Nazi charges that east European Jews invaded Germany in large numbers and monopolized industry were ridiculed by Leonard Montefiore, presenting the report of the Joint Foreign Committee to the British Board of Jewish Deputies.
Mr. Montefiore quoted official German statistics to prove that the increase in the number of foreign Jews resident in Germany between 1910 and 1925 was under 31,000. Between 1925 and 1933, he pointed out, there was a decrease of 9,000.
“In view of these figures,” he asked, “where are the bordes of East European Jews who, according to the Nazis, flocked into German after the War? They are non-existent.
“Moreover,” Mr. Montefiore continued, “Nazis talk about the strangle hold exercised by the Jews in German industry. The figures show there were 2,325 Jewish directors of big concerns compared with 61,262 non-Jews. Can we really believe these two-thousand-oda Jewish directors of trading concerns really controlled the vast and powerful machinery of German industry? It is incredible.
“So far as foreign politics are concerned, we are confronted with the fact that Germany is once more a formidable first class military power,” Mr. Montefiore declared. “That would have taken place in any event with or without the rise to power of National Socialism. The German campaign for the revision of the Treaty of Versailles began on the day the Treaty was signed. Stresemann’s policy was devoted to that end, and the demand for equality of treatment was heard long before 1933. No one, I think, who knew the German Jews well would deny that they would have been-and perhaps even new are-amongst those who rejoice in Germany’s re-entry as a great power on the European stage. “In the circumstances, German susceptibilities have to be considered. But diplomacy does not and, especially in democratically governed countries, cannot wholly ignore public opinion. Despite the distraction of other events, despite all efforts at misrepresentation, public opinion in this country formed a judgment of the treatment by the Nazis of the Jews and has emphatically condemned it.”
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.
