Now–editorial Notes

The economic structure of Hitlerite Germany is beginning to crumble. The world-wide anti-German boycott has made it-self felt at last in Germany to such an alarming extent that even Hitler and his most rabid Nazi henchmen are commencing to realize the consequences of their criminal blunders. I have pointed out for some time that, despite all the boasts of the Nazis that Germany was recovering economically under the regime of “Aryan” purification and persecution, the Germany of Hitler is nearing its doom. In my analysis of the reasons why Hitlerism cannot last long, I wrote several weeks ago:

“The six million communists are still in Germany. The millions of unemployed are still unemployed. German exports are continuing to fall, not merely because of the Jewish boycott, but also because of the boycott in various countries where Hitler’s arrogance and ruthlessness and interference with the internal affairs of other nations are viewed with alarm as menacing the peace of the world.

“When the eyes of the German people are opened, and they will see that instead of bread and happiness, they are given cruel, savage diversions of bigotry and hate, the Nazi adventure will be ended. When they will realize that Germany under Hitler has lost her friends abroad, and that her internal situation is growing ever more desperate, they will turn against their real enemy, and Hitlerism will be stamped out.”

Now comes the news that, according to official reports to our Government in Washington, the economic consequences of the anti-Semitism of the Hitler government are slowly forcing the Nazis to modify their anti-Jewish policy. It is pointed out in these official reports that German exports have dwindled to a low point because of boycotts in virtually all countries, that the German government’s gold reserves have shrunk each week for the past two months and that Germany generally is in the grip of the severest economic crisis that Hitler and the Nazi party have had to face.

According to this Washington report, as published in The New York Times, “it is believed here that the commercial weight of the various boycotts on German goods throughout the world has had more effect on official policy than have the protest meetings. These boycotts are supported by elements that resent persecution of labor, liberal and racial groups in Germany. Observers who profess to see a new deal for Jews in Germany on the immediate horizon are counseling avoidance of any further demonstrations of the kind held recently in Madison Square Garden.”

This report continues thus:

“Two recent official actions in Germany, which attracted little notice in the outside world, give the clue to the modified Nazi policy, reports indicate. One was Chancellor Hitler’s order closing the twenty penal institutions where Jews had received the worst treatment. The other was a regulation of the Ministry of Justice that no person could be detained longer than twenty-four hours without appearance before an examining magistrate, who would determine whether the evidence warranted further detention.”

These “clues to the modified Nazi policy,” these evidences of a “new deal” in Hitlerist Germany for the Jews, will hardly convince any reasonable and right-thinking person outside Germany as indicating a genuine change of policy. These “clues” merely prove that Hitler is beginning to sense the approaching doom and is trying to save himself as the Nazi dictator. These “clues” also confirm what the Hitler government has been denying to the world–that German Jews received the worst treatment in penal institutions and that people were thrown into prison or concentration camps and kept there for months in violation of all their legal and human rights.

At the very time the information is given out that the Nazi policy is being modified, come ##orts of new anti-Jewish outrages in Germany, of intensified cruelty, of murder. It is possible that these atrocities are now being committed by the disciples of Hitler who have for years been incited by the Nazi agitation against the Jews, without direct authorization from the central authorities. But that does not relieve Chancellor Hitler of the responsibility. It may not be so easy now to check the unbridled passions of the Nazi mob, but a strong government can do it. At least it should make every strenuous effort to do it, if it wishes to impress the world that it is really prepared to change its policy.

The “observers who profess to see a new deal for Jews in Germany on the immediate horizon” and who counsel avoidance of any further demonstrations abroad against the Nazi government fail to realize that it is these demonstrations against Hitlerist inhumanity to a portion of the German population that helped to crystallize the economic anti-German boycott in various lands. The economic boycott is an outgrowth of the moral boycott, of the aroused indignation among civilized, liberty-loving people against the system that is practicing cruelty and bigotry at home and that is manifesting unmistakable symptoms of war-madness. This is the civilized answer to a savage and ruinous policy.

There is but one way in which Hitler can save himself and the Germany which he rules and professes to love, and that is by a complete reversal of the Nazi policy of persecution and discrimination and militant chauvinism. The absurd and vicious “Aryan” clause, which divides the population of Germany into “superior” and “inferior” categories, must first be removed, and equal human rights restored to the people, regardless of race or creed. Only then will Germany be justified in expecting equality among the nations.

If Hitler fails to see this, or if he lacks the courage to admit his blunders and to abandon his destructive policy, he may continue to dolude the German people for some time. But there is every indication that the German economic structure is commencing to cracl and the disillusioned, awakened German people will eventuany save themselves by ridding themselves of Hitlerism.