The program outlined by the Chancellor, General von Schleicher, is a program also for our Jewish community in Germany, Dr. Alfred Hirschberg, Deputy Syndicus of the Central Union of German Citizens of Jewish Faith, says in a statement that has been issued here by the Central Union.
The history of the last decade has gone to show that all the troubles in political life and all the difficulties in economic life ultimately recoil with the precision of natural laws, upon us German Jews, he stated.
“A Government program that seeks to moderate the political conflicts, and to alleviate the economic distress, must result in lessening the load that is pressing down heavily on the spirit of our people, and easing the sense of gloom and bitterness that is fertile soil for the agitators of prejudice and boycott. It creates a hopeful situation, of which we must take advantage, and in which we must co-operate. A program for finding work for the mass of the German people and establishing cooperation between all sections of the German people is a program which will also help German Jewry. It seems that at last the broad front of all decent and reasonable people is being formed for which the Central Union has worked and hoped for years. The overwhelming majority of German Jews are with it heart and soul. The recognition of the common aid and the common cause, in which there will no longer be hostile groups working each against the other, must result in destroying the prejudice and incitement that has been making the life of German Jews so difficult till now,” declared Dr. Hirschberg.
“It is not for us to discuss the Chancellor’s economic and political plans in detail. It is the general tendency with which we are concerned. The combating of prejudice in employment is of the utmost importance to Jews. For in addition to the general unemployment we suffer from a specific unemployment, due to anti-Semitic discrimination. The boycott of Jewish employees and firms is ultimately the consequence of the general disruption and bitterness which has divided up our German people into hostile camps.
“A great deal has been done by the Central Union to combat the anti-Jewish boycott by taking the offenders to the law courts. The Jewish lawyers in Germany are acquainted with the files of the verdicts obtained by the Central Union, about 250 in all. But the Chancellor’s condemnation of prejudice is more important, and the movement to find work for the people is more important, for we know that the rights of equality of German Jews and our peace and security are not dependent on the strength of the police and the ability to intervene on our behalf of the soldiers of the Reichswehr. The feeling among the masses of the people is a stronger guarantee of our equality of rights than the police and the Reichswehr. We German Jews are in complete agreement with the Chancellor when he says that not boycotts but the co-operation of all the people will pull Germany out of the present troubles. And we shall be able to look forward beyond this temporary truce to a permanent period of civic peace.”
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.
