Recently Mr. Victor Rothschild was barred from the Barn Club, a roadhouse in London, because he is a Jew. He came to the roadhouse with several friends to get something to eat, and was ordered off the premises. Mr. Rothschild sought no publicity for this incident, but merely remarked:
“It does sound rather like Nazi Germany, doesn’t it?”
In England the incident created a sensation. In Germany the department of propaganda, through Goebbels’ personal organ, the Angriff, sees in it evidence of the rapid growth of anti-Semitism in England.
“Anti-Semitism is making progress in England,” writes the Angriff. “The descendant of the Rothschilds, the heir to the vast Jewish fortune made out of the blood of the Napoleonic War of Liberation, has fled in panic to recuperate at a French seaside resort, because he is afraid of the terrible anti-Semitism in England.”
And Goebbels’ organ concludes that “the Jewish press spreads the cloak of silence over such occurrences.”
As the Jewish Chronicle points out “the English press (and by ‘the Jewish press’ the Angriff of course means the English press) has not hesitated to condemn the action of the roadhouse in question.”
The Daily Sketch referred to the incident as follows:
“It is abominably like (Nazi Germany), and it is the duty of those who value the liberties of our country to jump on this example of anti-Semitism. I believe in combating the beginnings of this, as of other diseases.”
The Yorkshire Post wrote:
“The great mass of Britishers remain absolutely averse to any such discrimination.”
The Birmingham Gazette said:
“I have no more than a suspicion of the name of the place at which they declined to serve Mr. Rothschild, but even there they assured me twice during the day that they have no anti-Semitic prejudice whatsoever, and at every other roadhouse at which I made inquiries the answer was the same. Indeed, I imagine that for some time these places will go out of their way to be especially nice in this respect.”
The Sunday Express said:
It is revealed that a member of the House of Rothschild has been denied refreshment at a roadhouse because he was a Jew. Eighty years ago a Rothschild, also because he was a Jew, secured an alteration in the M.P.’s oath that threw the House of Commons open to talent. He smashed intolerance in politics. We can show our gratitude to his memory by smashing it in private life.”
The People wrote:
“There should be no ‘Jewish question’ in this country, where the Jews have enjoyed a greater freedom than anywhere else in the world and where we have gained inestimable advantages from their shrewdness, industry and sagacity. But ignorance and prejudice die hard. There are men who forget Disraeli and who do not seem to realize that Lord Reading and Sir Herbert Samuel are as much Jews as he was.”
These are a few of the many editorial comments in the same vein. Anti-Jewish discrimination as revealed by this incident is extremely rare in England. That is why it attracted so much attention. It also served to re-emphasize the fact that there is no room for anti-Semitism in England, for this manifestation of anti-Jewish discrimination was vigorously and generally condemned in the English press.
Only the unscrupulous Nazi fabricators of anti-Jewish propaganda can distort the truth so brazenly. An isolated incident, of which the offenders are now ashamed, is construed into evidence that “anti-Semitism is making progress in England.” The universal condemnation in the English press of this stupid form of intolerance is of course not mentioned in the Nazi press. Thus are the German people being constantly duped by their present leaders.
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.
