German Chancellor Scores Antisemitic Movement

“In certain German circles” declared the German Chancellor Marx in an exclusive interview granted the Jewish Telegraphic Agency,” there is an attempt to exploit the distress of the German people for the purpose of anti-Semitic agitation. This movement is not only unsupport by the Central Government and the various state governments, but is uncompromisingly opposed as harmful to the general interests of Germany.

“The fights of German Jewish citizens,” the Chancellor further declared, “are secured in the constitution. The Government holds fundamentally that no one may be treated differently because he is a Jew. The right of every citizen to hold public office is independent of his race or creed. Insofar as the Government is concerned there is now differentiation of citizens according to race or religion.

“With regard to the treatment of foreigners in Germany, the Government maintains the principle that Jews may not be treated differently from others.”

“My personal attitude,” Chancellor Marx concluded, “towards the Jewish question has been expressed in my letter to the Union of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith which I wrote in the year 1922 and which was circulated in the Catholic Party when I became Chancellor. We Catholics emphatically repudiate the Nationalist movement which divides the unity of the German people. There is no ground for any fear that Catholic circles will follow the anti-Semitic agitation, because Anti-Semitism is basically in contradiction to the spirit of Christianity. Jews who are faithful to their Fatherland may reckon that their campaign against anti-Semitism will be supported by the Catholic Peoples Centrum.”