The remarkable letter reproduced here came recently to a Jewish importer in New York from his brother in Germany. Before Hitler came to power this importer had been purchasing a considerable amount of German goods. Now his purchases are made elsewhere.
The writer of the letter was a lieutcnant during the War and was awarded the Iron Cross for bravery.
“The turnover is getting smaller and smaller,” he writes. “The effect of the boycott is hitting us German Jews as well as the so-called “Aryans.” However, my Gentile customers remained nearly all loyal to me and are buying our products in spite of frantic efforts of the Nazis to pillory those who insist on giving us their trade, because race hatred cannot forever prevail against the quality and price of the product.
“You will notice from the enclosures how anti-Semitic forces are keeping up their poisonous work. What good can it do us, when all the decent and sensible people inside and outside of Germany shrug their shoulders regretfully over these despicable race theories? The exception the Nazis grant-on paper-to former Jewish front soldiers is a lie, pure and simple, meant to sugar-coat the bitter pill for foreign propaganda purposes. As a matter of fact, the Jewish front-soldier is no more safe than any other Jew and is subject-even if by devious routes-to the same persecution, particularly the legal and medical professions who remain ‘ausgeschaltet’ regardless of any war record. It is certainly the climax of barbarism, if a people does not respect its front soldiers any more and divides them into ‘Aryans’ and ‘non-Aryan’ pariahs. Of course, officially the Jewish front soldier is supposed to be able to practice as physician or lawyer, ###? since they work openly and systematically on the eradication of all Jews, the official declaration is without any value and has as its only purpose the refutation of criticism in foreign countries.
” ‘Out of all Jewish competition in business or profession,’ this is the platform of these mediocrities, these ‘heroes’ of the years following the great war. As far as I am concerned, I have fought it through for four long years in the front trenches, leaving an arm on the battlefield shortly before the end. I shall not desert and shall keep on fighting-now against my former comrades-in the hope that decency and common sense may ###? reign again in Germany-###? that we may be alive to see ###?.
###? This extraordinary and genu###? human document, while adding little that we do not know about the plight of German Jewry, reveals the awakening self-respect in some of the German Jews and the spirit of hope. It also reveals that not all the German “Aryans” have been truly Nazified.
The salvation of German Jewry lies in an aroused world conscience and in the economic and moral boycott of Hitler’s Germany. The salvation of the German people lies in their awakening to the realization that their present rulers are leading them to economic disaster and to national degradation among the civilized nations.
ROWDYISM ENTHRONED
The Nazis want tourists to come to Germany. They have started an advertising campaign in various countries to “Come to Germany,” “the land of infinite variety.” They lure the tourists to “explore age-old cities set against snow-capped peaks,” to “linger in dreaming streets,” “where the past lives again in costumes and customs.” And they assured the prospective tourists that “everywhere throughout the Germany you will find a friendly atmosphere and the heartiest of welcomes.”
They fail to mention that the tourists should provide themselves with documents establishing their “Aryan” origin and that a Jewish grandmother might get them into all sorts of trouble. But it seems that even foreign “Aryans” are not safe in Naziland. The grandson of Lord William Cecil went to Germany some time ago and, while sitting with a German lady in a German cafe, he was attacked by Nazi ruffians simply because he tried to defend the German lady who was insulted for indulging in the “non-Aryan” practice of powdering her nose. The young Englishman was beaten up brutally. According to the London Jewish Chronicle, the incident was fully described in The London Times.
The grandfather of this young Englishman, Lord William Cecil, thus describes the episode in a letter to a friend:
“My grandson was badly, mauled by the Nazis in Munich. They appear to be a sort of wild beasts. They got him down and kicked him on the head, at least that is what I was told, when he was down, and it is most providential that he was not killed. …Germany does not seem to be the place for respectable people just at present.”
The German people have no means at present to learn what the world thinks of Germany under the Hitler regime. The reputation that Hitler is building up for Germany, the former land of Kultur, is even more humiliating than the anti-German feeling created during the War by the ruthlessness and stupidities of Junkerdom.
Germany has for years been known for its discipline and orderliness. Now rowdyism is enthroned there. Wild passions have been released by irresponsible and unscrupulous demagogues. While Hitlerism cannot last long, because it is a destructive and self-destructive force, the German people will suffer its effects for a long time to come.
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.
