Weary from the strain of his six months world tour and eager to return to his aging father, Baron Maurice de Rothschild regretfully told the Jewish Daily Bulletin yesterday that he will be unable to participate in the Jewish Day exercises at the Chicago World Fair on July 29.
“My father will be ninety in August, you know,” he said, “and I really don’t feel I should stay away from him any longer.”
This French Senator, scion of a family of international power and renown, darts quick, twinkling glances at you through china-blue eyes and chats along about almost anything. He is staying at the Waldorf Astoria while in New York.
Right now it is hard to get him to comment on anything other than the wretchedness of the Jews under the Nazi regime. He regards the undoing of Hitlerism as the current Jewish problem which transcends all else.
“Although I am a foreigner and hardly feel it is my place to make suggestions to American citizens, if I were called upon for such advice I would offer a two-fold admonition,” the Baron said.
“In the first place, I would counsel the Jews of the United States to be staunch and patriotic citizens of their country, so as not to fall heir to the accusation that they are Jews more than they are Americans.
“In the second place, I would urge them, as members of humanity and as men of the world, to take vigorous measures to bring about the eventual downfall of Hitler and the atrocities for which he stands.”
ASTONISHED AT REICH
{NOTE}Baron Rothschild expressed “astonishment that things haven’t been worse in Germany than they actually are.”{/NOTE}
“When I read the Reich newspapers and hear accounts of speeches made by Nazi leaders,” he declared, “I am amazed that the country has not been the scene of a series of blood-curdling pogroms.
“Continual attempts are made to incite the German people to hatred of the Jews. Hitler and his lieutenants leave no stone unturned to keep their subjects in an endless state of anti-Semitic foment. It really is remarkable that bloodshed has not swept the country in a wave of ruthless terror.”
SPEAKS GOOD ENGLISH
{NOTE}Towering well over six feet, broad of shoulder, not particularly dapper in dress, the Baron speaks English fluently but with a pronounced French accent. His flow of words, too, is decidedly Gallic in flavor quick, nervous, staccato and impatient.{/NOTE}
He apparently shaves himself. While a Bulletin reporter was interviewing him yesterday, he was contemplatively fingering two small razor nicks on his chin. He has a large head, fringed around the temples with what remains of his thinnish brown hair. His nose is hawk-like but its effect on his entire countenance is softened by his light-blue eyes, which are tolerant, friendly and humorous. The backs of his rather stubby hands are covered by large freckles, which are somewhat less in evidence on his face. When he talks to you his eyes flicker from side to side, like the pendulum on one of those helter-skelter little Swiss clocks.
LIKES WASHINGTON
{NOTE}He was childishly pleased with the reception accorded him in Washington last week.{/NOTE}
“I was greatly honored in your national capital,” he said. “Your Senate gave me a chair on its floor, and for several days I sat among the Senators and mingled with them as one of them. Such a courtesy, I believe, has never before been shown a foreigner.”
While in Washington he made an informal visit to the White House and had an unofficial chat with President Roosevelt, who impressed him more than favorably.
“The Jews in this country should be grateful to the present administration, which is as tolerant as it could possibly be,” he said.
POINTS TO PRESS ERROR
{NOTE}He pointed out that the press, in its reports of his talk before a number of Jewish Congressmen in the Capital, had made a slight error.{/NOTE}
“While I pointed out,” he explained, “that Germany is carrying on a tremendous program of anti-Semitic propaganda in other European countries, I did not mean to infer that the Jews in those countries, such as Poland and Czechoslovakia, are being persecuted to the same extent as they are in the Reich. Some of the reporters who heard me apparently drew that conclusion from what I said, but they misunderstood me.”
France, which has a comparatively small Jewish population, is without exception friendly to the Jews, Baron Rothschild said.
SCORES BOYCOTT CRITICS
{NOTE}He denied claims of critics of the boycott of Nazi goods, who believe refusal to purchase from the Reich hurts the German Jews as much as it does their non-Jewish neighbors.{/NOTE}
“The Jews in Germany,” he said, “already effectually have been barred from participating in international commerce by the Nazi regime.”
Although he is certain the Hitler clique is bound to fall eventually, he is worried over what will happen to Jewish residents of the Reich meanwhile.
“I shall leave for Paris aboard the Ile de France on July 7th,” the Baron said as he arose to signify the end of the interview. “Until then I shall spend a day or two seeing the sights in New York and a few more days resting somewhere in the country, just before I sail.”
This is Baron Rothschild’s first trip to America. He says he likes it.
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.
