The secret political police of Germany, of which Herr Himmler is the chief, were kept busy this week making the German Jews feel that they are not wanted in the Reich.
Acting upon instructions from Hitler and Goebbels, the political police within one week accomplished the following:
1. German-Jewish refugees who returned to Germany were arrested and placed in a concentration camp.
2. Jewish organizations were prohibited from carrying on propaganda urging the Jews to remain in Germany.
3. Jewish youth was prevented from adjusting itself to new professions except for emigration purposes.
4. Jewish institutions and individual Jews were forbidden to display the national colors.
5. More than a hundred Jews were deprived of citizenship, despite the fact that they were born in Germany.
AIM TO COUNTERACT SCHACHT’S EFFORTS
All this was done for the purpose of spreading panic among the Jewish population in Germany, which had begun to adjust itself to life under the Nazi discriminations. All this was carried out in order to counteract Dr. Schacht in his efforts to soften the Nazi attitude towards the Jews.
The Nazi rulers do not want the Jews in Germany under any circumstances and nothing can stop them from driving the Jews to a point where they will be compelled to leave the country. This was clearly stated by Dr. Goebbels this week in reply to the reports abroad that the Jewish position in Germany may be modified. This view is definitely shared by Hitler, who went so far as to tell Dr. Schacht not to meddle in affairs which have nothing to do with his Ministry of Economics.
ASSIGNS TASK TO HERR HIMMLER
To carry out this view, Hitler assigned none other than Herr Himmler, who, next to Goebbels, is Hitler’s most important man in the struggle against Goering.
In the archives of the secret political police in Berlin there is a special drawer to which Himmler alone has the key. It contains the records of Goering. And in a private drawer in Goering’s house there is the documentary evidence of Himmler’s career, which many claim to be criminal.
It is into the hands of this man Himmler that Hitler has now handed over the fate of German Jewry. It is no longer Goebbels against Schacht with regard to the Jewish question, but it is Himmler against Schacht. Himmler, the man who knows no mercy.
PUTS END TO HOPE OF IMPROVEMENT
The fact that the Jewish problem has been placed in the hands of Himmler makes it clear once and for all that no hopes should be entertained that the Jewish position in Germany will ever improve under the Nazi regime. It puts an end to the optimistic illusions of many outside Germany who believe that the boycott of German goods has broken down Hitler’s anti-Jewish program. It shows that no matter how patriotic the Jews of Germany wish to be, their patriotism is not wanted.
The long arm of the Nazi propaganda against the Jews was stretched out this week as far as Palestine. For the first time since the Nazis came to power, Nazi leaflets calling for a boycott against Jewish stores were distributed this week in the streets of Jerusalem. This despite the fact that the export of German goods into Palestine has increased five-fold since the Nazis came to power, due to the barter agreement between certain Jewish organizations in Palestine and the Ministry of Commerce in Germany.
This barter agreement, which has been a matter of public discussion for many months and which is a shameful blemish on the Jewish people, is still being continued, only because of the fact that a few central Jewish organizations in Palestine benefit by it. Under the pretext of “saving Jewish money from Germany,” certain Jewish leaders in Palestine are deliberately closing their eyes to the fact that they are breaking the boycott which the Jews have proclaimed against Germany, and thus helping the Nazis to continue in their discriminations against the Jews within the Reich.
BOYCOTT ISSUE MUST BE FACED
It may be in the interests of the Zionist movement in Germany and of the income of Zionist organizations in Palestine that the barter agreement between Palestine and the Nazis should {SPAN}###{/SPAN} become a public issue. But in the face of the anti-Jewish drive which was renewed this week in Germany, it is only logical that the question of the increased trade between Palestine and Germany should be raised again publicly.
The mystery as to why national Jewish organizations in Palestine are encouraging the barter agreement and as to why they are preventing the Jews outside Palestine from condemning it must once and forever be solved now, when a wave of new anti-Jewish persecution has begun in Germany. Is Palestine going to follow the Jews of the world in boycotting German goods or not? This is the question which must once and for all be answered from Jerusalem.
THEIR DIPLOMACY AIDS ANTI-SEMITISM
The diplomatic attitude which Jewish leaders and the Jewish press in Palestine have adopted towards the increased import from Germany only encourages anti-Semitism in other countries. Countries like Rumania, or Poland, or Austria, would never go so far as they are going now in their anti-Jewish acts if they would see Jewry united. To be split even on such a question as the boycott on German goods means to lend a hand to the anti-Semites all over the world.
Anti-Semitism also received a new impetus in the United States this week when Father Coughlin, the radio priest, delivered over the radio last Monday an address which both in tone and in content was full of anti-Semitic poison. Dr. Coughlin accused Bernard Baruch and “international financiers” of controlling the present government, but when it came to enumerating these “international financiers” he forgot about the non-Jewish millionaires in America and concentrated on the few Jewish names.
COUGHLIN SPEECH DID GREAT HARM
Father Coughlin’s speech provoked a number of protests on the part of the Jewish press and leading Jewish personalities. The harm this speech has done can not even be estimated. The entire nation listened in to Father Coughlin. The inescapable impression which his speech left was that the Jews in America are to be blamed for the present state of affairs in the United States.
The danger of this speech is even greater when it is recalled that Father Coughlin has his own radio station and can broadcast similar speeches from there at any time. Though the regulations provide that no racial hatred can be broadcast on the air, Father Coughlin seems not to be afraid of losing the license for his radio station.
MAILS ARE FLOODED WITH MACFADDEN PLEA
Echoing Father Coughlin’s speech on the “international bankers,” ex-Congressman McFadden came out this week with a blast of new anti-Jewish propaganda, aimed again at the “international Jewish financiers.” This propaganda has been distributed by ex-Congressman McFadden, through the American mails, in tens of thousands of copies throughout the country. The American nation is urged by MacFadden in his propaganda to join his new “Christian Republican Party” with a platform against the Jews and the “Jewish League of Nations.”
An investigation of Mr. MacFadden’s use of the American mails for his anti-Semitic propaganda has been started by Postmaster General Farley. The results of the investigation may not be known for a long time, but the Jew-baiting ex-Congressman from Pennsylvania will probably be checked and prevented from further use of the post office facilities for his anti-Jewish campaign. He may then take to the radio, even as Father Coughlin, if experience shows that such anti-Jewish speeches as the one delivered by Father Coughlin are left unchallenged by the Federal Commission on Communications.
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.
