Austrian followers of Adolf Hitler today continued their campaign of violence and terrorism against the helpless Jews of this country by perpetrating a new bomb outrage in the third case of the week in which a Jewish communal institution was the target.
At four o’clock this afternoon, a pair of Nazis burled a small bomb through a window of the headquarters of the Jewish students’ association, considerably damaging the building. Fortunately, no one was on the street level floor of the building at the time and no injuries were caused. Had the bombers made the attempt a few hours earlier, several hundred students would have been in the dining rooms where the bomb exploded.
Today’s bomb incident and the numerous attacks on Jewish stores and Jewish pedestrians reported throughout the city, as well as the more serious attacks reported from the provinces, have convinced the Jewish community that the Nazis, in their campaign to smash the Dollfuss regime, are conducting a systematic campaign of terrorism against the Jews.
Alarmed by the growing power of the Austrian Nazi movement and the possibility of a coup which will give control of the country over to the Nazis, Jews of all shades of opinion began today to conduct negotiations for a united Jewish front for defensive action. Taking part in the negotiations were the Zionist and the Orthodox Union of Austrian Jews.
ON EDGE OF VOLCANO
The Jewish population is unquestionably on the edge of a volcano. While its leaders believe the present Dollfuss government is best under the circumstances, they nevertheless fear that anti-Semitic tendencies are increasing among partisans of the chancellor, particularly Christian Socialists who are definitely demanding curtailment of Jewish rights and the introduction of numerous clauses or restrictive quota for Jews in the free professions.
While Chancellor Dollfuss is not satisfied with the anti-Semitic demands of his followers, this correspondent learns on good authority, there is little doubt but that he would agree to offer the Jews of Austria up as a sacrifice to keep the Heimwehr, the Fascist home guard, in the coalition on which his government depends.
The Heimwehr is strongly impregnated with anti-Semitism and many defections from its ranks to the Nazi colors have been because the anti-Semitic tendencies of the organization have been held in check. To prevent growing dissatisfaction with his rule among the Heimwehr leadership and rank and file, the Chancellor, it is learned, will agree to their anti-Semitic demands.
The Christian Social, or clerical party, to which Dollfuss personally leans, suggests that the Jews “voluntarilly retreat” from their civil and political position before they are deprived of their rights by forece. “Voluntary resignation of their rights by the Jews,” a prominent Christian Social theoretician explained to this correspoundent today, “will reduce the growth of anti-Semitism in Ausgtria.”
None of the Austrian Jewish leaders, it is understood, agrees to this proposal. They place their chief hope for the salvation of Austrian Jewry-and of Austria herself-in the League of Nations. The League is bound to maintain Jewish rights in Austria, they declare, because this country, unlike Germany, guaranteed Jewish rights under the Treaty of Versailles and Austria, at least at the beginning, as long as she does not unite with Nazi Germany, is expected to honor her obligations to the League.
On the other hand, the anti-Semites maintain that without infringing the Versailles Treaty, they can introduce numerous clauses because the proportion of Jews in the various professions would be restricted to five percent the proportion of Jews ot the entire population. It is singificant that the government press today came out with the allegation that the Jews have captured the fields of medicine and law, claiming that 85 percent of the lawyers of Vienna and 60 percent of the provincial lawyers are Jews, while 70 percent of the Vienna doctors and 60 percent of the doctors in the provices are Jewish.
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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.
