Professor Emil Gumbel, noted German Jewish political economist and pacifist, who was ousted from the Faculty of the University of Heidelberg after ten years of service, owing to the pressure of the Nazis, is now in the United States and is attending the sessions of the Sixth International Congress of Genetics at Cornell University.
The pretext for this dismissal was that he offended patriotic sentiment when, in an address delivered before a student meeting, he allegedly declared: “a turnip is better than a war monument, than a statue adorned by scantily clad ladies.”
In an interview which appears in the New York Times, Professor Gumbel brands as false this allegation and asserts that he aroused the ire of the Nazis through his books which he said proves that “Fascists are murderers.”
The German government, he stated, issued an official report stating “that my facts were nearly all true.” In his volumes he cited 300 killings and submitted evidence to support his contention that they were committed by Fascists in order to rid themselves of their enemies.
“One does not become popular,” he said, “by saying that a popular policy will lead a country to catastrophe, especially if events have shown it to be true.
“There is no question that I am a pacifist. The war made me that. And I am decidedly an anti-Fascist. I am in favor of the republic and peace and the welfare of the working class. I consider the republic is in danger from Fascism. If Hitler ever comes into power, there will be a terrible slaughter,” Professor Gumbel predicted.
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.
