The following interesting and timely note comes from Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, vice-president of the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League:
“The Jewish press has in the last two or three weeks been filled with over-optimism about the imminent collapse of the Hitler regime. I wish it were so. But I am afraid that in this case the wish is father to the thought. A cool survey must lead one to the conclusion that while the Nazi regime is in serious difficulties it does not face immediate collapse. It has still considerable financial resources to draw upon and while there may be considerable criticism or grumblings within Germany, it has such a complete stranglehold upon the situation that its grip will not be readily broken.
“In the meantime the Jewish people may be lulled into a false sense of optimism and relax their intensive boycott activities. That would be disastrous. The cumulative effects of the boycott are just now beginning to tell forcibly. If the boycott could be intensified throughout the world in the next six months the forces of resistance against Hitlerism in Germany will be strengthened and the doom of Hitlerism may be sealed. At the present moment the battle is far from being won. There has been absolutely no change in the official Nazi attitude toward the Jews in Germany.”
Several days ago I stated editorially that, while the handwriting on the wall is unmistakable and that all symptoms point to the approaching downfall of Hitler, all efforts to resist the Hitler menace morally and economically must be continued, in order that Hitlerism may be disarmed.
The Jews everywhere, as well as right-thinking and liberty-loving non-Jews, welcome the heartening news of the evidences of Nazi disintegration and the nearing Hitler breakdown. But there must be no relaxation in the efforts to isolate the Nazi pest and to free the world from the Hitler scourge.
Those who advocated the economic boycott against Nazi Germany as a defensive measure against the anti-Jewish boycott in Germany and against the other outrageous crimes perpetrated by the Nazi regime against civilization, proved far-sighted in their judgment. And now Germany is beginning to realize that the economic anti-German boycott has thus far produced such a devastating effect upon the economic situation of Germany not merely because the Jews had organized and carried on the boycott. The boycott has been successful because other nations, particularly those that understand the gravity of the Hitler
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.
