During the last few months anti-Semitism has raised its head in many parts of Europe heretofore without a Jewish question. Antwerp, Copenhagen, Zurich, and Amsterdam have seen anti-Jewish demonstrations.
Other capitals in Europe, Paris, London, Vienna, Warsaw, and many smaller cities have revived long dormant antipathy toward Jews.
While the influx of German Jewish refugees into these cities is immediately responsible for much of this anti-Semitism, a more malignant irritation lies beneath the surface; and this promises to last longer and be more dangerous to world Jewry than any of the localized incidents of past centuries. For perhaps the first time in history a world power has embarked on a universal crusade against the Jews.
At Nuremburg, Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels, German Nazi Minister of Propaganda and Enlightement, declared, “Our National Socialism is not an article for export….It is international Jewry’s fault that the Jewish question has become almost exclusively the problem of world discussion.”
DOESN’T GOEBBELS KNOW?
In stating that the National {SPAN}S##ialist{/SPAN} Party in Germany is not carrying out an active, premeditated program against Jews in other countries, Dr. Goebbels is either deliberately lying, covering up the Nazi. Internationale, or else he is grossly misinformed on the machinations of his own party.
From many Nazi official sources and through other authoritative avenues of information, this reporter learned that the Nazi line of action is not restricted to the ousting of Jews from Germany but extends to the extermination of the race throughout the world.
With the consolidation of its position in the fatherland, the National Socialist Party is now beginning to build a world-wide propaganda and inner political organization, the effects of which will shortly be felt in every important country on the globe.
Principally through the Race Commissariat, a newly created organ of the Hitler government whose function at present is concentrated in the dissolution of German Jewry and the divorce of Jews from German affairs, will the groundwork for world anti-Semitism be laid.
As a result of frequent meetings with members of the Race Commissariat and by gaining their unsolicited confidence, this reporter not only learned the basic principles of the Nazi Internationale but was offered a position in the American department of the organization. It was suggested that the reporter might disseminate anti-Jewish propaganda from New York to all receptive newspapers and periodicals in the United States. The first article was outlined and presented and is now in the possession of the writer.
Credentials from three newspapers the reporter represented had been given the Commissariat, but, in view of the isolation and arrest of correspondents for Jewish organizations, I had only vaguely mentioned my connections with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to Nazis.
One of the most important and most lucrative departments of the Nazi Internationale is the American. At present two well known figures are waging a severe struggle for control of the United States branch. One is a close friend of Adolf Hitler, a Harvard man, and formerly an art dealer in New York. The other is a friend of Hermann Goering. The battle for the United States post reached its peak in May. Goering left Berlin; Hitler’s friend threw the Goering man into jail on an embezzlement charge; and for the time being it appeared as though the head of the American Nazi cell would be Hitler’s lieutenant. The sudden return of Goering to Berlin again put the matter in suspension; and to this day the fight for the American post rages, although it is painstakingly covered from public notice.
More than one hundred Americans have passed through Berlin during the last three months, each seeking a job with the Nazi American organization. A few have been sent to Germany by pro-Nazi elements in New York and Detroit; and after a period of study and instruction they are returning to this country to establish Nazi centers in Washington, New York, Detroit, Chicago, and other large cities.
AMONG THE PROPAGANDISTS
A number of Americans are being maintained in Germany to dispatch Nazi propaganda to English-speaking countries. Typical of this category of publicists is Edwin D. Schoonmaker, American Army propagandist in Siberia during the World War, writer of obscure political books which strongly savor of propaganda, and perhaps the most unreasonably faithful foreign supporter of Nazi Germany. He has recently written a book, “Our Genial Enemy, France,” which gained practically no attention in America, but which is being reprinted and distributed in Germany.
Mr. Schoonmaker at present is being maintained in the Kaiserhof Hotel, Berlin, by the Carl Schurz Society. Judging from his personal opinion his forthcoming book on Germany will be favorable to Hitler. In the presence of Nazis Mr. Schoonmaker was loud in praise of the new administration. He believed that many of the features of National Socialism could be adapted to American life.
