Rejection of Anti-semitism As Election Slogan Leads to Break Between Heimwehr and Hitler

The rejection of anti-Semitism as an election slogan by the Heimwehr has led to a complete break in the negotiations between Prince Starhemberg, Heimwehr leader, and his German counterpart, Adolf Hitler, chieftain of the National Socialists. The pourparlers between the German and Austrian Fascist leaders looking toward mutual cooperation have been abandoned because of the influence of the Christian Socialists. Hitler’s proposed visit to Austria has also been given up.

The Heimwehr, under the influence of the Christian Socialists, turned down the Aryan race principle as election propaganda since the Christian Socialists insist that racial anti-Semitism is contradictory to Christianity. This is in direct line with the recent action taken by the Archbishop of Mainz who prohibited all Catholics in his diocese from joining the Hitlerites because the program of the latter was incompatible with the teachings of Catholicism.

While the Heimwehr’s rejection of anti-Semitism as a campaign issue is gratifying to the Jews they are faced with the unique situation of not finding any Jewish candidates on any of the bourgeois tickets for parliament. The Schober center bloc has declined to invite any of the Democratic elements to participate in the new party because the Democrats are considered “too Jewish.” The Social Democrats are rumored to be replacing a number of Jewish members of parliament elected as Socialists by Christians. The Jews are said to be retiring because of old age.

Schober himself is reported to be greatly disappointed that his own bloc has been turned into an anti-Semitic affair. The leaders of the only independent Jewish ticket headed by Dr. Robert Stricker and supported by the Radical Zionists are of the opinion that the anti-Semitism of the Schober bloc improves the chances of the Jewish ticket which had previously been considered hopeless.