Jews’ Change Blocked by Nazi Heads

Blocking all attempts on the part of German Jews to readjust themselves by training for agriculture and artisanship seems to have become a definite policy of the Nazi government. This policy is being carried out by local Nazi authorities all over Germany, judging from numerous reports reaching the Jewish Telegraphic Agency from various sections of the country.

In Rhineland, seventy farmers were called together by local Nazi authorities and told to dismiss immediately all Jewish youths being trained on their farms. A Jewish landowner, Max Meinigen, in Hegenow in the province of Mecklenburg, was taken into “protective arrest” by the secret police because he had employed Jewish youths.

The Chambers of Agriculture in Brandenburg and in the Berlin region were ordered to admit “Aryans” only for training on the soil. In Sommerfeld, Prussia, a town of 11,000, about thirty training centers for Jewish youths, established recently with the consent of the German government, were summarily closed today by the local authorities. In Giessen, Hesse, peasants were threatened with boycott by the authorities if they did not at once dismiss all Jewish youths being trained on their farms. In numerous other places peasants who are war veterans were warned that they would be deprived of their war pensions if they employed Jewish youths.

Following a campaign begun some time ago by the West Deutscher Beobachter against Jews on the land and the attempt of Jewish youths to train themselves for new occupations, local Nazi groups as well as the authorities, who in most cases lead both the Nazi party and the local administrations brought pressure on the peasants to dismiss all Jews on the farms. The Beobachter declared “German soil is only for Germans.” Meetings of peasants were convoked by local authorities and they were required to pledge that they would not employ Jews. Artisan groups were also called into meeting and asked to give the same pledge. Even Jewish artisans were informed that if they employed Jewish apprentices materials for their work would be denied them.

TRY TO TURN JEWS TO SOIL

German Jewish leaders and German Jewish organizations have been trying since the advent of the Nazi regime to turn Jewish youth from the professions to other occupations, such as agriculture and artisanship. An organization was recently formed for this purpose having the backing of practically every Jewish organization in Germany. The Nazi government permitted the formation of the group and ordered local authorities to permit Jewish artisans to work and to be allowed to employ Jewish apprentices. Orders were also issued permitting Jewish youths to enter artisanship. From the beginning the movement met the strenuous opposition of the Nazi party. From the Munich Brown House headquarters orders were issued to fight the Jewish movement in this field. Dismissals of Jewish youths from agriculture began about a week ago with the abrupt dismissal of forty Jewish boys from farms on which they were being trained. They were fired even in cases where they promised to leave Germany for Palestine or Argentina at the expiration of their training period. Since then the campaign gathered momentum, with a central direction obvious in the wholesale dismissals all over Germany.