The German Jews today were in a state of panic following Reichsfuehrer Hitler’s address hinting that reprisals would be taken against them for the assassination of Wilhelm Gustloff, Swiss Nazi leader, by a Yugoslavian Jew.
Many Jewish merchants cancelled orders for Spring merchandise because of the doubts prevailing about their fate in coming months.
Reports from the provinces disclosed that Jews all over the country are expressing fears that drastic measures will be taken against them after visitors to the Olympic games have departed.
Offices of Jewish emigration organizations were overcrowded with new applicants seeking information about possibilities of migration, particularly the Hilfsverein der Juden in Deutschland, Jewish relief organization, which aids emigration to Central and South America.
In foreign diplomatic circles the opinion was expressed that only the insistence of public opinion abroad that the German Jews were not to blame for the assassination could check a strong anti-Jewish drive if such a drive was forecast by Hitler’s speech at the Gustloff funeral.
Jews here described their feeling as “living stop a volcano which may erupt momentarily.”
Ludwig Sandberg, seventy-two-year old attorney, honorary citizen of the town of Eberswalde, committed suicide today after indicating that he was unable to bear “the stigma of degradation attached to a Jew under the Third Reich.”
In Hanau, a Jewish drygoods merchant was sentenced to three weeks in jail, charged with having told a customer that a Nazi commissioner patronized his shop.
The police chief of Ulm in Wuerttemberg prohibited Jews from using the familiar pronoun “du” in addressing “Aryans.”
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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.
