Germany, Italy Use Anti-jewish Propaganda to Check Spread of Defeatism

German and Italian newspapers reaching here today reveal increased tension both in Italy and throughout the Reich, which the governments of both countries are trying to check by intensified anti-Jewish propaganda, with the emphasis on allegations that the Jews will revenge themselves on every “Aryan” should the Axis be defeated.

In Italy this propaganda seems to have little effect upon the average Italian. Therefore the “Institute for Study of the Jewish Problem” which was established in Bologna along the same lines as similar anti-Jewish “institutes” in Germany, has just published a “documentary volume” trying to convince the Italian people that the Jews, and not Hitler and Mussolini, are responsible for the present war.

In Germany the Nazi propagandists are faced with a situation where they are forced to “explain” the cause for the sudden intensified anti-Jewish propaganda when there are practically no Jews left in the Reich. The explanations” are centered chiefly around the allegations that American and British Jews are determined to have all Germans exterminated after the war in retaliation for the Nazi annihilation of Jews.

Not a single day passes without articles in the German newspapers picturing the “Jewish danger” for Germans in case of an Axis defeat. At the same time articles are published urging the German people to pledge themselves to stricter measures against the Jews “until the Jews are completely annihilated.”

An important element in the intensified Nazi propaganda against the Jews is the fact that Fascist groups in England are still permitted to conduct anti-Jewish activities. The Nazi Ministry of Propaganda utilizes every report of anti-Semitism in England to “prove” to the German people that the campaign against Jews, which was started by Hitler, is finally spreading to the countries which are now at war with Germany.

The German newspapers also use anti-Jewish incidents in the United States. they magnify discrimination against Jews in American war industries and presented the recent race riots in Detroit as anti-Jewish rather than anti-Negro.

Speeches by American Congressmen and Senators opposing the admission of refugees from Europe are utilized by the Nazi Ministry of Propaganda to “prove” that “Jews are not wanted in the United States.” At the same time, however, the Nazi press charges that “the United States is controlled by Jews” and that American. Jews are responsible for the bombing of German cities by the Allied air forces.