While maintaining his generally friendly tone toward the Hitler regime, William Randolph Hearst on Friday finally broke his silence on the subject of the Jew in Germany.
In a belated reply to a series of written questions asked him by ship news reporters when he returned here aboard the Nazi line Bremen Thursday, Hearst, in his own newspaper, the New York American, voices mild disapproval of the Hitler attitude toward the Jews.
“I do not think that discrimination against the Jews is considered desirable by thinking Germans generally,” he writes.
“I do not think that this is one of the policies which has given strength to the Hitler administration.
“I think it has been very definitely a weakness, rather then a strength, at home in Germany as well as abroad.
“The one thing that gives Hitler his strength with the German people is his advocacy of a united Germany capable of resisting encroachment or injustice from foreign powers.”
In answer to the question, “Isn’t the Jewish economic boycott the most serious economic loss to Germany?” he makes the following reply:
“I should think that the Jewish economic boycott should be exceedingly serious for Germany.
‘A GREAT MISTAKE’
“I think Germany made a great mistake in regard to the Jews as I have said before in this interview. Furthermore, I cannot see any reason for any hostility to the Jews in Germany.
“Very many of the Jews were among Germany’s most loyal and most valuable citizens. The names of many German Jews were famous as Germans, not merely as Jews.
“The Jewish population could not have been any menace to the Teutonic or so-called ‘Aryan’ population of Germany. There were only some 600,000 Jews in Germany — less than one per cent of the population.
“The whole policy of such an anti-Semitism is such an obvious mistake that I am sure it must soon be abandoned. In fact, I think it is already well on the way to abandonment.”
His “personal impressions of Chancellor Hitler” he states as follows:
PRAISE FOR HITLER
“My impressions of Chancellor Hitler are that he is a very intense man, concentrated on his idea of German unity. He is an extraordinary organizer.
“Germany is organized to an astonishing extent behind Hitler and his ideas of German unity. That seems to me to be the dominant idea, and other policies of the administration seem to be unimportant to the movement in comparison.”
Does Hearst “regard Hitler as a war threat to Europe?”
“I do not think Hitler is a war threat to Europe,” he replies. “I do not think he has anything to be a war threat with. I believe he is organizing Germany to prevent disorder and discouragement. I think he is trying to resist encroachment by hostile nations and domination by foreign powers. That is what his supporters say.
“I cannot imagine anyone being mad enough to try to make war with spades. Then, again, Hitler’s public utterances are pacifist, at least as compared with Mussolini’s.”
Asked whether Germany still plans to annex Austria, he replies:
“I do not in the least know whether Germany plans to annex Austria or not. I think the average German would like to see the Teutonic races united.”
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.
