Dr. Gothein, former Cabinet Minister in the German Federal Government, the President of the Federation for Combating Antisemitism, an organisation of non-Jewish Germans engaged in fighting antisemitism as harmful to the German State, speaking at the 42nd. annual conference of the Federation which has just been held in Dresden, said that their Federation was fighting against anti-Jewish hatred and anti-Jewish incitement, because they perceived in antisemitism a danger to German and to Christian culture.
The antisemitic race teachings are scientifically untenable, and politically and nationally dangerous, he declared, because the example set by depriving German Jews of their rights and their equality of citizenship must menace the position of Germans living abroad.
The moral conquest of the world, which is the only way in which Germany can recover her stability, cannot come through abusing and beating our Jewish fellow-citizens, or desecrating Jewish cemeteries and synagogues, he said.
GERMANY WILL ONE DAY LAUGH AT PRESENT ANTISEMITIC WAVE SAYS HISTORIAN: ANTISEMITISM MUST AGAIN BREAK DOWN AS IN PAST BECAUSE ANTISEMITISM HAS NO CONSTRUCTIVE IDEA: IN LONG RUN ONLY JUSTICE CAN PREVAIL
Privy Councillor Professor Walter Goetz, the famous Leipzig his torian, said that till the 15th. century Western Europe had known nothing of anti-Jewish hatred or persecution. It was not till the unhappy period of the Crusades that the people poured out their fury against the Jews, who, from now on were made the scapegoats for all misfortunes, especially the Black Death.
Modern antisemitism which had no basis in hedig### had come into existence in Germany only in consequence of the reaction of the seventies of last century, and it had found its first political standard-bearer in the court preacher, Adolf Stoecker. Stoecker tried through his Christian Socialist Labour Party, which had originally had no taint of antisemitism, to solve the social question on Christian lines. His social legislation mad him the saviour of the middle-class, which had been in danger of being wiped out of existence. Later on, his movement had adopted the slogan: “Exclude Jews from all economic life”. It was inevitable that this anti
Jewish movement would break down, not only because Stoecker had destroyed himself politically by making Bismarck his irreconcilable foe, so that the Kaiser had to drop him but also because it was impossible to solve the social question by means of demagogy and antisemitism.
Stoecker’s Christian Socialist idea was perpetuated by Friedrich Naumann and his National Socialist Federation, which got rid of every vestige of antisemitism, while his antisemitism heritage was carried on by the politically insignificant antisemitic parties led by Boeckel, Liebermann von Sonnenberg and Ahlwardt.
It was not until the war ended in the unfortunate way it did, Professor Goetz said, that the masses of the people fell under the spell of the demagogues who tried to make the Jews the scapegoat for Germany’s misfortunes.
Increasing economic and political distress had driven hundreds of thousands of Germans into the antisemitic ranks. Forgeries like the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” obtained huge circulations, running into numerous editions.
Germany would one day laugh at it, and wonder how it was possible. For now as always in the course of history, Professor Goetz concluded, antisemitism will again break down, because antisemitism has no constructive idea. Things may seem difficult now, he said, but in the long run only right and justice can prevail.
I was out at the front all through the war, Professor Goetz recalled, as a Major in command of a battalion, and I know that Jewish soldiers and officers did their duty like their Christian comrades.
NO CHRISTIAN CAN BE AN ANTISEMITE SAYS BERLIN PASTOR: WE MUST ALL STAND TOGETHER AND WORK TOGETHER FOR GERMANY’S FUTURE
Pastor Dietrich, of Berlin, who took as his subject Christianity and antisemitism, said that the Christian religion is based, is rooted, in the Jewish religion, and if they destroyed Judaism, there could be no Christianity. The great commandment of Christianity is “Love God and your neighbour like yourself”. No Christian could be an antisemite. Christianity said that they must not hate. That did not mean looking on while their neighbour did wrong. It was part of their neighbourly love to criticise and correct. But calumny, abuse, violence and desecration could not be reconciled with Christian teaching.
They must not forget that the Jews had been made what they were by the Christian world around them over a period of centuries. The Jew had many lovable qualities. He was always alive. He thought clearly. He was loyal to his faith and to his family. He was an able man in economic life. He was sober and industrious, and was therefore a valuable factor in German life. Germany needed the Jew to provide certain qualities necessary to create the whole. They must not look one-sidedly at the mistakes and shortcomings of the Jews.
Whether we feel ourselves Christians, Aryans, or anything else, the Pastor concluded, we must all of us stand together, work together, for Germany’s future, and help each other to carry on the historic mission of our German nation.
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.
