(By Our Vienna Correspondent, M. Tenenblatt)
Anti-Semites would rather accept a prison term than be forced to undertake to refrain from Jew-baiting for any length of time. This has become obvious from the attitude of numerous Hakenkreuzler who are still being hailed to court week after week to answer for the excesses perpetrated by them during the Zionist Congress held here nearly a year ago.
True, the judges are not too severe, from a legal point of view-after all, Viennese boys on trial before Viennese courts. But the Hakenkreuzler does not get away scot free. He goes to jail for a few days, but very often he gets out of that, by the court deciding to bind him over to be of good times even five years, with the warning that if he does not behave himself during that period, Nemesis will surely overtake him. The fact is. however, that the young University anti-Semite prefers prison to an undertaking to be of good behaviour, and he does not fail to show that he is exasperated beyond measure. Obviously, he declares, the magistrate is a Judophile. Fancy compelling a noble-minded Hakenkreuzler patriot to behave himself for five years, not to assault anybody during that time, not even to be allowed to walk up to a Jew and innocently remark to him “Dirty Jew!” And if he doesn’t keep himself under such almost superhuman control, the result is that he has to serve his term of imprisonment, pay the costs and on top of it all get five times as much punishment as he would have gotten originally. The hardest part is to have to pay the costs, because the Hakenkreuzler would rather do a month in gaol than pay a cent in costs–for where is he to get the money from?
Some of the Hakenkreuzler are now being made to serve their sentences from which they were exempted last August by the police. Frightened by the then powerful anti-Semitic mass demonstrations. the police negotiated with the anti-Semitic leaders and as a compensation for the promise of peace the police freed those Hakenkreuzler who had been sentenced to eight days imprisonment and had served only three days. The police then advised them to appeal to the magistrate for a reprieve and promised to support their appeal. But the Mayor, Herr Seitz, who is a Socialist, turned down their appeal. So now they have got to go back and serve another five days. In fact, things are worse for them now, for a fine has been added to the previous sentence.
These trials have deprived the Hakenkrenzler leaders of the co-operation of the wildest and most dare-devil of their followers and new rowdies are difficult to get, for the young men are afraid of ending up in the same way as their colleagues. So there is a general feeling of dejection among the Hakenkreuzler. Surely the whole of Austria, they feel, is in the hands of the Jews! How can decent Nordic patriots stop in a country where Jews are allowed to go about unmolested and even Zionists find support in the courts and support in the courts and from the magistrates?
COMMUNICATION TO THE EDITOR
Sir:
In a recent issue of your Bulletin, you discuss the social, philanthropic, and civic activities of the Federation of Jewish Charities of Philadelphia for the past 25 years, and you lay particular stress on their non-sectarian character.
It may be added that this organization has since 1902 been granting an important annual contribution to the Alliance Israelite Universelle, who follow the same liberal policy.
When Father Hyacinthe Loyson visited the Alliance school in Jerusalem and noticed Christian and Moslem students receiving tuition side by side with Jewish pupils, he exclaimed: “Here I see the realization of my life’s dream: the brotherhood of men under the fatherhood of God.”
N. BEHAR,
Secretary, Alliance Israelite Universelle.
New York, June 23, 1926.
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.
