Austria Charged with Race Drive

criminatory acts by the Austrian government.

The memorandum was submitted to Minister Prochnik over the signature of Bernard S. Deutsch, president. It was drawn up in response to a request by the Austrian Minister following a conference at Washington on November 22 between him and a delegation from the American Jewish Congress. The delegation, comprising Dr. Stephen S. Wise, Prof. Horace M. Kallen, Dr. Samuel Margoshes, Nathan D. Perlman and Dr. Joshua L. Goldberg, expressed the “deep concern of the officers and members of the American Jewish Congress over the increasing disabilities imposed upon the Jewish citizens of Austria” and asked the Minister to transmit its message to his government in Vienna. Minister Prochnik has promised the American Jewish Congress to submit its memorandum to his government.

Austria, the memorandum charges, is countenancing a “moral anschluss” with Nazi Germany in relation to the Jewish population while at the same time offering statements to foreign opinion which are in direct contradiction to the facts within the country.

“The record,” the memorandum points out, “forces us to the painful conclusion that while the Nazi party has been outlawed in Austria, its ideology, notably its emphasis on ‘Aryan purity’ has rooted itself deep among Austrian groups with the concurrence of governmental authority.”

Analyzing this record, the American Jewish Congress finds itself forced to the “reluctant but indeed inescapable conclusion that anti-Semitism in Austria is fostered by decree; supported by the highest officials of the land; openly propagagated by the organs of the government and by its party adherents.”

FOLLOW NAZI PATTERN

“Merely because they are Jews,” the memorandum continues, “Jewish citizens of Austria have been and are being driven from the practice of the liberal professions; are being expelled from employment in government agencies; are being denied credits, are being excluded from membership in labor unions and in general are being deprived of the bare opportunity to earn a living. Jewish children are being segregated in the schools; books by Jewish authors are being banned in Austrian libraries; Jewish religious institutions are being deprived of the subsidies properly due them. The anti-scientific and irreligious myth of ‘Aryan’ descent is being applied as a test of fitness of men and women to practice their professions and of their right to earn a livelihood.” This policy, the American Jewish Congress declares, is being pursued by the Austrian government in direct contravention of Articles 62, 64, 66, 67 and 69 of Part Three of the Treaty of St. Germain.

Article 62 of that treaty, the memorandum points out, pledges Austria to see that “the stipulations contained in this section shall be recognized as fundamental laws and that no law, regulation or official action shall conflict with these stipulations, nor shall any law, regulation or official action prevail over them.”

SUBJECT TO LEAGUE REVIEW

Specific provision is made in Articles 66 and 67 that Austrian nationals who belong to racial, religious or linguistic minorities shall enjoy the same treaty and security as other nationals and shall not have their civil or political rights, their admission, to public employments, or the exercise of professions an industries, prejudiced.

Jews were to be found in Virginia as early as 1624.