The Central Union of Jews in Germany today issued a statement condemning the act of David Frankfurter, Yugoslavian Jewish medical student, in assassinating Wilhelm Gustloff, Nazi leader,
The statement said:
“We abhor political murder regardless of what the motive is. Persons who believe they are justified in assassinating opponents exclude themselves from the society of human communities.”
Meanwhile, internal instructions were issued to all German newspapers not to print reports of anti-Jewish disturbances, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learned.
Newspapers were also ordered to suppress accounts of court decisions in cases involving anti-Semitic attacks.
Relief was expressed in Jewish circles when today’s papers dealt almost exclusively with the opening of the Olympic games, relegating the assassination of Gustloff to inside pages.
While the playing-down of the Gustloff case was apparently carried out under orders from a central source, suspicions were voiced in Jewish quarters that Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels intends to revive anti-Semitic agitation after the conclusion of the Winter games on February 16, at which time memorials for Gustloff will be held.
The “ritual murder” cry was raised by Julius Streicher’s newspaper, Frankische Zeitung, in connection with the assassination.
Declaring the slaying “another in a long list of Jewish ritual murders,” the paper stated that not only Frankfurter, but the “entire Jewish people” was guilty of the murder.
The paper held that the slaughter of “Aryans” by Jews began a thousand years ago and that the slaughter is now celebrated annually by the Feast of Purim.
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.
