Force Jews to Wed ‘aryans,’ is Shaw’s Advice to Germany

George Bernard Shaw contends that Hitler should compel German Jews to intermarry with “Aryans” in an interview with Donald F. Wickets in this week’s Liberty Magazine.

Rabbi Stephen S. Wise comments in the same issue that the idea is “wierd nonsense.” He tells Shaw, “Quit your kidding! Marriages are not arranged in just that way.” The interview follows in part:

“There is,” Shaw observed, “much to be said for Hitler, but his anti-Semitism is nonsense.”

“Hitler,” the playwright went on to say, “added to Chamberlain’s racial theory the unsound practice of ‘keeping the race pure,’ instead of insisting upon cross-fertilization.

“The Jews are not entirely free from blame if they are misunderstood. They have reared ghettos around themselves. In the beginning there was no great distinction between Christians and Jews, until the Jews emphasized the differences between themselves and the Nazarenes by adopting all sorts of rigmarole which made it impossible for Christians to worship in the same temple.

“However, whatever may be the origin of the unhappy tension existing between Jews and non-Jews, Germany made a great mistake when she set the Jews against herself. They are a clever people and it is not wise to court their hostility.”

Asked if he considered the Jewish boycott of Germany “very clever?”

“I do not think so. The boycott tends to prove Hitler’s point that there is a world-wide conspiracy against Germany fostered by the Jews. And yet, I don’t know what they should do. I know, however, what I would do if I were Hitler.”

“What would you do?”

“If I were Hitler I would make it a crime, punishable like incest, for a Jew or Jewess to marry anyone except a Christian. That would improve the race.”

“Is there such a thing as racial purity, in your opinion?”

“Certainly. We have sections in England where the race has been kept undiluted. The product of this policy are good-looking individuals, mainly interested in sports, and perfectly brainless.”