Anti-jewish Boycott Subtle in Large Cities, but Brazen in Small

In the smaller towns and villages of Germany, boycott of Jewish stores and Jewish manufactured goods is being carried on without attempt to camouflage.

In the cities more subtle means are being employed to discourage the purchase of Jewish goods. As the months pass, however, account books of the various Jewish metropolitan concerns show that slowly but surely their enterprise is slipping into the red side of the ledger.

City merchants can not complain; for there is no official boycott. Representations by boycotted merchants are not made to the anti-Semitic administration; but if they were, without doubt officials would ask for evidence of boycott—and none would be forthcoming.

Anti-Jewish propaganda that daily appears in the newspapers and journals of Germany are sufficient to perpetuate anti-Jewish feeling and the resultant boycott of goods among the people. In a few instances special measures are introduced to shatter the business of particularly well established houses.

A restaurant near the zoo in Berlin was once famous throughout the world for the crowds that gathered there to pass the time of day. Business men would repair to the cafe for afternoon siestas. Waiters, through long years of acquaintance with patrons, knew their routine. This one was to be roused at five o’clock; that one at a quarter past six so that he might catch the 6:33 train home. Another was to be called when his wife appeared in the doorway of the cafe. He was not to be caught napping. One was at first amused and later quite pleased by the lackadaisical lovers who napped in corners business men who s### their seats, and people from all walks of life who dropped in to “take five” in the most informally comfortable of all ways.

But the restaurant is no longer popular. Waiters wait for patrons who do not show up. Customers either go elsewhere for their naps or they have abandoned the practice.

It happened that a few weeks ago brown shirted S.A. and S.S. men began to make the cafe their haunt. Patrons felt the tension. They could no longer tell funny stories on the administration or discuss politics frankly. So the attendance dwindled to none but Nazis. The management made representations to Nazi offices. Now no Nazis go there. And the earlier custom has not returned.

Other Jewish cafe owners have reported that they have lost patronage in the same manner. They are unanimous in declaring that they would prefer not to have uniformed Nazis enter their establishments.

Occasionally cafes and restaurants are the sites of political brawls, to which there can be but one outcome. The dissenter is brought to the police station. A few nights ago an elderly man was ushered from a prominent Kurfuerstendamm cafe by a group of young brown shirts when he was overheard stating that he did not agree with the Nazi attitude toward the church. He was pushed around by the youthful patriots for a few minutes, before finally being escorted to the police station. These “traitors” frequently land in concentration camps, where they are detained without trial indefinitely.

It has been found that wherever uniformed Nazis congregate there is an absence of common citizens. Nazi patronage is capable of bringing about a virtual boycott of an establishment.

Aside from occasional legislation such as the recently enacted law that newly married couples can not spend their governmental doweries in Jewish shops, the boycott of Jewish stores in Berlin is carried on unpretentiously, automatically.