The ex-Crown Prince Wilhelm has caused an outcry here by publishing a proclamation in which he declares: “I shall vote for Hitler”.
The press, which says that the ex-Crown Prince has by his action proved himself to be “no gentleman”, points out that he has broken his word of honour given to Dr. Stresemann, when he was allowed to return to Germany, that he would not interfere in political matters.
The ex-Crown Prince has till now been a member of the German Nationals, but Prince August Wilhelm, a younger son of the ex-Kaiser, has been a member of the Hitlerist Party for a long time and has spoken at Hitlerist demonstrations, and taken part in Hitlerist marches.
The ex-Crown Prince’s attitude to Jews was the subject of considerable discussion in the German press last summer. The story was first published in the Vienna “Journal”, which stated that a Jewish girl staying at the same health resort had visited his family a good deal and then had snubbed him one day in the street. When he questioned her, she explained that her father had warned her that he was an antisemite. I was very hurt, the ex-Crown Prince was reported to have told a representative of the paper, to find that such views were held about me, and I know that there are other Jews who share this suspicion.
The interviewer suggested that the belief might have arisen from the knowledge of his association with the Steel Helm, which appeared to be antisemitic. That is not altogether so, the ex-Crown Prince replied. The Nationalist elements in Germany are resisting Communism, which is led by certain Jewish Communists, and some generalise this into a struggle against all Jews. I should never lend my name to any movement which was conducting a general campaign against all Jews.
I cannot understand, he went on, that the civilised world has not yet recognised the immense danger which threatens it from Eastern Europe, nor can I understand why the masses of middle-class and loyal Jews in Germany, whose nationalism and loyalty is demonstrated by the fact that there are tens of thousands of members in the Union of Jewish ex-Soldiers who fought at the front, do not repudiate publicly all suspicion of any association with the anti-State groups. Your own paper, the “Wiener Journal”, is evidence how middle-class Jews with national sentiments can fight together with all other loyal citizens against Bolshevism, Harxism, and the other revolutionary movements carried on under the mask of democracy. I am too modern-thinking a man to be an antisemite. I have many Jewish friends who have my deepest esteem and whose friendship is very dear to me, the ex-Crown Prince said, adding: No one has any right to assert that I am an antisemite because I call a rogue a rogue, even if he happens to be a Jew.
A few days after the interview was published the Fitlerist newspapers printed a statement issued by the General Administration of the Prussian Rotal Family, denying its authenticity.
The fact that the ex-Crown Prince spoke with someone from Vienna was admitted in the statement, which made no direct denial of any of the views attributed in the interview to the ex-Crown Prince, but said that the ex-Crown Prince had not intended that what he said should be given publicity in the press.
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.
