A campaign has been opened by members of the Federation of Jewish ex-soldiers in Germany who are going about the country addressing meetings in the Hitlerist centres, explaining to the population the facts about the participation of the German Jews in the life of the country.
Most of the campaign speakers are men who were wounded in battle, and they select places where the Nazis have obtained control. They concentrate on the smaller towns and the country districts where the feeling is overwhelmingly Hitlerist.
One Jewish disabled ex-serviceman, Werner Schlesinger, reports in the “Schild”, the official organ of the Federation, that he has been given a good hearing in a town where 70 per cent. of the population are members of the Nazi Party, and 20 per cent. are members of the Steel Helm Brigade. There were 350 people present, and in the discussion which followed one of the local leaders of the Steel Helm said he felt more kinship with a wounded Jewish front-fighter than with some of the speakers of Nationalist Parties, who had never been out at the front.
Another Jewish ex-soldier, Dr. Ludwig Freund, spoke at Castellaun, at a meeting attended by 500 members of the Nazi Party and the Steel Helm Brigade, and at the end of his speech he was loudly applauded.
Dr. Freund spoke at a similar gathering of 400 Nazis and Steel Helm Brigaders at Neiwied, and he was invited to come again and repeat his address at a larger gathering.
At Coblenz Dr. Freund addressed a gathering of over 500 people, members of the Nazi Party, the Steel Helm Brigade and other Parties of the Right, and he received a good hearing and considerable support.
Even the local Nazi organ, the “Coblenzer Nationblatt” writes that Dr. Freund has put the Jewish question in a light which it had not previously seen. Other papers of the Right pay tribute to the attitude of “these patriotic German Jews”.
The “Rheinische “arte” writes: The antisemites who attended Dr. Freund’s lectures had to admit that they were in the wrong, and some of them hung their heads in shame. Dr. Freund’s reasoned speech, full of devotion and patriotism to our country, stood out in marked contrast to the wild and inflammatory mob utterances of the fanatical enemies of the Jews, It was a welcome bit of political education.
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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.
