Defying the Nazi threat of reprisals, once he returns to Germany, Dr. Lion Feuchtwanger, the distinguished German novelist, sailed for Germany yesterday on the “Aquitania” after an ex-###nded lecture tour in this country.
In a statement issued to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency prior to his departure, Dr. Feuchtwanger explained that he was returning to Germany against the advice of friends because “Germany needs her intellectuals. We must defend the country against the literary mode of Hitler. I am not afraid to go to Germany. I don’t think I will be imprisoned for literary criticism.”
He urged American Jewry to express its sense of solidarity with German Jewry in this hour of crisis.
He expressed the view that a large protest demonstration, joined in by all groups of American Jewry, would prove effective in halting the Hitler terroristic tactics against German Jewry.
Referring again to Adolph Hitler’s book “My Struggle,” the original criticism of which aroused the ire of the Nazi press, Dr. Feuchtwanger stated: “I am disappointed that Germany has such a bad writer for Chancellor. But one thing I will say of the book—the speeches of the characters are much better than Hitler’s speeches.”
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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.