In Germany Cupid has taken it on the chin.
No one will ever know the exact number of shattered romances, the sum total of severed marriages, or even an approximation of the number of instances in which friendship has turned to scorn or hate as a result of this country’s racial program.
It is known that many formerly happily married men and women have found their way to divorce courts since the ascension of the Nazi Party to power; and never in the history of Germany have judges been so pressed by demands for divorces. It is further known—and, indeed, admitted—that every effort will be made to dissolve the marriages of Jews and Aryans and to erect barriers to further intermarriage.
One of the most ruthless social programs in the history of the world is now being formulated by the German Reichs Ministry of the Interior and will shortly be released as a plan for the eugenic purification of the Aryan race.
WAR ON THE WHOLE RACE
The program provides not only for the ultimate extinction of the Jew in Germany but also for a widespread war on Judaism, which, if successful, will wipe this ancient race as well as its culture, religion and ethics from the earth.
The process of determining who is Jew and who is Aryan has already begun. Hundreds of cases are examined weekly. As the non-Aryan strain is discovered thousands are being released from public offices in the government, schools, hospitals, courts, banks, theatres, film lots, and from hundreds of minor capacities. The family history of street cleaners and street car conductors, who have Hebraic features or traits, is being looked into with the utmost diligence.
Many methods of determining race have been considered by committees in their relentless pursuit of Jews. A theory advanced by a Russian scientist a few years ago which decided racial ancestry through blood tests has been tried. It was found that the system was fallible. Several high Nazi officials registered Hebraic ancestry in initial tests, so that method of examination was abandoned.
FULL BIRTH RECORDS KEPT
The principle means of determining race is embodied in the rathaus records of every city, town and village in Germany. For more than two hundred years an accurate record has been kept of the parentage of every child born. The German law has required that parents lose no time in registering the date, place, and parentage of each individual brought into the world.
For perhaps the first time in history illegitimacy is not only being admitted but proof of it is being advanced voluntarily as persons with Jewish names seek to prove one hundred percent Aryan ancestry. Thus it is that Jewish names, which would be honored in other parts of the world, are being disowned by many who have inherited those names. In government service especially, many argue that the non-Aryan husbands of their Aryan grandmothers are not their grandfathers. And on the tables of the investigating committees are a number of documents which, it is hoped, will prove such contentions. The wife of one of the highest officials of the National Socialist Administration is at present attempting to prove that her mother is the illegitimate offspring of an Aryan lover.
BEAUTY PARLOR BUSINESS
Managers of beauty parlors reveal that thousands of brunettes are becoming blondes through artificial means. The difficulties being experienced by Jews in finding positions in business as well as public service have led to this sweeping move{SPAN}###{/SPAN} they are now aware of the difference between Jew and Aryan, they seek divorce. The decree is readily granted. Persons having married Jews or others with distant Jewish ancestry without knowledge of the “taint” are granted divorce without question.
“I really didn’t understand” is a statement which today in Germany can definitely sever the marital relations of any couple regardless of children whose happiness depends on the integrity of the home or regardless of the years and decades of compatible, happy life that may have preceded the application for divorce.
THE BARREN FUTURE
In other ways, too, Germany’s elastic divorce laws are more pliable than ever. The fatherland grants divorce to men or women whose mates are unable or unwilling to have children. When babies fail to come courts will readily consider applications for divorce so that the persons may try again with more fertile mates. It may be said that Germany’s principal aim is to populate this country with the greatest possible number of full Aryan inhabitants. Restrictions in citizenship, public school and university attendance, professional and business opportunities, and social status now being imposed upon Jews or part Jews is sufficient to discourage not only Aryan men and women from creating new life with their non-Aryan mates; but it also serves to discourage full Jewish couples from bringing children into the world.
Aryan men and women intending to marry outside their race are warned that from the time of the ceremony they themselves will be considered non-Aryan. To marry a Jew or Jewess in Germany today is equivalent to forfeiting citizenship, business and professional standing, political rights, and being forever damned as a non-Aryan in a land where all but Aryans are considered public enemies.
Incidents have occurred in various parts of Germany where young men and women intending to intermarry have been grossly insulted. Legislation has not been effected as yet to prohibit intermarriage; but it is considered only a matter of time until such laws are created and enforced. As it is, the pressure of public opinion as well as the pressure of an occasional palm or fist is sufficient to discourage most romancing outside the racial pale.
During the course of a single generation it is hoped to make Germans conscious of the “inferiority” of Jews. Within the next two months an intensive and extensive campaign will be launched to inform the youth of the country of the undesirability of Jewish mates and the tremendous responsibilities that will be visited upon them in the event of intimacies of any kind. Children who are not yet conscious of sex will be told of the dangers of any Jewish association which might result in marriage and the bringing into the world helpless, inferior, un-citizen children.
Perhaps the most terrible weapon being placed in the hands of anti-Jewish administrators of the nation’s affairs is that of sterilization. A fully Aryan committee drawn from elements that are most bitter in Germany’s anti-Semitic fight will shortly be empowered to make sterile any resident of Germany.
While the prime purpose of the country’s sterilization program is to throttle reproduction of criminals, physically deficient persons, and idiots, the powers of the committee promise to be unlimited. And this the Jews fear. It is not known how far the race purification plan of anti-Semitic maniacs will permit them to go in their efforts to wipe out Jews.
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.
