Actors Balk at Edict by Dr. Goebbels

A revolutionary act against Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda, was carried out today by the German Actors Club here, which had been instructed by Dr. Goebbels to dismiss all its “non-Aryan” members.

Rather than obey the Goebbels order, the executive of the Actors-Club decided to close the club altogether.

This courageous decision is the first open demonstration by an important organization in Germany against the anti-Jewish persecution in the country. Dissatisfaction with the anti-Jewish discriminations has been growing continually among the German population here but no institution has until now dared to given open expression to this feeling of resentment.

ACTORS HARD HIT

The Actors Union in Germany has especially suffered since the advent of the Nazi regime despite the fact that many “Aryan” actors received better opportunities for employment because of the elimination of the Jewish actors. This elimination has resulted in the closing of many theatres and in a sharp decline in the theatrical life of the country. Unemployment among “Aryan” artists has therefore grown despite the fact that they no longer have Jewish competitors.

The Voelkischer Beobachter, Hitler’s chief organ, is now making a study of the question whether Jews are dying out in Germany.

“Our past censuses,” the paper writes, “unfortunately give no real picture of the numbers of the Jewish race in Germany, because they deal only with those Jews who describe themselves on the census sheet as belonging to the Mosaic faith.

“These Israelites,” the paper continues, “numbered 564,379 in 1925 and 499,682 in 1935. The conclusion was therefore drawn that during these ten years there was a decline of 64,697 Jews in Germany, partly as the result of emigration and