Digest of World Press Opinion

The Morning Post of London publishes the following sarcastic editorial under the title, “Cooking the Books”:

Herr Rosenberg is losing his nerve. As Commissioner for Infusing Education with Nazi Bias (a rough translation of his office), he started by commanding German history to be remodeled and rewritten; but in ordering the school child’s literary diet, he boggles. The new primer for young readers of the Third Reich contains one notable weakness— “The Lorelei,” by an author who, though he adopted the Protestant religion and fought duels with almost Nordic ferocity, was indisputably a Jew.

Naturally, Herr Rosenberg has suppressed Heine’s name, and the poem is attributed to “An Unknown Author”; yet this is mere compromise, a half-measure where boldness would have been best. If lines so popular must be included, why not entitle them “By Hitler”? Surely a Leader who is the sum of German genius past and present might have made this little thing his own?

RESPONSIBILITY FOR JEWISH LEADERSHIP

Under the heading, “The Responsibility of American Jewry,” the American Jewish Outlook of Pittsburgh publishes the following editorial:

In all our wanderings we Jews have always looked to the countries of our birth for religious guidance, for decisions in matter of observance, and for our supply of Rabbanim, Chazanim, and Schochtim (Rabbis, Cantors and those highly educated leaders versed in the slaughter of animals according to Jewish law). After the Babylonian Exile, Jewry still looked to Judea even though the Babylonian Jew was rich and well-learned. When Babylonia declined and the center of Jewry moved to Europe the same attitude was maintained towards Babylonia. And when the Jews moved eastward, they leaned on the countries of Spain and France.

Fortunately Spain, France, and Western Europe, in turn, were prepared when the responsibility was forced on them. And now American Jewry which up until the present has looked to Europe for religious inspiration and guidance, must stand on its own feet and take up the load of Jewish survival. All that we need is confidence in ourselves.

THE ONE YEAR CLAUSE IN THE SAAR DEAL

The Scotsman, a daily newspaper published in Edinburgh, publishes the following on the problem of the Jews in the Saar:

The news from Geneva regarding the developments in connection with the forthcoming Saar plebiscite will be welcomed by all lovers of peace, as an indication that a more reasonable spirit is beginning to prevail in the relations between Germany and France, and that there is less cause for uneasiness regarding the European outlook generally than there has been for a long time.

There is, however, one aspect of the reported agreement as to the treatment of the Saar inhabitants after the plebiscite, in the event of that territory returning to Germany, that is bound to fill many hearts with a feeling of sadness and even dismay. It is the announcement that “the German government undertakes not to apply the Aryan’ laws in the Saar for at least one year,” which means that after the lapse of a year from the return of the Saar to Germany, the Nazi government will be at liberty to deprive the Jewish inhabitants of that province of their citizen rights, to take away their livelihood, and to inflict upon them the same degradation and humiliation as have been inflicted on the Jews of the rest of the Reich. It sounds incredible that such a concession to Nazi hatred and fanaticism could have been made in the Rome agreement, and that the Council of the League of Nations should be expected to sanction it.