Search JTA's historical archive dating back to 1923

Anti-jewish Demonstrations Flare in Berlin; Arrests Pass Thousand Mark

June 16, 1938
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
Advertisement

Anti-Jewish demonstrations flared in Berlin today as the most intensive police drive against Jews in years assumed nation-wide proportions with unverified reports placing the number of arrests since Monday at more than 1,000.

A six-pointed Jewish star and the slogan “Germans Do Not Buy from Jews” were painted on the sidewalk before a Jewish shop in Bavarian Place in Berlin’s west side. East End crowds gathered before a Jewish shop shouting: “Jews brought us into the last war and now they are bringing us into another.” A sign was carried before a Jewish shop reading: “Do not buy from this pig!”

Relatives were forbidden to bring food and money to the arrested Jews, against whom no specific charges have yet been announced.

The new developments are connected, according to observers, with the apparent belief in Nazi circles that Jews are not emigrating rapidly enough and that Jews are responsible for war scares. Observers cite an article in the recent issue of the publication of the Reich Institute for the Study of the Jewish Question, complaining that it would take 30 years for the Jews to emigrate, as indicating what is in the minds of the Nazis.

Informed observers ridicule the charge that German and Austrian Jews are fomenting war scares, or even look to war under the belief that it would mean their deliverance. Jews here realize only too clearly that they would be the first victims in the event of hostilities, for they would face prison and concentration camps for the men and extreme poverty and distress for the women and children.

Jewish children born in the Reich would automatically become stateless and without German nationality under a decree proposed by Dr. Wilhelm Stuckart, State Secretary in the Ministry of Interior, writing in the magazine of the German Academy of Justice.

“The increase of German Jewish nationals by marital and extra-marital relations cannot be tolerated in the future,” Dr. Stuckart declares. “The new citizenship law, now under revision, should provide that Jews in the future shall not be able to acquire German citizenship by legitimization or marriage.” He also proposes that the present practice of denationalizing Jewish emigres be extended to Jews still remaining in Germany.

Recommended from JTA

Advertisement