“In every little town in the United States, we have six or seven churches,” Mr. Schoonmaker declared one day during a ride to a concentration camp. “We should do like the Nazis, and have only one. What waste!”
When it was suggested that people in the villages of the United States might think six or seven different ways, Mr. Schoonmaker lost his patience. “They used to in Germany too,” he said, “but look, they don’t any more.” Mr. Schoonmaker believes the Pope has too much power.
MR. SCHOONMAKER’S CENSUS
In outlining the attitude of America toward Nazi Germany Mr. Schoonmaker related to Nazis that he had made a canvas of opinion from fifty representative types in New York on the Jewish question. “Forty-seven people were favorable toward the action taken by Nazis, and three were on the fence,” he said.
Following Sherwood Eddy’s frank denunciation of Hitlerism before the Carl Schurz society in Berlin, Mr. Schoonmaker accepted the responsibility of writing an apologetic open letter to the editor of the Hitler-owned Voelkischer Beobachter to make clear the fact that Eddy’s speech had been not only a breach of etiquette but an injustice to Nazi Germany insofar as southern lynchings and the Sacco-Vanzetti case had made America sister state to Germany in Communist sin.
From the pens of such precious historians the United States and the world will shortly learn of Nazi Germany.
The utmost in cordiality and hospitality is shown visiting writers and educators in Nazi attempts to sway foreign opinion their way. Herr Alfred Rosenberg, in whose clumsy hands lies the delicate foreign policies of Germany, has grown weary addressing groups of travellers, pointing out the finer aspects of Germany as Nazi creations, forgetting or distorting the bad points, and urging his foreign auditors to speak well of the Nazi state at home. Replying to my question on the foreign boycott of German goods, Herr Rosenberg declared that the boycott was “a great inconvenience.” He felt certain, however, that it was purely of Jewish inspiration and undertaking, “for which the Jews throughout the world will some day pay.”
TO TRANSLATE PAMPHIETS
Through the offices of the Race Commissariat, the writer has learned that plans are under way for the creation of a world-wide propaganda system through German press associations and a chain of writers. Until recent weeks the Nazi Party has been concerned with the complete subjugation of the German press, now a fait accompli. Translations will be made of anti-Semitic pamphlets which litter the streets of Germany and will be sent abroad. Foreign Nazi sympathizers are expected to pay for the maintenance of Nazi offices abroad and contribute to the upkeep of National Socialism in Germany.
Serving both the racial and military aims of the Nazi Party, a number of “institutes” are being created in Germany. The “Ukrainian Scientific Institute” at 28 Franzoische-strasse, Berlin, is being taken over by the new administration, which will subsidize the study of Ukrainian journalists and other professional men, who return to their homeland at the expiration of courses, institute authorities have told the writer. During the World War, the Ukraine was one of Germany’s most faithful allies. The country was dismembered at the close of the war; but there is still agitation for the reuniting and freedom of the state. A successful Ukrainian revolution would again give Germany a staunch ally in the highly important territory adjacent to Russia, Roumania and Poland as well as a long coastal expanse on the Black Sea.
CREATING PALESTINIAN ANTI-SEMITES
Persons from other parts of the world are also invited to study in German schools with the motive of sending them back to their homes to propagandize National Socialism. It is reported that many young men have been imported from the Near East, later to return to Palestine and carry out an extermination policy against the Jews.
All German international societies have been “gleichgeschaltet” (coordinated with Nazi policies). The heads of the Carl Schurz Society in Berlin have overtly made manifest sympathy and support for the Nazi administration. The Amerika Institute retains the same personnel as in pre-Nazi days, but the policies of the personnel have changed with the government. Virtually all American business interests in Germany have been forced to fire Jewish agents and employees and employ Nazis. A number of Americans at the head of these concerns are said to have complied with Nazi oustings graciously because of their own dislike of Jews.
