A storm of protest was raised in the Reichstag today when Deputy Gregory Strasser, a National Socialist, launched into a vicious anti-Semitic tirade in the course of an address supporting his party’s motion to transfer to the state all capitalist properties.
“We do not desire persecution of the Jews, but we demand the elimination from German life of everything Jewish as well as the abolition of the influence of the Jewish press,” Deputy Strasser declared. “The alarmist reports in the Jewish press shatter confidence in German economic life,” he added. By the “Jewish press” the Nazis do not mean papers or periodicals dealing only with Jewish affairs or those publications that are the organs of specifically Jewish groups. They mean the German newspapers that are either edited or owned by Jews.
Deputy Strasser’s outburst brought a storm of protest from Center and Left deputies. Deputy Joos, of the German Center Party, sharply attacked the Nazis for their anti-Semitic agitation. His attack was greeted with great applause by a majority of the Reichstag’s membership. Strasser, replying to the criticism, declared, “The Reichstag today is like a synagogue. Even Moses condemned the usury of the Jewish people which proves that even in ancient times the Jews were usurers.”
This caused another uproar with the National Socialists’ 107 deputies vociferously applauding and the others voicing audible protests.
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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.
