Jewish Leaders Report Situation in Germany Quiet; Fear for Future

Jewish leaders returning from a tour of inspection throughout Germany informed the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that peace prevails everywhere with the exception of sporadic incidents.

They stated, however, that the future is worrying. The fear is expressed that with the gradual penetration of the Nazis into civil service and with their employment in the secretariat of the Federal government and the states and in the executive organs of the provinces, an anti-Jewish policy will be practiced.

An anti-Semite, Haupt, has been appointed Rapporteur on student questions in the Ministry of Education. The Minister of Education, Rust, has himself issued an appeal to the Christian churches to combat Bolshevism and materialism, in this fashion seeking to attack the Jews on two fronts.

Associated Press, Professor Georg Bernhard, former editor-in-chief of the “Vossische Zeitung” of Berlin and an outstanding Jewish leader, explains the basis for the widespread support Chancellor Adolph Hitler’s anti-Semitism has received.

The susceptibility of the public to Hitler’s attacks on the Jews, Professor Bernhard ascribes to provincialism.

The Jews, who constitute barely one per cent of the German population, reside in the cities and are considered foreigners and so the farmer and the small country town populations are prepared to credit everything they are told about him. In large areas of Germany, even in the towns, one finds only a few Jews, while in the country there are none at all, according to Professor Bernhard.

“Boycotting of Jewish merchants, aversion to the employment of Jewish workmen and clerks, a ruthless hatred of Jewish artisans, are added to a systematic displacement, especially in small provincial towns, of Jewish doctors and lawyers,” Dr. Bernhard declares.

“All this makes the lot of the Jewish citizen in Germany at present very hard.

“It is intolerable for those of Jewish descent and faith, those whose forebears have for centuries dwelt in Germany and of whom 12,000 gave their lives during the World War, to feel that in a thousand meetings, in a million newspapers, they are classed as inferior people, who have no right to participate in the public life of the country.

“But viewed from a higher standpoint, anti-Semitic oppression has perhaps turned out to be a boon, in that a far greater number of German Jews than ever before are becoming more mindful of their traditions and of their great past; especially that Jewish youth, is emancipating itself from the inferiority complexes of former generations.”