At present the center of Nazi intrigue appears to be Upper Silesia. Polish Upper Silesia, rendered to Poland at the close of the World War, contains a large German minority population, and most of the Polish population, at one time German, speak the German language better than Polish. Hundreds of residents here secretly enjoy both Polish and German citizenship, and on the strength of their passports and linguistic ability they make excellent material for spies.
Nazi sympathizers in Polish Upper Silesia have created recently almost a score of anti-Semitic organizations, which are rapidly reviving persecutions of Jews in all parts of Poland where their influence may be felt. Hitler Youth in Polish Upper Silesia, straining their rights as a minority group, march through the streets singing anti-Jewish and anti-Polish songs. The number of disturbances here has recently increased. The territory is excellent tinder for a new European war. Reflecting the tenseness of the situation is the fact that heavy police guards are maintained around Polish and German consulates in that area.
Poland, perhaps more than any other country, is quite aware of the operations of Nazi Germany. An officer in the Polish Reserve Corps in Katovice (Polish Upper Silesia) one night explained the method of gaining information.
“You see,” he said, “tonight I am in uniform. Today is the first day of my annual thirty days service with the army reserve. For two days I shall drill and receive instruction here in Katovice; then I take my German passport and proceed to Germany, where I spend the rest of my month gaining information in German factories and military and political camps. We have thousands of men in all parts of Germany doing the same thing.”
Nor is Germany unaware of these activities. In Hindenburg (German Upper Silesia) just across the border, the chief of political police explained that every day two or more “deserters” from the Polish army enter Germany. They are closely watched, he said, and frequently they are found to be engaged in espionage. The chief also mentioned the fact that Polish unemployed in German Upper Silesia receive liberal doles from the German government. He did not mention, but I learned from other sources, that frequently these beneficiaries of Nazi government charity return to Poland to report the military situation there and create pro-Nazi sentiment.
Much mention has been made here of the Nazi aims for the extermination of Jews throughout the world. How this tremendous project could be carried out, however, has not yet been explained. A member of the Race Commissariat in Berlin outlined the plan for me.
HOPE FOR A NAZI WORLD
With Germany leading the way and thereby educating other nations in the processes of anti-Semitism, my informer felt certain that within a few generations Jews would be rare entities in the world. Vitally dependent upon the success of the plan is the success of Nazi propaganda and political organizations abroad. Foreign governments must be so changed as to be a carbon copy of the Nazi regime in Germany. With Fascism sweeping Europe as it is, the official believed that such changes will eventually be inevitable throughout the world. The policies of the people, he said, do not necessarily need to be in accord with those of the rulers. “Muster together less than ten per cent of the population of the United States favorable to Nazi policies, instil in them the determination of those now at the helm of German affairs, give them as weapons the attitude that the rest of the country must be reformed at any cost and over all objections, and they can rise to power,” he said. “Once there, as you see in Germany, it will be impossible to do otherwise than carry out their wishes.
“One man with a blind purpose will succeed in attaining his objective where one hundred purposeless men, with reason and intelligence, will fail to achieve anything,” he said.
Blazing the path toward Jewish extermination, Germany has already entered upon a program to rid its own territory of Jews. From one of the highest authorities in Germany, whose name can not be mentioned here, the writer learns that a plan for the virtual riddance of Jews from Germany over a ten-year period has been adopted. It is said to have been accepted by important Jewish leaders as consideration for a relaxation in violence and pogrom.
WILL GET THE JEWS OUT
Jews will be persuaded to leave Germany by making life in that country as distasteful as possible for them. Their business interests and property holdings will be shown no consideration in the Nazi plan for making Germany fully Aryan.
In the meantime measures will be adopted to restrict the growth of the Jewish population. Jewish marriages will be discouraged by making it impossible for Jews to earn a livelihood. Through the same means it is hoped to force a decrease in
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.
