A complete review of the present legal, economic and spiritual position of the Jews in Germany under the Nazi regime is given in the Manchester Guardian by a special correspondent sent to Germany to investigate the Jewish situation.
“The Nazi policy towards the Jews,” this correspondent writes, “may be summed up by saying that it is an attempt to replace them in the position they occupied in Europe before the French Revolution. While medieval conditions are to be reimposed, with certain modifications, there has been no serious suggestion that the Jews wear a distinctive dress.
STILL HAVE VOTE
“The Jews still possess the right to vote, but as there are no elections this is a privilege of doubtful value.
“Jews are not compelled to live in certain districts or specific localities, but they can be said to enjoy the right of residence wherever they please. Several seaside resorts advertise that they do not desire Jewish guests, and notices are to be found in many villages saying that Jews enter at their own risk. As a result of conditions in the smaller provincial towns and villages there has been for some time a steady migration to the cities, and especially to Berlin.
OWN PROPERTY
“Jews may still own property, but it has been pointed out that there is no statutory bar to their expropriation at any moment if the interests of the State demand it.
“Jews are regarded as foreigners, and children at school are taught that it is a disgrace for German soil to be owned by Jews.
“Only so far as trade and industry are concerned have the Jews the right to compete on equal footing, and here only in those branches where there is neither State nor Municipal control.
“As is well known, the ‘Aryan paragraph’ has been introduced into the army and navy as well as into the Civil Service. German Jews are therefore debarred from serving their country in any official capacity whatsoever.”
ON JEWISH REACTION
“It is not easy,” says the correspondent, “to answer the question: How have the Jews themselves reacted to this policy of segregation?
“The small extremely orthodox section living entirely in a Jewish milieu, regarding their secular interests as of infinitely less importance than the pursuit of Jewish learning, have been sheltered from the storm.
“They do not feel exclusion from the common life because they never shared it.
“WE TOLD YOU SO”
“More numerous than this group, but still only a minority, are those Jews who have always emphasized the racial rather than the religious connection. They have had the mournful satisfaction of being able to say, ‘We told you so’ and ‘What we always said about the impossibility of a Jew being a German, only differing from his fellow-citizens in his religious belief, has proved to be true.’
“But the majority of the German Jews argue in this way: ‘Under present circumstances it is futile to stress differences of opinion. Those of us who believe that Palestine provides the ultimate and best solution of the Jewish problems must recognize the need to create possibilities of existence for those who remain in Germany. Those of us who believe that, despite all that occurred and may still occur, Germany remains our home must recognize that Palestine alone provides an opportunity for those who desire or are forced to emigrate.’ “
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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.
