Stefan Zweig will give all the royalties he earns from the use of his libretto in Richard Strauss’s opera, “The Silent Woman,” for relief of the German Jews, he told a Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondent in an interview.
Herr Strauss, who is head of the Reich Chamber of Music, recently incurred the displeasure of high Nazi officials by choosing the libretto of the German-Jewish writed for his new opera.
Zweig told the interviewer that nothing is further from his mind than the thought of shutting out from himself the fate of his brethren and he made it clear that he would despise any attempt to surrender moral independence for practical advantages.
“It is true,” said Herr Zweig, “that I have refrained from taking a controversial attitude against present-day Germany, for controversy was never the medium of my artistic expression.
“But I have not the remotest intention,” he continued, “of denying or concealing my attitude and I declare openly and unambiguously that the fate of my comrades and brethren-in-blood is obviously a thousand times more important to me than all literature.”
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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.
