Germany Intensifies Pressure Upon Hungary to “solve the Jewish Problem”

The German minority in Hungary will not rest until the last Jew is expelled from Hungarian territory, Karl von Ferbach, the Hungarian commissar for the Bachka province of occupied Yugoslavia, declared addressing a meeting in the territory over which he now rules, it is reported in the Donau Zeitung, the Nazi paper for the Balkan countries reaching here today.

Von Ferbach, who is of German descent, asserted in his speech that “it is the German minority in Hungary which is the driving force behind the recent anti-Jewish measures.” He called upon the Serbian population in the Hungarian-occupied Bachka province “to follow the European spirit of fighting the Jews.”

Reports from Hungary reaching here today confirm the fact that against the will of many Hungarian statesmen, a Gestapo chief is now intensifying German pressure upon Hungary “to solve the Jewish problem” by making the anti-Jewish laws an integral part of Hungary’s national policy. His helpers are the Hungarian Nazis, whose leader is Bela Imredy, the former Hungarian premier, and the German minority which feels itself in a privileged position due to the backing it receives from Berlin.

Despair among the 900,000 Jews in Hungary is growing from day to day, the report states. It estimates that during the last two years Hungary’s borders have been extended to envelop 155,000 Jews in Carpatho-Russia and other territories annexed from Czechoslovakia, 180,000 Jews in the part of Transylvania annexed from Rumania, and 20,000 Jews in the territory taken from Yugoslavia. All of them are now subject to the “Jewish Laws” in Hungary which limit Jewish participation in commerce, industry and the professions and eliminates them from agriculture.