While the Jews of Austria retain their faith in the none too friendly Dolfuss government, considering it the lesser of two evils, a new figure stalks into the spotlight on a troubled scene. He is the “iron man” who stands at the right hand ofthe valiant little ruler of a valiant little state. Major Emil Fey, vice-chan-cellor of Aistroa. war hero and bitter foe of Nazi fascism, has been given blanket authority to stamp out Austrian Hitlerism in high places and low.
Thus another name comes to the fore to be written into the history of these chaotic days; Major Fey, outspoken, ruthless, strong, may be called the Goering of Austria. During the world war, Queen Maria Theresa, something of a sportswoman, offered a medal to that one among her generals who would disobey a superior officer and get away with it. The medal’s alternative, of course, was death. Like the bold prince, in some child’s story, who goes out to kill the dragon which has already done away with a number of other brave young men who went before, Major Fey disobeyed his commander, won his battle, escaped court martial and got the queen’s medal.
Anti-Nazis in Austria are still relating the tale of the Heimwehr parade which two husky nazis were foolhardy enough to mock while Major Fey was passing at the head of his troops. “Phooey!” they cried, or something to that effect. Major Fey did not bat an eye or miss a step; but he gave the command to halt. Then, while his men stood at attention, quite grimly and efficiently. Major Fey strode over to the two confidently jeering Nazis, knocked down one and then the other, turned them over to the police, rejoined the parade and said the Austrian equivalent of “Forward!”
Dr. A. S. W. Rosenbach, president of the American Friends of the Hebrew university, was reported by the Bulletin as having addressed a large meeting of Hadassah at the Hotel Astor in New York on Wednesday. While the gist of his talk dealt with the need for enlarged facilties which has been made even more imperative with the arrival of German refugee scientists at Mount Scopus, still it is good to hear from Dr. Rosenbach in these turbulent days.
For Dr. Rosenbach is a man whom turbulence sweeps by without effect upon his unruffled and gentle mien. He is distinctly an aesthete, a connoisseur. As the world’s greatest and most sensibly extravagant buyer of rare books and vauable manuscripts, Dr. Rosenbach, bibliophile in the grand manner, has spent over twenty-five million dollars in ten years. To show for this vast sum, he has what at first glance would appear to be simply an extraordinarily large collection of plain and frequently old-looking volumes, plus a neat pile of yellowed papers.
But among these papers, most costly of them all in fact, is his original certified copy of the Declaration of Independence and of the Articles of Confederation. The dailies devoted a great deal of space some years ago to Dr. Rosenbach’s purchase of the manuscript of Alice In Wonderland for $75,000. Some went off into editorials on the folly of an individual’s spending such a tidy fortune on what, after all, was primarily a museum piece. But Dr. Rosenbach resold “Alice” for $150,000.
When Dr. Rosenbach travels to Europe it is not unlike the repeated sackings of Rome in ancient times. The wary guardians of old world treasures dust off their choicest items, mark up their prices and await the raid. But Dr. Rosenbach is a shrewd collector. In his home are four Shakesperian folios and forty-one of the Elizabethan’s original quartos which are valued at $985,000, the result of a particularly successful foray.
Though he originally intended to become a professor at the University of Pennsylvania in the city of Philadelphia where he was born, he went one day to the book shop owned by his uncle, Moses Polok. A bibliophile was created then and there in that bulging red-brick structure on Commerce Steet. At the age of eleven he took ten dollars to a book auction at Stan V. Henkel’s and bid twenty-four dollars on a copy of “Reynard the Fox.” When the book was knocked down to him he confessed to being fourteen dollars short. “But I am the nephew of Moses Polok,” he said. “Good enough!” declared henkel, “Here’s your book on easy payments. Gentlemen, behold the baby bibliophile!”
Well, the baby bibliophile has matured into America’s foremost book collector and if you go to his home you will find a thousand treasures all accumulated and cared for by this very unusual Jewish book-pirate.
High Commissioner McDonald knows his job in dealing with the problem of German refugees. Few Americans, or, for that matter, citizens of any nation, have had wider opportunities for first hand study of international developments in every part of the globe. He has gone abroad on some major political mission every year since the war. Better than any man living, he qualifies for the title of “The Wandering Gentile.” He differs from the traditional peregrinator of the highways of eternity in that he is welcomed everywhere, respected and heeded.
At Geneva and in the capitals of Europe and the Orient he has met the outstanding political personalities of our time. Laval, Herriot, Mussolini, Gandhi, Masaryk, Venizelos, Chang Kai Shek and his namesake Ramsay MacDonald are some of the pivotal figures of contemporary history that he has worked with on some diplomatic problem or another.
High Commissioner, McDonald was born in Ohio, studied at Indiana University where he later served as assistant professor of history and polititcal science, on which subjects he also lectured at Harvard and Radcliffe. In 1919 he became chairman of the Foreign Policy Association, a national organization of more than 10,000 members.
N.R.T.
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.
