The agreement between the French and the German governments which provides “equality” for the Jews in the Saar for the limited period of one year is nothing but a betrayal of the Jews by the French government.
This agreement is another proof that when it comes to international interests the Jews are used merely as a tool in the hands of one government against the other.
It was the French government which stimulated various Jewish groups to send memorandums to the League of Nations asking that the Saar should not be turned over to Germany unless Jewish equality is fully guaranteed there. It was the French Foreign Office that wanted to see as many Jewish petitions to the League as possible.
JEWS SOLD OUT
The Jews were used by the French government as a medium to create more sentiment against turning the Saar over to Germany. In exchange the French government promised the Jewish leaders that everything would be done to protect the Jews in the Saar.
What has happened to this promise now?
As soon as Germany agreed to pay sixty million dollars compensation to France for the French mines in the Saar, the Jewish interest were practically sold out by the French. A bargain was struck to leave the Jews in the Saar for another year on their present status. What will happen to them after the year is over nobody seems to care.
FRENCH GUILTY CONSCIENCE
This shameful betrayal is in itself an acknowledgement that the French government had serious obligations towards the Jews. The paragraph providing equality for the Jews for one year is a perfect reflection of the French guilty conscience.
It can be stated unequivocally that if not for the Jewish issue the French government would not have had much chance to obtain even the sixty million dollars which she is to get from Germany for its share in the Saar. Of all the issues which France was ready to raise against Germany with regard to the Saar, the problem of Jewish minority rights was to be the strongest.
A LESSON FOR JEWISH LEADERS
The bargain which France has now struck with Germany at the expense of the Jews will no doubt serve as a lesson to those who are conducting Jewish politics. It will teach them to be more diplomatic in the future and not to sell Jewish interests for a pot of lentils.
As to the assurances given by the representative of the League of Nations that “there is no ground for excessive pessimism concerning the fate of Saar Jewry,” it can only be stated that this assurance simply emphasizes that when the year is over, the Jews in the Saar will face a situation which warrants pessimism even though not “excessive.”
The League of Nations, like the French government, has not justified the hopes laid upon them by world Jewry. Their action has only proven that the interests of national minorities count very little nowadays when it comes to “big business.” It is not for nothing that many countries in Europe are now considering their national minority obligations mere scraps of paper.
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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.
