“Germany has burned her bridges to the civilization of Europe. Until those bridges are restored Germany will be the danger spot of Western civilization.”
Thus Michael Williams, editor of “Commonweal,” Catholic weekly, summed up his observations of Hitlerism in an address before the American Jewish Congress at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel Tuesday night.
Victor J. Dowling, former presiding judge of the Appellate Division and a prominent Catholic layman, supported Mr. Williams’ assertions in a message he sent to the meeting.
“The Hitler government by its actions and decrees in the short period of its regime has read itself out of the circle of civilized nations of the world,” said Mr. Dowling, who is an honorary chairman of the million dollar defense fund of the American Jewish Congress, and who was prevented by illness from attending the meeting.
Other speakers included Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, honorary president of the American Jewish Congress; Bernard S. Deutsch, president, and George Gordon Battle, prominent lawyer.
Mr. Williams, well-known Catholic editor, returned from Germany last week. “My observations abroad were those of a practical newspaperman,” he told the assembly. “I discovered that hundreds of thousands of Germans do not approve of the Nazi persecution of Jews. In the twenty-nine Protestant churches there is a complete blockade to Hitler’s policies.”
Mr. Williams described the Nazis’ activities as “chaotic, brutal, inflamed and springing from racial fanaticism. Stupid books are being written to show ethnological reasons for German superiority. The universities are being organized in such a way that Nazi control will be absolute. Jews, Communists and other minorities are being sent to concentration camps or exiled or killed.”
Mr. Williams stated that he learned on high authority that there were 3,000 known cases of brutal mishandling of Jews, with perhaps 10 percent of this number dead from their wounds. If Hitler holds power for any length of time, Mr. Williams concluded, another European war is inevitable.
Mr. Dowling stated in his message that “the German decrees against the Jewish people constituted a challenge to the civilized opinion of mankind.”
“Enlightened public opinion,” he declared, “irrespective of race or creed, must unite in combating forces of evil and retrogression which are an affront to our common humanity. It is vital that divisions of race and creed be forgotten at this critical juncture in the history of mankind. All creeds must join in this battle for progress and humanity in which the American Jewish Congress is playing a leading role.”
George Gordon Battle, lawyer, said, that he had never known of a cause or issue that was more important or better justified than the fight against Hitlerism.
“I do not think this is a Jewish question,” he asserted. “It is a question that involves all humanity because it is a question of a protest against intolerance, ignorance and bigotry that is a danger to all civilization. I think there should be an appeal against these activities as broad as humanity itself.”
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.
