Between the Lines

The anti-Jewish bloody events which took place Monday evening on Kurfuerstendamm, in the very heart of Berlin, indicate that there is no hope whatsoever for the Jews in Germany and that the Nazi government has definitely decided to use terror in order to compel the Jews out of the country.

Attacks on Jews are not new in Germany of today. They are, however, new on Kurfuerstendamm. Fearing foreign observers who frequent this section of Berlin, the Nazi authorities were especially keen on avoiding anything that resembled disturbances in the vicinity of Kurfuerstendwamm. They did not mind Jews being attacked in Nuremberg, Munich, in Frankfurt-am-Main and in the smaller provincial citiesc where foreign visitors are rare. They did not, however, want to see any such attacks in Berlin, and, particularly, in the Kurfuerstendamm section of Ber-Kurfuerstendamm section of Berlin.

PUBLIC OPINION SCORNED

The anti-Jewish pogrom Monday evening, which was tolerated by the police and which carried all the marks of an organized affair, shows that the Nazi authorities have now made a step further in their plans to make life miserable for the Jews in Germany. Apparently encouraged by the concessions which they recently obtained to increase their army and navy, the Nazi government does not care any longer for public opinion abroad. Hence, it is no longer interested in what foreign visitors may see in Berlin and may relate later abroad.

The cafe houses attacked by the Nazis on Kurfuerstendamm on Monday evening are all Jewish enterprises, patronized by Jews only. It is in these cafes that the Jews of Berlin sit in the company of other Jews, since they are isolated from keeping company with their former non-Jewish friends. These cafes have long been termed even by Nazis as “ghetto cafes.” They have long been avoided by “Aryans,” for the Nazi press has more than once classified them as “Jewish cafes” which are visited by Jews and foreigners only.

Monday’s attacks are, therefore, an indication that the Nazis wish to drive the Jews not only into ghettos, but altogether out of sight of public places in Berlin. Not being able to get rid of them at once, they wish to see them confined to their homes and totally isolated from the rest of the population.

TERROR INCREASES

It is in line with this wish that the Nazi youth organizations only a few days ago warned the Jews in Berlin not to appear in the streets after ten o’clock in the evening. It is also in compliance with this wish that the Jewish community of Berlin has issued an appeal to the Jewish population to abstain from frequenting public places.

German Jewry, which has hitherto suffered legal and economic persecutions, is now on the way to suffer from physical terror. The Nazi government has embarked on the course of stimulating anti-Jewish terror openly and without any hesitation. It seems that the Streicher spirit has gained the upper hand in the Nazi government circles, and that those who were urging moderation in the anti-Jewish treatment have lost their battle. Germany Jewry has gone through many dark months since the Nazis came to power, but it seems that darker months are now ahead of them.