harm to the economic life of the country. If it should come to a clash the Jews may—as the history of Jewry teaches—become the first victims of the stirred-up fanaticism of the masses; then the seed planted by these inflammatory speeches may come to full fruition. But not only these reasons, but above everything else the love for the Austrian fatherland, which needs peace for its regeneration, causes the Jews to oppose this incitement to civil war which aims to destroy that peace.”

Of the attitude of the Heimwehr towards the Jews, Herr Hirshfeld says:

“While the first national leader of the Heimwehr, Dr. Steidle, assured the Jews many months ago that he was no anti-Semite and that he wished no pogroms on the Jews, Dr. Pfrimer said recently: ‘The Jews must be regarded as an alien people and as such be treated.’ While in the ‘Neuer Winer Journal,’ an organ of the Heimwehr, especially in the last few weeks, several articles appeared which tried to win the sympathy of the Jews for the Heimwehr, the ‘Deutsch-Oestreichische Tages-Zeitung,’ also a Heimwehr organ, has been conducting the most vicious anti-Jewish propaganda. Such articles do not arouse confidence among the Jews towards the Heimwehr and the aims it propagates.”