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Ex-crown Prince of Germany Hurt by Accusation That He is an Antisemite: Against Jewish Communist Lea

September 4, 1931
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About a year ago a Jewish girl staying in the same health resort used to visit his family a good deal, the German ex-Crown Prince Wilhelm told a representative of the “Wiener Journal” here in an interview, and then one day she snubbed him in the street. Afterwards she explained that her father had warned her that the Crown Prince was a notorious Jew-baiter. I was very hurt, the ex-Crown Prince said, to find that such views were held about me, and I know that there are very many other Jews who share his suspicion.

The interviewer suggested that the belief might arise from the knowledge of his association with the Steel Helm, which appears to be antisemitic. That is not altogether so, the ex-Crown Prince replied. The Nationalist elements in Germany are resisting Communism, which is led by certain Jewish Communists, and some generalise this into a struggle against all Jews. I should never lend my name to any movement which was conducting a general campaign against all Jews. I cannot understand, he went on, that the civilised world has not yet recognised the immense danger which threatens it from Eastern Europe, nor can I understand why the masses of middle class and loyal Jews in Germany, whose nationalism and loyalty is demonstrated by the fact that there are tens of thousands of members in the Union of Jewish ex-Soldiers who fought at the front, do not repudiate publicly all suspicion of any association with the anti-State groups. Your own paper, the “Wilener Journal”, is evidence how middle class Jews with national sentiments can fight together with all other Loyal citizens against Bolshevism, Marxism, and the other revolutionary movements carried on under the mask of democracy. I am too modern-thinking a man to be an antisemite. I have many Jewish friends who have my deepest esteem and whose friendship is very dear to me, the ex-Crown Prince said, adding: No one has any right to assert that I am an antisemite because I call a rogue a rogue, even if he happens to be a Jew.

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