The May Day number of Der Stuermer has had far-reaching reverberations. That’s the issue, if you remember, with all the fantastic “inside information” about the ritual murders the Jews are always carrying out-in the minds of such men as Julius Streicher. That’s the issue with the faked pictures of Jews killing men, women and children in a revolting manner.
Jew-baiter, pornographer and sensation-monger though he is, the enterprising Streicher must surely have been surprised at the interest his Stormer aroused all over the world. The New York papers carried full accounts of the issue. The Archbishop of Canterbury wrote a letter to the London Times. And a member of the staff of the German Embassy in London even remarked on it in a speech, for which we’re sure he’s scheduled for a concentration camp.
It was Dr. Fritz Randolph, an attache at the Embassy, who made the break. He got up before the members of the Birmingham Rotary Club and began talking about the various goings-on in the Reich.
“If you had in your administration, in your schools, Jews doing what they did in Germany, you would also have a problem and would have to do something about it,” said Dr. Randolph. That was all right. That was good, even. That was the same old hash the Nazis have been handing out ever since they opened their butchery shop. That would never get a good Nazi in dutch.
But then poor Dr. Randolph made his break. And a bad break it was for a good Nazi to make. He began talking about what the Nazis were doing against the Jews, trying to make out a case for his people. Then he said:
“You must make some allowance for the actions of some lunatics-actions which have nothing to do with the will or the official sanction of the government.”
Even the Nazis will realize that their propaganda machine broke down that time. Naive Dr. Randolph’s profound utterance will give anti-Nazi wits a chance to spread themselves for months to come. There are so many clever thing to say about it. The implications overwhelm us. For instance, we can bring that statement down to its logical conclusion:
Certainly Herr Streicher’s concoctions in his paper are the work of a lunatic. That lets him out of the government, even though he does have his high official position.
And Dr. Goebbels’ vivid imagination and rabid ramblings show signs of dementia praecox. So the Ministry of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment (we like those last two words, by the way) has nothing to do with the will of the government.
Then there’s Herr Goering. His yapping about the Jews doesn’t seem to have much sanity in it. So, Air Ministry or no Air Ministry, he hasn’t got the official sanction of the government.
What about handsome Adolf himself? Occasionally he too permits himself to wander from the path of normaley. He sponsors anti-Jewish boycotts, burnings of books, and other various things that ordinary human beings wouldn’t dream of doing. That puts Hitler outside the pale.
The question then arises in our puzzled mind: Who, then, is the Nazi government?
Certainly not Streicher, or Goebbels, or Goering, or Hitler, or all the other lunatics, for their classification disqualifies them. Certainly not old Hindenburg, who nowadays goes about signing every blank sheet of paper he lays eyes on.
Then who is it? The answer, we think, is this:
The only halfway sane official in the Reich government is Dr. Fritz Randolph, who admits its lunacy.
But poor Dr. Randolph sanity makes it probable that he will be despatched forthwith to the most convenient concentration camp.
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.
