Minority Status of Upper Silesian Jews to Fore with Revoking of Citizenship

The rights of the Jews in the plebiscite area of Upper Silesia are again coming to the forefront in connection with the forthcoming law depriving German Jews of their citizenship rights.

Since, according to the official Government explanation, the new citizenship bill does not affect national minorities, the question is again being asked how the Jews in Upper Silesia are to be considered —on the basis of their Jewishness and hence deprived of their citizenship, or whether they are to be considered as a national minority, recognized by the League of Nations as such, and remain German citizens on a par with other national minorities.

DIPLOMATIC CIRCLES INTERESTED

This situation, involving international questions, since Upper Silesia is a plebiscite area governed according to a convention entered into between Germany and Poland, has provoked much interest, especially in Polish diplomatic circles. The convention obligated the German Government to treat all minorities in Upper Silesia without distinction.

In the case of the petition of Franz Bernheim, an Upper Silesian Jew who suffered as a result of Nazi discrimination against the Jews, the Council of the League of Nations earlier this year held that the Jews came under this protective clause and ordered Germany to restore the dismissed Jews to their former posts and accord them all their former rights in Upper Silesia.

PRESS FORESTALLS COMPLAINTS

Foreseeing that the proposed law depriving German Jews of their citizenship rights may provoke complaints to the League of Nations and possible action by that body, the German press yesterday appeared with a semi-official interpretation of the law.

This interpretation held that the German Government, by depriving the Jews of citizenship, is not violating any national minority rights.

“The Jews are not a national minority in Germany,” they stated, “and the real national minorities need not