The Reich Propaganda Ministry’s order that Jewish names are no longer to appear on German war memorials was today characterized as “inexplicable moral turpitude” by General Franz Weibstanyi von Mainprogg, distinguished Austrian veteran, in a letter to the Neues Wiener Tageblatt.
General von Mainprogg, who described himself as a “true Catholic Austrian officer and a member of an old Austrian military family,” voices doubt that the man who issued the order, Propaganda Minister Paul Joseph Goebbels, ever fought “among these insulted war comrades who fell for the Fatherland and sacrificed everything.”
“I’m appalled at such inexplicable moral turpitude,” the General writes. “I cannot believe that the originator of this shameful measure fought among these insulted war comrades who fell for the Fatherland and sacrificed everything. I’m full of horror at such a measure which kills the dead a second time and deprives their survivors of the last comfort of gratitude from a beloved Fatherland. Our old Austrian soldierly spirit must ask, Where is morality, justice, faith, gratitude and comradeship? Let the German Reichswehr, which inherited the old knightly spirit of Germany answer.”
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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.
