“What will become of Germany when all the Jews are gone?” his German neighbors, who had the example of Spain in mind, pleaded with a Jewish business man, now here with his wife and daughter, also German-born, when he told them he was leaving for America because he was unable to carry on business in Germany. They left Germany a month ago.
“They tried to dissuade me from going. They pleaded. I am positive they didn’t want us to go,” he said in relating his story, and asked that all names be withheld, since relatives still live in Germany and would be made to suffer by the Nazis if they discover a truthful picture of what is actually going on there, was released through him.
“We were allowed to spend our money there, but were denied the privilege of earning a livlihood. I heard Goebbels, one of Hitler’s madmen, say: ‘We will treat the Jews like a flower . . . we will simply shut off the water.’ And that is just what they are doing. They are making it impossible absolutely for a Jew to earn a living,” he said.
“From the beginning both the government and the people wanted to see the country rid of Jews. What is happening today makes me believe that this is still true of the government, but not of the German in the street.”
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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.
