Reports reaching here from all parts of the Reich reveal today that the anti-Jewish boycott against which Minister of Economics Schmitt has repeatedly protested as endangering the German economic structure, is once again assuming tremendous proportions as newspapers throughout the country continue a virulent propaganda campaign against Jews in trades and industries.
The campaign of the press has been directed particularly with regard to the Christmas holiday trade and has been aimed at forcing the entire holiday market into non-Jewish hands. It is not restricted to holiday shopping, however, but to a strict observance of the tacit boycott of the Jews.
Newspapers in Dortmund, Stettin, Dresden, Cologne and other important cities have taken up the boycott cause in full strength and are actively fostering a boycott spirit.
Even in Berlin, where the press is more circumspect because of the likelihood of its statements gaining circulation abroad, newspapers have joined in this campaign.
The Deutsche Wochenschrift of Berlin, in a warning against making purchases from Jewish merchants, stresses the necessity of squeezing Jews out of the economic system of the country “thoroughly though silently” in order not to provoke sympathy for the Jews in circles abroad.
“Hitler never ordered us to buy from Jews,” declares the Mittel-schlesische Geburgzeitung, which is published at Waldenburg, in Silesia, in an article urging its readers to disregard Dr. Schmitt’s anti-boycott decrees. The paper singles out as the target for its attack the Walden-burg department store owned by Herr Schoken, a Zionist leader. In urging its readers not to patronize the store the paper takes notice of the fact that 2,000 Christian employees there might lose their positions if the store were compelled to close. “Such arguments are not wanted,” the paper states.
This drive against the Jews follows the formal ban on Jews engaging in Christmas or Easter business or making any effort to obtain the extra business attendant on these holidays. It also follows numerous decrees and pleas by the Ministry of Economics for an end to the Jewish boycott because its success would cause grave damage to the Nazi economic program.
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