A protest against the intention of the Nazi government not to admit German Jews to military service has been lodged with Dr. Hans Luther, German Ambassador in Washington, by the German-Jewish Men’s League, formed here in 1911 by German-Jewish war veterans, it was learned yesterday.
The German Ambassador was asked to submit this protest to “competent government authorities.” The protest reads:
“We learned from reports which reached us that the Reich government does not intend to admit the German Jews to military service, after the general conscription is introduced. This information caused the greatest indignation in our circle.
“The German – Jewish Men’s League, Inc.,” which was founded in 1911 by former German soldiers, still contains over ninety per cent of former members of the German army and navy, of participants in the world war, in the war of 1870-71, and even veterans of the campaigns of 1866 and 1864. In the almost twenty-five years of our existence, we have fulfilled our self-evident task and have actively cooperated in the promotion of German culture in America. We have supported all efforts in behalf of Germany, material and idealistic, decisively.
“You yourself, dear Mr. Ambassador, about a year and a half ago, expressed your recognition to three representatives of our group in New York, of the fact that we German Jews are bearers of German culture through our natural disposition, and that we cannot be otherwise. Therefore we are shocked to learn that the German Jews are to be deprived, through legislative measures of their most elementary civic rights at home.
“As former members of the army, we consider it our duty to protest most sharply against the execution of a planned degradation of our co-religionists in Germany, which the exclusion from military service would entail.”
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.
