Comment in German Press on Threatened Reprisals

Comment in the German press on the Nazi campaign of reprisals against German Jewry are various, extending from the bitter vituperation of the Nazi “Angriff” down to the milder observations of the “Vossische Zeitung”, which, though previously a liberal organ, is now, like the rest of the German press under strict governmental control. “The patience of the Germans,” declares the ‘Angriff,’ “is now at an end. During a national revolution, the German people have treated the Jews with remarkable consideration. Jewish gratitude has taken the shape of a world Jewry organized for criminal propaganda. If German goods are boycotted abroad, we know how to produce a situation where Jews will find no employment, where nothing will be bought from Jews, where Jewish shops and Jewish newspapers will be shunned.”

The “Vossische Zeitung” said that “if the boycott is carried out completely, it will mean the economic ruin of hundreds of thousands of German Jewish citizens, regardless of age and sex.” It adds, nevertheless, that “German Jews want to remain part of the German nation.”

The “Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung” strikes a note of caution and advises the Nazi Party to consider the effect of the threatened boycott on German interests abroad. Nevertheless, the same paper indulges in a fierce anti-Jewish attack, declaring that “even those who had hitherto doubted the reality of universal Jewish unity must now realize their mistake.” It goes on to repeat the old libel disseminated by the Nazis, and declares “it is now clear to see for whom Jewry is working” and recalls the tales of alleged Jewish responsibility for the Bolshevist terror.

Of interest is the warning by Wolff’s Telegraph Bureau, to the effect that the German insurance companies were the real sufferers from damage to Jewish property, and that Germans were thus deliberately destroying German national wealth.