No Security on Freedom in Nazified Germany–margoshes

The following is from the speech by Dr. Samuel Margoshes, editor of The Day, who testified as an eye-witness in the “Case of Civilization Against Hitlerism” last night:

If it please the Court I have visited Germany in the month of November, 1933 and mine eyes have seen the plight of our brethren and of the German people as a whole. I have spoken to the outstanding Jewish leaders of the Reich, spoken secretly and confidentially, and what I heard from their own lips I know to be the truth and the real truth of the present situation in Germany.

I wish it were possible for me to present their names before this Court, but everyone knows that the mere mention of their names before this tribunal would bring untold suffering to those in Germany who have confided in me. So if it please the Court I shall ask permission to submit these names in confidence to whomever this High Court may designate to receive this unspoken part of my testimony.

Nine months after the imposition of the Nazi yoke, I found Jews as well as the rest of the population still living in fear of their lives. The constant complaint that assailed my ears was that people are disappearing from the streets and are never found again. Others are dragged away to concentration camps, to reappear God knows when.

This case that I heard from the lips of a very responsible newspaperman and which has never appeared either in the German or the foreign press is typical of the present state of terror in Hitler Germany:

On the day on which Chancellor Hitler delivered his speech from a factory to the workers of the Reich, asking them to go on record as approving his withdrawal from the League of Nations as well as his general policy, two working men stood listening to the address but, having tired of the oratory, left the factory before the Chancellor’s speech was quite over. A half-hour later they were under arrest and on the way to the concentration camp. It is through methods of this nature that 98 per cent. of the German electorate were forced to say “yes” to the Hitler program in the plebescite. which was to make the impression abroad of the whole German people being united behind Hitler.

There is no security in Germany either for citizens or foreigners. Not one minute of the time that I have spent in Germany was I considered safe. At the American Consulate I was advised to leave Germany forthwith as no guarantee could be given for my safety.

Freedom of speech and of expression is dead in Germany. The individual is afraid to speak his mind, lest he meet with terrible punishment.

I left Germany with the feeling that the entire country had been converted into a huge prison. One of my friends who took me to the train gave the finishing touches to this picture of a great people imprisoned in their own land, when he said to me: “I will write to you soon–from my home or from the concentration camp.”