The series of window-smashing assaults start d yesterday against stores of the F.W. Woolworth Company in various cities throughout Germany today spread to other cities of the Reich with unabated violence.
Woolworth stores have been shut down in Bonn and Dessau.
The boycotting of Woolworth stores in Frankfurt-and-Main on the grounds that the stores are “owned by American Jews” resulted today in attacks on women shopping in the stores.
The fever heat aroused by the boycott campaign resulted today in an extension of the boycott to all Jewish stores in Frankfurt and Nazi pickets today occupied positions at the entrance of all Jewish enterprises.
Today’s demonstrations were staged by angry mobs of Nazis spurred by a campaign of inflammatory attacks on the Woolworth organization in the German press in Hirschberg, Lowe Silesia. Yesterday violence broke out in Kassel and Bonn.
No mention of the riots has been allowed in the German press. However, the German propaganda ministry, on inquiry of the London Daily Telegraph, is reported to have stated that the demonstrations may be regarded as a protest against the American boycott of German goods, “inspired by Jews.” The Telegraph adds that responsibility for the action of the crowds has been disowned by the Nazi authorities in the cities affected.
Supplementing the press campaign handbills have been circulated throughout Germany since the middle of May, contemning violent onslaughts against the Woolworth organization on the ground that it was owned by Jews. The Telegraph comments as follows on the situation:
“These attacks until today has little apparent effect on the German people, whose interest in the anti-Semitic campaign is now very slight, except when artificially stimulated.”
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.
