At the very outset of the boycott activity in the United States we declared that the movement would be slow in gaining momentum and that it would reach its real effectiveness in 1934. This prognosis is being vindicated by the latest reports which have come out of Germany. Under date of February 17th, there appeared in the New York Times the following report from Berlin:
“For the first time in four years Germany wrote her balance of trade in red ink yesterday when it was revealed that in January her exports had slumped below her imports by 31,200,000 marks.
“German exports amounted to 349,600,000 marks in Jenuary. against 423,800,000 marks in December, This represents a drop of 74,000,000 marks, or 17.5 per cent in value. While in quantity the shrinkage reached 18.6 per cent.
“The United States, Great Britain, France, holland and Switzerland have reported the largest drops in their imports from Germany.”
The Nazis who have heretofore been inclined to ignore the boycott have finally been forced to acknowledge it. The responsibility for the sharp drop in exports is officially laid to the boycott-where, of course, it properly belongs. The economic pressure of the world upon the Reich which had boasted that it was indifferent to the world’s opinion is beginning to tell with crushing effect and the nazis have begun to whine and treaten. Said Hugenberg’s paper, the Lokal Anzeiger: “If at the new Transfer Conference in April the Reichsbank finds itself forced to suspend debt payments entirely, the creditors will know where the reponsibility rests” … Certainly upon the heads of those whose brutal acts of persecutions have driven the civilized world to retaliate with the weapon which is still left in the hands of free people-the boycott. Germany’s to shock even the Nazis will increase in seriousness from month to month.
There will be no let-up until human rights are again established in the Reich and the infamous medieval laws are erased from its statute books.
Some responsible Jews have been talking recently about the failure of the boycott in the united States. Some editorials have even appeared in the Anglo-Jewish press to that effect. This is defeatism and sabotage of the worst sort. Such falsehood, even if not deliberate, tends to undermine our morale and gives aid and comfort to the enemy.
The Jewish situation in Austra has become dangerously poised. Anything might push the Austrian Jewish communites over into the abyss. If, in the next few months, the Austrian government will witness the growing demoralization of Germany’s economic life resulting from the world-wide boycott, its leaders will hesitate long before they to Hitler’s ruinous racial policies. It is therefore, of utmost importance at this critical juncture to prosecute the boycott with the utmost rigor.
We again appeal o every friend of freedom and justice, Jew and non-Jew not to buy German merchandise.
We again appeal to every importer and merchant not to buy German products.
We again appeal to every traveler not to travel on German steamshlps. No trading with the enemy.
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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.
