A Week’s Events in Review

If you’ve got something to sell, an excellent way of selling it is through the columns of the Jewish Daily Bulletin. Call Ashland 4-3093 for rates.

One of the darkest pages in German Jewish history was written this week when anti-Jewish riots broke out in Berlin, resembling the first days when the Nazis came to power.

Hundreds of Jews were driven out from cafes and restaurants in Kurfuerstendamm, the fashionable Berlin street, and were mercilessly beaten by uniformed and semi-uniformed Nazis. The Jewish cafe houses were attacked and their windows and furniture smashed. No exception was made by the hooligans with regard to women. Everybody who seemed Jewish was assaulted. Automobiles passing the Kurfuerstendamm were stopped by the Nazi mobs. Passengers of Jewish appearance were dragged out of the car and physically mistreated.

All this took place upon orders of higher Nazi officials. The London press reports that Hitler himself ordered these riots.

Thrown into panic, the Berlin Jews now fear to walk evenings on the streets of the city. The Jewish community of Berlin has appealed to the Jewish population to abstain from appearing in public places in order not to give any grounds for new provocations.

The attacks on Jews on Kurfuerstendamm immediately found an echo in other parts of the Reich. In Wannsee, a bathing suburb of Berlin, Nazis armed with pitchforks invaded the beach and drove out all Jews there. In other parts of the country the Jews were arrested in dozens for “violating the racial principles of the Reich” just because they married non-Jewish girls during the last few years.

PRESS EXPRESSES UNIVERSAL HORROR

The anti-Jewish pogrom in Berlin provoked great consternation abroad. The entire press in London and America condemned the Berlin riots in the strongest possible terms. This universal reception had its effect, but only to a certain extent. It resulted in an order issued by the Nazi authorities to the police to take stronger measures for maintaining order in the city of Berlin. It did not, however, stimulate the Nazi leaders in Germany to issue an order that the anti-Jewish propaganda which led to the Berlin disorders should be abolished in the German press or at least be modified.

The Nazi press, especially such papers as the Stuermer and the Judenkenner, consequently continued their Jew-baiting agitation after the bloody Kurfuerstendamm event even more vigorously. A special anti-Jewish poster published by the Judenkenner was ordered displayed in every office and in all factories by Nazi leaders in Berlin.

The anti-Jewish riots which took place this week in Berlin are the result of the growing influence of Juhus Streicher, Germany’s most notorious anti-Semite. While Dr. Schacht, the economic dictator of Germany, continues to urge that Jews be left alone in commerce in Germany, Streicher and his followers are insistent that Jews should not only be ousted also from Germany’s commercial life but that they should be confined to ghettos and not be permitted to appear on the streets after ten o’clock in the evening.

STREICHER POWER GROWS APACE

The influence of Streicher, hitherto limited to Franconia, where he is the ruler, has recently also grown in other parts of the country, especially Bavaria. It also reached Berlin. As one of the Hitler favorites, Streicher was permitted to build stations all over Berlin where his Jew-baiting organ, Der Stuermer, is openly sold and his anti-Semitic placards conspicuously displayed.

Time was when the Nazi government was ashamed of Streicher’s publications and did not permit it to be sold in Berlin, where foreign visitors are observing German life under the Nazi regime. It also did not permit the Stuermer to be sent out abroad, because of its obscene contents.

This time has passed. Apparently aiming to play the same role in Berlin that he does in Franconia, Streicher succeeded in gaining the patronage of Hitler for his publication. Not only is Der Stuermer now sold openly on the streets of Berlin, but special Stuermer units are operating in the capital of Germany, making Streicher popular among the German population in Berlin. This popularity has reached so great a state that during the anti-Jewish riots on Kurfuerstendamm many of the Nazis shouted “Heil Streicher” instead of “Heil Hitler.”

The anti-Jewish pogrom this week in Berlin can be attributed chiefly to the fact that Germany is no longer interested in public opinion abroad to the extent to which it was only a few weeks ago. Permitted by England to restore its army and its navy, the Nazi leaders feel that they have practically achieved what they wanted for the time being in the field of foreign politics. Hence, their attention is focussed now on internal politics.

