M. Henri de Kerillis discusses the question of why Germany desires to “internationalize” anti-Semitism in a long article in his newspaper L’Epoque.
The Nazis, Kerillis states, want their allies to have a common enemy with them, namely, the Jews. Secondly, anti-Semitism is a means to break the national unity of democratic countries. Thirdly, Germany regards the “assimilation” of the Jews in England, France, Holland and, to a lesser degree, in the United States as a refutation on her own doctrines of anti-Semitism.
“How is one to explain,” he asks, “the important place which a Disraeli occupied in English history? How is one to explain the fact that the American people have again end again elected Lehman as Governor of the State of New York? How is one to explain the fact that Great Britain has entrusted to Hore-Belisha the immense work of rearmament? How is one to explain the fact that the most intimate counsellor of Clemenceau and one of the most far-seeing Ministers of the present French Government is another Jew. M. Georges Mandel?
“Germany,” Kerillis continues, “regards these striking examples as well as the no less striking examples of Jewish scientists who are active in all the fields of scientific progress a veritable danger for her ideological doctrines, especially so far as an internal propaganda is concerned.
“The Nazi revolution,” he further explains, “not only attacks modern political ideas, but also the modern spiritual world. It wishes to destroy all the moral values of the Judeo-Christian civilization and it believes that the Jewish religion, in particular, is most vulnerable because of its numerical weakness and its general dispersion. To attack the Jewish religion means merely to apply the methods which served the Nazis so well in Germany, namely, the methods of destroying the weakest and the most vulnerable enemies at first.
“Anti-Semitism,” Kerillis concludes, “is nothing but a prelude to an implacable war against Catholicism and traditional Protestantism, which are hated as mush as Judaism because they are impregnated with the Biblical spirit and founded by Christ and his apostles in whose veins Jewish blood flowed.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
