Letters Reveal Graphic Tale of One German Jew’s Plight

The following story, presented mainly in the form of documents, depicts the unfortunate plight of one German Jew in America. It is of interest because its implications embrace most of the German Jews here. They are caught in the cross-fire of Nazi and anti-Nazi guns.

Because he has relatives remaining in Germany it is impossible to identify the principal character of the story, and because he might easily be traced by too specific reference, the names of other characters in the story must also be kept secret.

The German Jew, hence, will be called Levy. He is descended from an outstanding German family. His grandfather was one of the first German Jews to receive the Iron Cross First Class for valor in battle, and served as personal dentist to the Kaiser and the Hohenzollern family. He was recognized as one of the foremost dentists of his day.

FATHER ATTENDED ROYALTY

Levy’s father was a renowned Jewish professor and dentist, and many of his medical books are considered as among the most authoritative in their field.

Levy’s brother earned the Iron Cross First Class and seven other decoration during four and one half years’ active service on the front in the World War. He has received additional honors in private life, but this can not be mentioned here for fear of jeopardizing his safety.

At the outbreak of the World War, Levy, then a merchant in Vancouver, B.C., was arrested as a German spy and interned for the duration of the war in numerous Canadian concentration camps. He refused to work in Canadian munitions plants as did so many other interned workmen, and to this day his sentiment toward the German people has not been shaken, although he can in no wise be regarded as a pro-Hitlerite. Adept at languages, he served a large concern for many years as interpreter. His faithful service was rewarded by the concern, when it gave him the agency for a German glove factory in this country.

Four years ago Levy brought into partnership a German Catholic, Schultz, who had failed in his own trade, and without requiring investment on the latter’s part offered him half of the business, which was by that time highly successful. Levy secured financial backing from one of New York’s largest factors. The business prospered. The partners decided it was unnecessary to sign a contract or agreement between themselves. They designed the type of glove that appealed to America, and largely on the merit of their design the German factory, which will be called here Schmidt’s, succeeded in business.

PLEASED AT BIG ORDERS

On May 5, 1931, a year after Levy had taken over the agency, Schmidt’s factory in Germany wrote him:

On June 9, 1931, Schmidt’s wrote: “Because of the highly satisfactory business you are sending us, we have decided to visit you this summer. Please let us know if you can come to the Europa to meet Mr. Schmidt. He does not speak English.”

On June 29, 1931, the factory again wrote: “First of all, we must tell you, my dear Mr. Levy, that we can not ship immediately the tremendous amount of gloves you have already sold and those which you have booked for future sales.”

Again on January 13, 1932, “We are extremely happy that we have received such wonderful orders through you from the-Company in New York. We will do our utmost to serve this eminent firm propmptly.”

Again on May 2, 1932-“We are extremely happy that you have sold such enormous quantities of our new fabrics. However, we are a little worried, because it takes a really great capital to finance the business you sent us. We will try our best to arrange credit facilities with the British yarn people as well as with a local dyeing plant.”

PARTNER ALSO PROSPERS

And so on, and so on. Both Levy and Schmidt, who, incidentally, had told Levy on his visit to New York that he entertained no bias against the Jews, profited from their business relations. Schultz, Levy’s partner, also prospered to the same extent as his senior partner. The business grew until March, 1933.

In March the dollar tumbled. At the same time the effects of America’s anti-Nazi boycott was beginning to be felt. Old patrons refused to buy German goods. Levy’s friends in the retail trade, and they were legion from the best houses here and throughout the country, refused to buy goods. They refused either because they objected to Hitler’s policies towards labor, Jewry, the order of Free Masons, the Lutheran or Catholic churches, or because of a thousand and one other grievances they entertained against Hitler’s Germany. The entire export trade from Germany tottered for a few months and then collapsed.

Meanwhile Levy frantically warned his German concern to close the watertight doors and prepare for the worst. He said he had been trying desperately to dispose of the goods on hand, but the boycott not only made impossible their sale a at fair price but also made difficult their disposal at any figure at all. In the manner of a great majority of Germans, the Schmidts in German mans, the Schmidts in Germany became converted to Nazi philosophies.

On the morning of October 30, 1933, they wrote to Levy, and said in part: “We received your discouraging letters of October 20, and we have no words to explain our feelings. We have lost all our courage and have buried our hopes. We are convinced that there is no more possibility to do business with America. Before the terrible hate against our innocent German Fatherland has died out years may elapse, and naturally we can not survive that long. The people who have started the hate over there must be enemies and criminals and not human beings, and they have no kultur as do other people.

DENY JEWS WERE SLAIN

“It was a great act of our chancellor when he turned his back to the League of Nations because he did not want the beloved German nation to play the servant to other nations.

“You know damn well that no Jew and no Catholic in Germany was killed and that all the people who left Germany are crooks, whose only goal was t orob and steal from our German people. No nation protested when tens of thousands were decapitated in the French Revolution or millions shot down in the Russian revolution. We only wish that Bolshevism will become as menacing in America as it was in Germany. In your country, too, the hour will come when the question will be, ‘Who is to be master###’

“In consideration of the economic war being fought with us, we ask you to send back all merchandise. There is nothing left for you but to look for another connection. On the whole you are of course, absolutely innocent, and you, like we, have become victims of hate.”

On the afternoon of October 30, Schmidt appended to his leter a other note, which said in part: “We must tell you something very disagreeable. We have just been at the offices of the Saxon Glove Manufacturers Association and have drawn on the legal advice of that society. When we told the Nazi lawyer what you have written about the boycott, he simply laughed and told us this is one of your fairy tales, and that your letters are full of lies. You must have run around in New York like a blind man, because you don’t know the true conditions. He said that no doubt you are such an enemy of Germany that your sole wish is to crush us.

BLAME U.S. ‘RED PAPERS’

“The lawyer gave us written proofs in which were printed statements that fourteen American importers have given their word to the German Government to buy until the end of 1933 about 700,000 dozen pairs of fabric gloves totalling 5,000,000 marks. This, therefore, is entirely different from the description you gave us of conditions.

“What we write is pure truth and it is entirely different from the newspaper clippings you send us. What the red papers in your country decide doesn’t amount to anything. We believe you are absolutely not interested in the sale of our gloves, otherwise you would be able to sell the paltry 7,000 dozen. Therefore, we shall look for another man. We thought our business was in the very best of hands but now we know better. All our competitors are working day and night, and we sit here idle. During the last two years more gloves were sent to America than at any other time. It is a sign that you are now idle.”

On November 6, 1933, Schmidt again wrote in part: “Your last letter of October 20, in which you wrote that you would have trouble even giving away your gloves, has given us a death blow. You always write to us that we can not know anything because our press is gagged. The same applies to your press, because it never writes the truth about Germany-only terrible hate and lies. If you wouldn’t be so impressed with your lying press-which one should hardly expect from such a highly educated man and, on top of it, such a distinguished German-then you wouldn’t believe all the lies in those newspapers. But it seems that you are in the camp of our enemies and are doing nothing to fight against our economic defeat.

‘MORE A JEW THAN EVER’

“Our big mistake was that we always co-operated with you. This has cost our neck, and we sit here finished. Because you do not suffer financially, it doesn’t make any difference to you how your manufacturer makes a living. Every year 1,800,000 dozen pairs of cotton gloves go to America. It is possible that there were somewhat less this year, but it is ridiculous that you are unable to sell the few dozen you have in stock. You feel yourself today to be more a Jew than ever before, and you hate everything called German, despite the fact that we epected more insight and understanding because you had a Christian mother.”