The Jew in Germany Today

(This is the third of four articles on the Jews in Germany by the brilliant British journalist, F. A. Voight, for many years Berlin correspondent of the manchester Guardian, leading liberal news paper. Mr. Voight bad to leace Gernamy following his disclopsures of Nazi complicity in the Reichstag fire and is now stationed in Paris where he surveys the German scene for his newspaper)

It is difficult to say with any certainty whether the persecution has been “stabilized” or not. There are signs that it has, although these sings may prove to be transient. The Jews are widely regarded as hostages by the Nazis. They are convenient and defenseless objects of victimization, and if the government is in trouble it is always possible to tcreate a diversion by letting the Brown Shirts loose on the Jews. The tendency to “take it out of the Jews” is permanent in Nazi Germany.

The more sanguinary excesses that went on in huge abundance during the first few months of the dictatorship have abated. On the whole Jews can now walk about the streets with little fear of being molested, although they can never be sure of enjoying the same immunity as Gentiles. The anti-Semitic legislation not only remains in force but it is being supplemented and amplified the whole time. The ruin of the German Jewry is progressive, Many Jews cannot possibly adapt themselves to an existence that is narrowing in the sense that more and more professions are either closed altogether or are becoming more and more restricted.

EMIGRATION DIFFICULT

Emigration grows more difficult as the chances of finding work abroad diminish (if the international labor market were not saturated because of unemployment, German emigrants-Jewish and non-Jewish-would instead of reaching only about 70,000 or 80,000 probably have exceeded the million by now), but unless there is a change in the status of the German Jewry-and of this there is no sign-enigration will continue (perhaps at a rate of 2,000 or 3,000 a year if the persecution is not intensified). The emigrants will chiefly be younger people, while the older generation will die out, and, as the Jewish birth-rate is decreasing in any case, the German Jewry will probably sink to perhaps half its present strength-that is, to about a quarter of a million. The remainder will possibly be able to to on existing within whatever restricted limits may be left. The economic situation of the German Jews in Germany, bad as it is, remains far better than that of Polish Jews.

ROBBED OF LIVELIHOODS

In spite of the exceptions theoretically made in favor of Jews who fought in the war, or lost sons or fathers in the war, the elimination of Jewish lawyers and doctors goes on. In the last week of December there were further dismissals of Jewish doctors engaged in panel practice. Jewish teachers are being robbed of almost every possibility of making a livelihood. The same is true of Jewish journalists. Jews engaged in banking are rather better off, for the dictatorship has been reluctant to interfere with the delicate machinery of the German and the international banking systems. German newspapers reuse to take Jewish advertisements, but Jews can still do business to a limited extent. Many private firms still employ Jews. In December the government, in the interest of general business stability, made several attempts that were partly successful to restrain the anti-Semitic boycotts which are continually being started afresh at the instigation of the minor Nazi leaders. Generally speaking, the pressure on the Jews is much severer-at times to the point of being intolerable-in the small town-ships and villages than in the bi cities.

“All the news concernig Jews” is faithfully and promptly reported in the Jewish Daily Bulletin-the only Jewish daily newspaper printed in English.