Interest was concentrated this week on the Jewish situation in the Saar region in connection with the forthcoming meeting of the League of Nations next Wednesday. It is this meeting which will decide what measures the League must take to secure equal rights for the Saar Jews if the plebiscite turns over the Saar region to the Nazi Reich.
There are five thousand Jews in the Saar now. Most of them are business men and professionals. They are in danger of being exposed to the same discriminations as in Germany if the Saar region becomes a part of Hitlerland. When the League opens its session next Wednesday, the Jewish issue will therefore play a very important, if not the most important role there.
FRENCH INSIST ON EQUALITY PLEDGE
A number of memorandums from Jewish organizations are now in the hands of the Secretariat of the League. There is also a memorandum submitted by the recently assassinated French foreign minister, Barthou, expressing the view of the French government on the Jewish question in the Saar. The French official view is, that no matter what the results of the plebiscite are, Germany should not get the Saar until it obligates itself to treat Saar Jews as equal citizens.
The demand that Germany must guarantee full rights for the Saar Jew if she is to obtain control, is expected to be one of the major conditions put to Germany. This demand will be supported not only by France, which is interested in securing minority rights in the Saar because there is also a French minority there, but also by England and other powers which are interested in having the Saar region remain under the administration of the League of Nations.
JEWS TO QUIT SAAR DESPITE ASSURANCES
Notwithstanding the firm attitude which the League may take with regard to obtaining from Germany a pledge for the protection of the Jews in the Saar, it can be definitely stated that the minority of the Jewish population in the Saar region will depart if the region reverts to Germany.
No doubt exists in the mind of the Saar Jews, that even if, under League pressure, the “Aryan paragraph” is not to be introduced by Germany into the Saar, the Nazi administration will find plenty of other ways to make the life of the Jews in the Saar miserable.
It is for this reason that a large Jewish migration from the Saar started this week. Jewish business men are hurriedly liquidating their enterprises and are trying to take out of the Saar as much of their belongings as they can. Jewish professionals are packing in readiness to leave the region the minute it becomes clear that Germany is going to rule there.
EYES OF JEWRY ON GENEVA
The eyes of Saar Jewry are now directed towards Geneva awaiting the results of next Wednesday’s session of the League. It is only if the session decides that the Saar must continue for a time under the administrative of the League, that the Saar Jews will feel confident that they can remain where they are. Should, however, Wednesday’s session not make this drastic decision, and should it decide to go on with the preparations for the plebiscite, it can easily be expected that not less than seventy per cent, of the Jewish population—3,500 persons,—will leave the Saar weeks before the plebiscite.
What will happen to the other fifteen hundred Jews in the Saar?
MAY BECOME BURDEN ON GERMAN CHARITIES
It must be assumed that these unfortunates will remain in the Saar under Germany because they will have no means of leaving this territory. Consisting of the poorest section of the Jewish population there they will no doubt become an additional burden on German Jewry. If the Saar becomes a part of Germany they will have to be supported by the Jewish philanthropic organizations of Germany.
Will the Saar become a part of Germany?
There are many optimists who believe that the plebiscite will not give sufficient votes in favor of Germany. They build their assumption upon the fact that the Saar has a large Catholic population which is opposed to the Nazis because of the church fight. They also figure on the large number of Social Democrats and radicals who have concentrated in the Saar and are bitter enemies of the Nazis.
ASSUMPTIONS SEEN AS TOO OPTIMISTIC
These assumptions are much too optimistic. It must be remembered that the Social Democrats and the radicals who are now conducting the campaign that the Saar should not join Germany are not even residents of this region. They are chiefly exiles from Germany and are not entitled to vote in the plebiscite. It must also be taken into consideration that the Catholic population, though anxious to fight for its church, may not be in a position to withstand the terroristic tactics of the Saar Nazis.
One who visits the Saar region knows that the Nazis there are exercising the greatest possible pressure upon the local population. They are threatening every potential voter with the most brutal revenge measures if he does not vote for Germany. They are making up lists of all the inhabitants of the region in order to have a check on every resident. Anybody who does not display a Nazi flag in front of his house is placed on a blacklist as a candidate to be sent to a concentration camp soon after the Nazis comes to power. Anybody who refuses to contribute to the funds of the local Nazis is marked an anti-Nazi to be severely dealt with after the plebiscite turns the district over to Germany.
TERROR WILL SWING VOTES TO REICH
Kept under threats of terror and under fear of possible concentration camp measures, a large number of Saar inhabitants will vote pro-German in the plebiscite just in order to avoid such fearful consequences. Many may altogether abstain from voting. A Nazi majority in the plebiscite is therefore more or less certain.
It is for this reason that the Jews of the Saar lay their last hope on Wednesday’s session of the League of Nations. They hope that this session may yet find a way to keep the Saar region under the administration of the League for a further period and to altogether avoid the plebiscite scheduled for January 13.
In the meantime many of the Jews in the Saar who are liquidating their enterprises have nowhere to go, since practically all countries have tightened their doors to Jewish refugees. Those who are citizens of East European countries are returning to their native lands.
9,700 PALESTINE VISAS BRING SATISFACTION
With the doors of European countries closed to Jewish immigration, the news that the Palestine government has granted this week 9,700 immigration visas for Jewish labor for the next six months has been received in the Jewish world with great satisfaction, despite the fact that this number is just half of the number of visas asked by the Jewish Agency.
The 9,700 visas granted are the largest number of immigration permits ever issued by the Palestine government to the Jews.
By issuing such a number of visas the government admits that there is a considerable shortage of labor in Palestine.
But despite this admission the Palestine government is still hesitating to comply fully with the request of the Jewish Agency for a larger number of Jewish immigrants to Palestine.
GOVERNMENT ARGUES ‘ABSORPTIVE’ LIMIT
The government argues that she must adhere to the principle of “absorptive capacity.” Hence she must restrict Jewish immigration to a much smaller degree that the one demanded by
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.
