The West German Cabinet will give priority to the anti-Semitic incidents reported throughout Germany, when it meets Wednesday for the first time since the holiday recess, a Government spokesman said here tonight.
The question is being regarded with the utmost seriousness because reports to the Foreign Ministry from embassies abroad indicate that the Federal Republic faces a grave loss of prestige, due to the indications that Nazi type anti-Semitism still flourishes in the country.
As further incidents were reported from all parts of West Germany and from West Berlin, Bonn officials insisted that the demonstrations were “organized” and were directed against the authority and prestige of the Government. They asserted that the German people were “most indignant” over the anti-Semitic excesses.
There were some doubts, however, as to whether the Cabinet’s discussion would be followed by open parliamentary debate about the latest manifestations of neo-Nazism. He in rich Krone, one of the leaders of the dominant Christian Democratic Party, as well as a leader of the Free Democratic Party, Dr. Erich Mende, declared that the recent “excesses” were set off as chain reactions, following the Christmas Eve desecration of the Cologne synagogue. Mr. Krone stated today he considered open parliamentary debate of the developments “inopportune” at this time, while Dr. Mende thought that only “mass hysteria” was involved.
The oppositionist Social Democrats, on the other hand, were pressing for parliamentary debate. Leading Social Democrats insist that Parliament must see what it can do at this time to curb anti-Semitism, and demand that the Government reveal “the complete background of the incidents, and tell what measures it has taken to intensify and improve the country’s program of political education.”
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.
