Between the Lines

The statement which Dr. Kurt Schuschnigg, the Austrian Chancellor, issued to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in London prior to his departure for Vienna reminds one very much of a similar statement issued by the Austrian Chancellor to Jewish leaders in Geneva several months ago. It is typical of the present policy of the Austrian Cabinet to cloak its anti-Jewish action in a mantle of smooth phrases.

Dr. Schuschnigg does not deny in his statement the fact that hundreds of Jewish doctors have been dismissed from municipal and state institutions in Austria under his regime. He tries to justify these dismissals by saying that they were necessary “in order to eliminate the Socialists.” He thus wishes to create the impression that all the dismissed Jewish doctors are radicals.

Such an explanation is not only hypocritical but it is directly anti-Semitic. To assert that several hundred Jewish doctors were dismissed because of the drive against Socialists is like Hitler’s alleging that all the Jews are Communists.

A MISLEADING EXPLANATION

Those who know the situation in Austria know very well that Schuschnigg’s explanation is, mildly speaking, very misleading. On more than one occasion Jewish leaders in Austria—leaders who are combatting Socialism just as Dr. Schuschnigg is—have protested against the epidemic dismissals of Jews in Austrian medical institutions because of their racial descent. On more than one occasion it was emphasized that the discharged Jewish doctors were being replaced by non-Jewish doctors only. More than once, the Jews have protested against the introduction of a question about the race and religion of applicants in the application blanks for government positions.

When Dr. Schuschnigg declares that the Jewish doctors in Austria have been dismissed because of Socialism and for no anti-Semitic reasons, one can easily challenge this assertion by asking why not a single Jewish doctor was employed in place of those discharged. Are there no Jewish doctors in Austria who are not Socialists?

CYNICAL ADVICE

The same hypocrisy which is noticed in Dr. Schuschnigg’s explanation about the dismissal of Jewish doctors is also noticeable in the excuse which he gives as to why the authorities in Austria do not suppress the dangerous anti-Jewish propaganda conducted and financed by the Nazis from Germany. Dr. Schuschnigg advises the Jews to combat this propaganda through their own Jewish press. “The Jews,” he says, “have a right in Austria to hold public meetings and can reply publicly to the charges made against them by anti-Jewish publications.”

This cynical advice, coming as it does from the head of the Austrian state, is worth remembering by those Jews who still believe in the possibility of reaching some kind of an understanding with the present rulers of Austria. The same Dr. Schuschnigg did not hesitate for a second to suppress the Nazi press in Austria when it was agitating for a reunion with Nazi Germany. He did not hesitate to close down Austrian newspapers which criticized the present state of affairs in Austria. But when it comes to curbing the anti-Jewish propaganda, this very same Dr. Schuschnigg directly encourages this propaganda by stating that the Jews, and not the government, should combat it.

GOOD FOR THE NAZIS

One can easily imagine how happy the Nazis in Austria will be to read Dr. Schuschnigg’s advice to the Jews to handle the Nazis all by themselves. Such advice is nothing but a definite indication that the government is actually not interested in protecting its Jewish citizens from libelous, slanderous and dangerous incitement.

Dr. Schuschnigg’s statement makes clear that there is no hope for the Jews in Austria under the present regime. A different statement would probably have been made by Dr. Schuschnigg if the Jews of the world were to adopt towards Austria the same open and outspoken method they have adopted towards Nazi Germany.