G.E.R. Gedye, New York Times correspondent, said in a Vienna dispatch today that a large number of Austrian Socialists are not willing to defend the Government against the Nazis, because of clerical oppression of the Socialists, nor to defend the Jews, because the Jews did not rise to their defense in 1934.
Mr. Gedye quoted a labor organizer as declaring that many workers refused to sign the petition supporting the Schuschnigg Government because “Christian and German” were inserted in the pledge without the assent of workers’ leaders, who interpreted the phrase as meaning “clerical and nationalist.”
The Socialists refusing to sign argue, the dispatch said, that they will not fight for a regime which destroyed their liberties without the regime giving them concessions. “As it is,” they are quoted, “we have nothing to lose even if Hitler comes and we have no reason to lift a finger to save the Jews, who did not help us in our fight for liberty in February, 1934.”
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.
