Quoting Goethe, Emil Ludwig Finds Germans Resemble Jews; Explains Nazi Persecutions

In a special article in the Sunday Express, of London, Emil Ludwig, the German-Jewish author and biographer, now resident at Locarno, Switzerland, makes the curious observation that the Germans are persecuting the Jews not only for the various reasons already mentioned but for the additional reason that Germans and Jews are so much alike.

To impress his point, Ludwig quotes Goethe, about whom he has written one of his best biographies.

Wrote Goethe: “Germans are as unlikely to perish as the Jews, because they are both individualists.” “Germany is not important, but every German is, and yet Germans would like to believe the opposite.” And Ludwig, carrying on his thought, asserts that if the Germans, like the Jews, were dispersed all over the face of the earth, their excellent qualities would stand out in sharper relief.

Both Germans and Jews, continues Ludwig, “have stood out more by reason of the achievement of the few rather than of the achievement of the masses. Both have great perseverance,” and again quoting Goethe, “Both can be suppressed but not depressed.”

In listing the reasons for the anti-Semitic program of the Nazi party in power, Ludwig mentions chiefly the following in his article:

JEWS IN THE REPUBLIC

“First, the hated Republic had in its first years several Jewish leaders. Rathenau was not content only to influence politics, like Ballin, but insisted upon being in the full limelight.

“The Germans could not stand that. It cost him his life and the nation lost through his death a great leader.

“Rathenau, again, was the first German subject after the war who gained international confidence in a world that was full of anti-Germans….

JEWISH WRITERS ENVIED

“Everything that went wrong in the Republic, partly because of world conditions, partly because of the incapacity of the Socialist leaders, was easily, and without real grounds, laid at the door of the Jews, of whom only a few had been in the Government.

“The second reason was the great success of certain German-Jewish writers and scholars in the intellectual world.

“The third reason lies in the fact, specially welcomed by the Fascists, that Marx was a Jew. Socialism and Jewry could be united into one

“Lastly, there was the ill-fated symbol for persecution. tradition: Blame the Jews when anything goes wrong for the Germans. The man in the street preferred that to producing one of his own race as the culprit, even if there were many culprits in Germany.

EMPIRE TRUSTED JEWS

“Today the anti-Semitic movement in Germany is a movement of the people. The German Empire was anti-Semitic by program, but much less so in actual execution.

“Bismarck entrusted his health for five years to Dr. Cohn, a Jew, and his money to the Jewish firm of Bleichroeder.

“William I. had a Jewish banker, Hirsch. The ex-Kaiser, William II., to do him justice, always left the Jews in peace, and even made Dernburg his Minister and Ballin his confidant.

“His father, Frederick III., spoke the famous words ‘anti-Semitism is the scandal of the century.’

“THE EASIEST WAY”

“In reality neither Marxism nor the Jews are responsible for the bad times which obtain alike in countries with and without Jews. In all revolutions an outsider upon whom to vent one’s rage has been found.

“The party now in power in Germany owes its victories to extensive promises. It will take four years for their fulfilment. It starts with the easiest way. It is not possible to produce lost provinces and lost wealth by tomorrow.

“But thousands of Jews can be pushed out of their jobs, and hundreds of thousands of Christian Germans fight for their vacant places.”

Herr Ludwig closes his article with a reference to the contrasting attitudes towards Jews adopted by Hitlerism and Fascism. He quotes this from a conversation with II Duce: “Anti-Semitism does not exist in Italy. Italians of Jewish birth have shown themselves good citizens. They fought bravely in the war. Many of them occupy leading positions in universities, army and banks,” and Mussolini names as an example of a great Italian Jew, Della Seta, the leading authority on prehistoric Italy.