The Polish press in America, in articles commenting on the protest published by Americans of German descent against the wholesale slaughter of Jews in Europe, asks why these Americans had been silent for so long a time.
The Dziennik Dla Wszystkich, a Polish daily newspaper in Buffalo, emphasizes that these very Americans of German descent had ignored the Nazi brutalities in 1939, 1940 and 1941 only because they believed in a German victory. Only when it became apparent that Hitler was doomed to defeat did they protest.
Dziennik Chicagoski, a Polish newspaper published in Chicago, writes that the delayed protest was the result of fear that Germany was losing the war. The protest, it says, was merely a ruse to fool the world, as was the case during the first World War. Nowiny Polskie, a Milwaukee daily, writes that “it was not an expression of sympathy for the victims, but an effort to show the world that there was still extant ‘good Germans’ who can be trusted.”
Prof. Friedrich W. Forester and two other well-known German scientists now in this country, in a letter in the New York Herald Tribune, deny that there exist contrasts between the Nazi regime and the German people. They point out that the protest of the “Loyal Americans of German Descent” seeks to draw a distinction between the German people and the Nazis and they declare that “this idea of two Germanys is a dangerous myth.” The Nazi regime, they say, is not un-German, but “the logical outgrowth of the gradually increasing brutality, trickery and robbery of the Prussian system.” They urge the disarmament of Germany followed by a guardianship charged with teaching the German youth that all nations are free and equal. “The world will never find lasting peace while Prussian militarism endures,” they warn.
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.
