Now Editorial Notes

THE JEWS of Austria find themselves in a tragic situation. No matter what they do ro say in the present crisis, no metter whether the Nazis or the Fascists succeed in gaining control of the Austrian governmont the situation of the Austian Jews will become all the more intolerable.

Vice Chancellor Fey, addressing the Austrain people that over the radio, told them that Julius Deutsch, the Jewish leader of the Socialist Schuzhund, had fled to Czecholovakia with his pockest full of money, after having incited his followeres ot engage in a futile battle against the government. He declared that both Deutsch and Otto Bauer, the eminent Socialist leader, who also happens to be a Jew, had fled to Prague mmediat ly after the fighting had commenced in Vienna, leaving “their misled fellowers” to die on the barricades.

The fact is that Deutsch and Bauer left for Czecholovakia only after Deutsch had been wounded, and after the fighting had ceased.

The German Nazis have adopted an official attitude of “watchful waiting,” while their agitation is going on. Methods of provocation are being employed. Hitler’s “inspector general for Austria” explained to the Nazis of Autria that the victory of Dollfuss would not prevent his eventual collapse and the triumph of Hitlerist Nazism in Austria.

According to the report from our correspondent, Boris Smolar, General Sommer, president of the Jewish War Veterans’ Association, issued a communique to the press stating he had offered the services of the veterans to the government and that the authorities had not accepted his offer.

If the Heimwehr Fascists remain victorius for a while, the Nazis will continue their savage camoaign against the Jews while the Fascists will endeavor to out do the German Nazis in their own anti-Jewish policy. If the Nazis should sweep Austria, the fate of Austrian Jewry will be exactly like that of German Jewry under Hitler. The Jews will be blamed for the role played by the Jews in the Austrain Socialist leadership and the attempted reyolt against the rising tide of Fascism and Nazism. And if some day the liberal and Socialist forces in Austria should succeed in overthrowing the impotent government that is paying the way for the ruthless rule of Fascism or Nazism, there will be elements in the population that will blame the Jews for the aid offered by the president of the Jewish war veterans to the Dollfuss government.

Austrian Jewry is being prepared as the scapegoat, regardless of the outcome of the struggle for power of the vaious political parties. Of course, the Jews of Austria would suffer less under a democratic or Socialist regime. Anti-Semitism is the barometer by which a counrtry’s reaction and liberalism are best ascertained. Everywhere anti-Semitism and reactoin, maintained by force and violence, go hand in hand.