All Jewish houses in Berlin and throughout the country were conspicuously marked off today, when they alone were prevented from displaying the German flag on the occasion of Hindenburg Day.
Throughout Germany every German house displayed the Nazi swastika flag, recently proclaimed the official flag of the Third Reich. Though the Nuremberg law permits the Jews to display their own national colors, no Jewish house in Berlin, not even the headquarters of the Zionist Organization, dared display the blue-white flag. Jewish leaders pointed out that the new law definitely promises to protect the Jewish flag but makes no mention of the Zionist colors. The blue-white flag is the standard of the Zionist movement.
Today’s display of banners practically exposed every Jewish house to danger, because Jewish homes are now easily recognizable.
Nor was the atmosphere lacking in tenseness. Provocative anti-Jewish pogrom articles, declaring the Jews responsible for the recent subway tunnel explosion near the Brandenburg Gate, were featured today with banner heads on the first pages of the Voelkischer Beobachter, Hitler’s personal organ, and Der Schwarzkorps, organ of Hitler’s personal bodyguard.
These papers state that the company responsible for building the new subway is backed by Jewish capital. Despite the fact that the Berlin Chamber of Commerce officially confirmed in 1933 that the firm is ‘Aryan’, it still is financed by Jews,” the papers allege. They therefore come to the conclusion that “Jews are in the background of the subway explosion which so tragically took the lives of nineteen working comrades.”
The papers demand that the authorities start a new investigation “to fix the guilt of Jews responsible for the explosion.”
The Schwarzekorps also reports from Geroda, that anti-Jewish disturbances there today resulted in the arrest of a Jewish cattle-dealer.
The disturbances were started by local peasants “because the Jewish dealer betrayed them,” the paper alleges.
Addressing a Nazi mass meeting in Hanover, Julius Streicher, most rabid Jew-baiter in Germany, today stated that the day when the Nuremberg laws were proclaimed was “the happiest day of my life.”
“Those laws,” the Stuermer publisher declared, “are nothing but a repetition of similar orders given the Jews by Moses and the prophet Ezra.”
Streicher bitterly attacked the mayor of Hanover who prohibited a display of the anti-Semitic Stuermer placards in the municipality. The mayor had also declared that the Stuermer was nothing but a private business enterprise of Streicher’s, “who is utilizing anti-Jewish propaganda for personal profit.”
Leipzig police today announced that any Jewish man and “Aryan” girl arrested for “race pollution” will have their photographs displayed in the Rogue’s Gallery at police headquarters in order “to protect the public from criminal behavior.”
Although the details of the Nuremberg flag law were issued by the Minister of the Interior last night, the details of the citizenship laws have not as yet been announced.
The German Jurists’ Gazette today says “the new citizenship law requires the special attention of jurists because it decides what is public order, good manners and social status, and will serve as the basis for the entire German jurisprudence.”
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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.