NAZIS AT WAR WITH CATHOLICS

The first victims of this increased attention of the Nazi leaders to the internal problems of the country were the Jews and the Catholics. Simultaneously with the anti-Jewish riots on Kurfuerstendamm and with the increased anti-Jewish propaganda all over the Reich, the Nazi government started a crusade on a large scale against the Catholic church this week. This crusade has reached such a point that the Vatican has been compelled to come out with an open statement against Nazi Germany for the first time since the Nazis are in power. To this statement General Goering replied with an order issued to the authorities throughout the country to arrest any Catholic priest who dares to say a word against the present regime in Germany.

This actual war between the Catholics and the Nazi government will, no doubt, lead to the breaking up of the Concordat concluded only a year ago between the Nazi government and the Pope through the mediation of Franz Von Papen, who is now the German ambassador to Austria. This state of war, which Goering dared for the first time this week to declare in the most vigorous terms against Catholics in Germany, may perhaps lead to a united front between Jews and Catholics all over the world to counteract the persecution of Jews and Catholics in Germany.

A plea for such a united front had been issued a week ago by the Belgium Catholics. The Catholic world in Europe is much perturbed by the fact that the Catholic position in Germany is becoming similar to the Jewish. The question of supporting a world-wide boycott against Germany is now seriously being diiscussed in leading Catholic circles in Europe as one of the measures of checking the strength of the Nazis.

In addition to the anti-Jewish riots on Kurfuerstendamm, Nazis this week invaded a meeting of the Jewish War Veterans in Berlin, provoking a fight. A number of Jews were arrested as a result of this fight, in which the Nazis were driven out from the meeting-hall.

Following the riots on Kurfuerstendamm, an order was issued to all enterprises in Germany that, where employees are to be dismissed, Jewish employees must be the first to go. In this respect no difference is to be made between Jews and people of Jewish descendants or Germans who are married to Jews, the order provides.

DIRECT LEAGUE AID URGED FOR REFUGEES

The precarious situation of the Jews in Germany and the dark future which is in store for them was discussed at great length this week at the governing council of the High Commission for Jewish and Other Refugees from Germany, which was set up by the League of Nations. Picturing the plight of the German-Jewish refugees outside of Germany and the possibilities that the number of refugees may increase, James G. McDonald, the High Commissioner, demanded that his office be liquidated at the end of this year and be replaced by an office conducted directly by the League of Nations. He expressed his opinion that the League of Nations must take the responsibility for the fate of the refugees from Germany. He pointed out that such responsibility was taken by the League of Nations for Greek, Assyrian, Russian and Armenian refugees and that, therefore, there is no valid reason why the League should remain indifferent to the condition of the exiles from Germany.

The demand of Mr. McDonald was supported by Viscount Cecil. It will be put up on the agenda at the next session of the League off Nations in September. The Norwegian government has definitely promised to support it at the session of the League of Nations. The attitude of other governments remains unknown.

In his report Mr. McDonald disclosed that approximately ten million dollars has been spent during the last two years for relief for refugees from Germany. Virtually all this money came from Jewish relief organizations, such as the American Joint Distribution Committee, the Jewish Colonization Association, and others. The League of Nations itself did not spend a cent for the refugees from Germany.

80,000 EXILED FROM HITLERLAND

Over eighty thousand refugees left Germany since Hitler came to power, according to the report. The majority has been settled in different countries, but there are still a good number depending on relief. Mr. McDonald revealed the fact that a fund of ten million dollars is now being raised quietly by a group of Jews in America for the rehabilitation of German Jews in overseas countries. This money will be spent on constructive work only.

One of the major troubles with regard to the refugees from Germany is the fact that no country wishes to admit refugees who have no capital. A report was spread recently by irresponsible correspondents that the Albanian government decided to invite Jewish refugees for settlement in Albania. This report was, however, immediately denied by Albanian authorities who made it clear that no such invitation has ever been extended. They emphasized that only those with capital will be admitted.

A ray of hope—not only for the Jewish refugees from Germany, but also for thousands of Jews from Poland who must migrate because of oppression—was seen in the official announcement this week that the government of Ecuador has agreed to set aside large tracts of land for Jewish colonization in Ecuador. The agreement, according to the announcement, has already been signed by the president of Ecuador. It gives a million and a quarter acres of land to the Jews, facilitating the settlement of not less than fifty thousand Jewish families.

If you’ve got something to sell, an excellent way of selling it is through the columns of the Jewish Daily Bulletin. Call Ashland 4-3093 for rates.