The unusually hot Summer season seems to have no effect whatsoever on the wave of anti-Jewish discrimination in Europe and especially on the anti-Jewish persecutions in Germany.
Conditions in Germany reached such a point last week that the Jewish Community in Berlin has seen itself compelled to issue an appeal to the Berlin Jews asking them to act with the utmost restraint, especially in public places and in restaurants, and not let themselves be provoked by humiliating acts of the Nazis.
In Frankfurt-am-Main, once the oldest and richest Jewish community of Germany the position of the Jews was reported as being wore than in Nuremberg, the domain of Julius Streicher. It seems that the Nazis are now concentrating their forces on driving the Jews out of Frankfurt-am-Main in every possible way, by depriving them of all civil and human rights.
ORDER ANTI-JEWISH POSTERS IN FACTORIES
To make the situation for the Jews worse an order was issued to display anti-Semitic posters in all factories and offices all over the country. In numerous provincial cities local authorities were instructed not to permit Jews to trade in the local cattle-markets.
Since a great percentage of the population in Germany is objecting to the persecution of the Jews, the Voelkischer Beobachter, the chief organ of the Nazi government has found it necessary to publish a warning that any statement by a Nazi party member to the effect that the Jews are of the white race will lead to his trial.
Similarly, the chief organ of the Nazi government warned “trustworthy Germans” not to repeat the claim that there are also decent Jews in Germany who do not deserve the mistreatment which is generally accorded to the Jewish population in the Reich.
BRITISH QUAKERS URGE HITLER TO QUIT PERSECUTION
Touched by the sufferings of the Jews in Germany, the executive committee of the Quakers of Great Britain addressed a letter to Hitler asking him to stop the anti-Jewish persecutions. The letter emphasized that Germany cannot obtain good will abroad if it continues to use coercive measures against the Jews.
A similar step was taken also by Catholic organizations in Belgium. La Libre Belge, the leading Catholic paper of Belgium, came out openly with a demand that the world-wide boycott against Germany should be sponsored by all Catholics throughout the world and until the persecutions of Jews and Catholics in Germany cease.
RENEW PROPAGANDA IN FOREIGN LANDS
Not limiting itself to anti-Jewish propaganda within Germany the Nazi government has embarked on a renewed anti-Jewish propaganda policy also for foreign countries. A group of more than 100 German agitators in Brazil were enabled by the Nazi government to proceed to Germany in order to study on the spot the various methods of anti-Jewish propaganda for the purpose of spreading it later in South American countries.
Similarly the Nazi government, which subsidizes the anti-Jewish league in Rumania, has helped effect a united front in that country between the anti-Semitic party led by Professor Goga and that led by the notorious Prof. Alexander Cuza. This union, aided by funds from Germany, will bring about an increased anti-Semitic campaign in Rumania which is the exact wish of the Nazi leaders in Germany.
ANTI-JEWISH OUTBREAKS IN POLISH UPPER SILESIA
Anti-Jewish propaganda seemed also to gain the upperhand this week in Poland. Encouraged by the fact that the Polish government is now definitely pro-Nazi, anti-Jewish elements launched attacks in the Polish part of Upper Silesia and in Pomerania, smashing the windows in many Jewish houses and shops in the town of Rybnick and calling on the population in these districts to boycott Jewish firms.
The riot in Rybnick broke out despite the assurances given by the Polish authorities. Such assurances were given to Jewish leaders immediately after the anti-Jewish excesses in Grodno, Suwalki and other places a few weeks ago.
POLISH POLICE ACCUSED OF AIDING ANTI-SEMITES
The Federation of Polish Jews in America in a memorandum addressed to the Polish Embassy in Washington definitely accused the Grodno police not only of refusing to protect the Jewish population during the excesses but even in spreading the anti-Semitic rumors which caused these excesses.
The accusations made by the Federation were based on authentic information compiled in Grodno. The charges against the Polish authorities are very grave and certainly require an explanation on the part of the Polish government.
The policy of eliminating Jews from commercial and public life, now being followed by Latvia and Lithuania, was given new impetus in these two countries when the government of Lithuania considered adoption of a plan to monopolize the entire grain trade in the country and to eliminate the Jews from trading in grain. This plan, if effected, will be a severe blow to thousands of Jews in Lithuania.
In Latvia the government liquidated the Jewish Parents Union which was one of the few Jewish organizations still permitted to exist in the country. With the liquidation of this educational organization the entire Jewish social life in Latvia is now practically dead, since even the Zionist movement is no longer permitted there.
RAY OF LIGHT FROM SOVIET
A ray of light in the dark picture of Jewish life in Europe are the reports from Soviet Russia. One report last week emphasized the shortage of labor in the Jewish colonies of Crimea. The other report disclosed that the Soviet government has assigned the enormous sum of sixty million roubles—nominally thirty million dollars—for the further development of Biro-Bidjan as an autonomous district. The money will be used for the completion of various industrial enterprises in Biro-Bidjan within the next six months.
The invitation made once by the French government to Jews to settle in Syria was repeated this week in a more outspoken form by M. Candace, the French Under-Secretary for Colonies. The spokesman of the French government emphasized that the French authorities are wiling to give the Jews wide opportunities to develop Syria along the same lines as they have developed Palestine.
BID IS RESULT OF NEGOTIATIONS
This repeated invitation is no doubt a result of the negotiations going on behind the scenes between certain Jewish groups in France and the French government for a large Jewish immigration into Syria. An expedition consisting of Jews from Germany has already made a survey in certain parts of Syria. The results of this survey were not made public. They were, however, reported to Jewish institutions in Berlin and in Paris.
While the French government is openly proclaiming its desire to see Jews immigrating into Syria, which is a French mandated territory, the British government seems to be firm in its policy of checking Jewish immigration into Palestine. At the House of Commons this week it was admitted by government officials that the system of asking tourists for bonds before giving them a visa to Palestine is applied to Jewish tourists only.
WANTS 3,000,000 JEWS IN PALESTINE
An appeal to the British government to relax its restrictions against Jewish immigration into Palestine was made by Lord Melchett who expressed a desire to see British interests protected not less than the interests of the Jews. In his appeal Lord Melchett visualized that Palestine has the potentialities of becoming an important British port next to Singapore, with a Jewish population of not less than 3,000,000 people.
Whether the prediction of Lord Melchett will ever be realized is difficult to say under the present political circumstances. Plain figures made public this week by the Jewish National Fund on the growth of the population in Palestine disclosed the startling fact that while the number of Jews in Palestine has grown from 59,000 in 1919 to 320,000 at the end of 1934, the number of non-Jews in Palestine has increased from 537,000 in 1919 to 870,000 at the end of 1934.
COMPARATIVE INCREASE RATE PROBLEM FOR CONGRESS
The problem of Jewish and Arab growth in Palestine will no doubt be one of the major problems which the Zionist Congress in Lucerne will discuss next month. Should the Arab increase math the pace of growth of the Jewish population at the height of Jewish immigration into Palestine, then the Jews may always face the danger of remaining the same minority they were twenty years ago.
The question whether the Jews will ever have a chance to become a majority in Palestine is now being openly discussed in London between leading members of the Jewish Agency and representatives of the British government. With the Palestine mandate in power for eight years more only the answer to fate of the Jewish National Home lies in whether Jews will be aided to become a majority in Palestine within this period. Should such help not be forthcoming before the Mandate terminates no one can foretell the terms under which the Mandate may be renewed or whether it will be re-
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
