ing semester scarcely five percent of former foreign patronage of German schools will be secured.
BERLIN LOSES REPUTATION
Berlin, famous for its development of medical science, has completely lost its reputation as cure center of Europe. Statistics show that considerably more than fifty percent of foreign patients normally going to Berlin for treatment, as well as a large, undetermined number of German patients, have followed the hegira of “ausgeschaltet” medics to Vienna, Prague, Paris, Warsaw, and London.
The effect of National Socialism on Germany’s culture and art, which has been regarded as second to none in Europe, is reflected also in the lack of patronage of art and cultural institutions. Once a lively theatrical center, Berlin is laboring under the failure of people to respond to de-Marxized plays. Of thirty leading theatres, only seventeen remain open; and the rest are seriously thinking of closing because of the fall in box office receipts.
Germany’s moving picture industry, which has produced virtually all important non-American triumphs during the last decade, has suffered a serious setback despite Hitler’s desperate application of artificial respiration in the form of loans to poor but talented companies. With the export of films throttled, new Germany is experiencing lack of response to offerings at home. Although Hitlerized films are still in their infancy, and for that reason alone should appeal to the people, Germans frankly admit that pictures without sin, syncopation, stars and sex hold little appeal.
WHAT’S RIGHT? WHAT’S WRONG?
Rid of many leading Jewish and non-Nazi lawyers, notaries, and judges, German courts have fallen to a new low for this century’s administration of justice. Attempts to humanize court procedure have resulted in the utter abolition of law and constitutionality, and Germany today flounders in a state of perplexity, not knowing what is right and what is wrong. A single word, overheard by Nazi adherents, is sufficient today to send a man to the vilest type of prison without trial, without sentence, and without any knowledge as to why he is imprisoned. A word spoken by relatives abroad may land Germans in a concentration camp. Or, as admitted by Nazis themselves, the fact that the imprisonment of competitors in business may swell the trade of Nazi commercial institutions has inspired the arrest of many men absolutely innocent of any criminal offense or infidelity toward the Nazi regime.
Journalism in Germany, once the most candid and opinionated of any country in Europe, has disintegrated to an expression of the leader’s political and philosophical perversions. Editorial matter is no longer reasonable; news content so reeks with propaganda that the reasonable reader is no longer able to place confidence in the simplest articles.
In the face of a severe financial crisis Hitler has rid the personnel of banks and financial institutions of many Jewish financial wizards, who have contributed much to Germany’s successful fight to overcome the effects of war and reparations. The fact that one has been a loyal party member during Hitler’s fight for power is sufficient to make him eligible for an important job in the banks, inner governmental structure, or diplomatic corps.
It is impossible to publish a book, produce a play, or make a moving picture in Germany today without first sending the work through the Ministry of Propaganda, where all elements not directly favorable to Hitler’s policies are carefully sifted out and “suggestions” made as to how the book might be improved from the Nazi viewpoint. In view of this condition it is impossible to read any piece of German literature without suspecting it of propaganda.
The writer does not believe that the German people at heart are anti-Semitic nor under normal circumstances at all sympathetic to the personal eccentricities of the Hitler government. Ordinarily the Jews themselves find the German people and the German nation the most likable of any in Europe. To the writer the Germans appear the most industrious, the most progressive, and the friendliest of all the people in Europe.
During conversations with hundreds of German people from all walks of life, the impression was gained that persecution of the Jews is made possible only because of the ease with which Germans may be brought into line by any leader entertaining any principles. Asked their views on anti-Semitism, Germans invariably recited certain real or imagined abuses, which are being set forth in tons of propaganda pamphlets being distributed by the Nazi government. More intensive discussion of anti-Semitism invariably brings forth the admission from the man on the street, and even the most rabid Nazi officials (as Julius Streicher himself admitted), “but I personally am not anti-Semitic.”
How long this self-delusion can endure is an unsolvable problem. Germany is now being confronted with real problems of survival. They can no longer afford to cast aside reason.
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.
