In the form of an open letter to “Herr Doktor Goebbels”, Nazi Minister of Propaganda, Today’s Cinema, published in London, comments on the ruination of the German film industry as follows:
Misguided Zealot,—
You seem in a rather confused state.
Can’t you make your mind up?
On the one hand we receive news that you are modifying your previous attitude to the Jewish element in foreign films, pleading for a lifting of the embargo. You fear a counter embargo.
On the other hand it is reported that an even more bitter and ruthless persecution of the film industry has begun.
Firms are being struck off the register, wholesale, and films are being decimated so as to remove the baneful influence of Non-Aryanism.
A strangely muddled state of affairs, Herr Doktor.
That you made a very grave error, from your own point of view, in victimizing the Jewish members of the industry is now very clear.
Where is your foreign film trade?
It is virtually non-existent. Here and there, in a few—a very few—scattered quarters a German film is showing—mainly to an exclusive and highbrow audience. What few there are take some finding.
We do not know of one in England at this moment.
The great German industry which produced “Vaudeville,”
“The Last Laugh,” “Destiny,” and “Caligari” is only a memory. The industry which evolved geniuses like Pommer and Lubitsch, Grune and Veidt, is but a shadow, an insipid meaningless reflection of its masters’ will.
Can it be wondered that some among you—possibly even yourself—are changing their tune, realizing that political and racial passion is but a poor moulder of industrial destiny—a paltry vehicle for national prestige.
We can well believe that influences will be brought to bear to arrest the rot that there will be some among you to whom this new recrudescence of physical and moral blackmail is a tragic policy. They, maybe you, may want to retract.
But it will be too late, then.
The damage is done, irreparable damage to your industry, your nation and your own prestige.
SAYS REICH ACTS CAN’T BE FORGOTTEN
Pointing out that the fate of the Jews in Germany is becoming steadily worse and that all appeals to the “better nature” of Germany against the anti-Semitic barbarities of the Nazis have been of no avail, the Manchester Guardian says that these things cannot be overlooked in the present Anglo-German relations. Says the Guardian:
A good many friendly overtures have been made to Germany during the last few months. But whatever the policy of this country may be and whatever attitude the British people may choose to adopt, in the form whether of visits by ex-servicemen or of other courtesies or so-called “friendly gestures,” the things that go on in Germany all the time must by no means be overlooked or forgotten. Some people are just indifferent to them; many weary of hearing an old tale of injustice; some say that other things as bad go on elsewhere; some that the “domestic affairs” of Germany are no concern of ours. But these things touch us all. If they happened in England, or France, or America, the rest of the world would have the right, and the duty, to protest as it has now when they still go on in Germany.
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.
