Mass arrests of Jews throughout Germany started today on a widely organized scale, causing a new panic among German Jewry.
Those arrested were all Jews who returned from abroad, preferring to live under the Nazi regime rather than remain refugees in foreign countries. No political or any other charge was made against any one of them, except the fact that they had resided abroad.
SHIPPED TO CAMPS
Hundreds are reported as having been seized in the drive. All were shipped to concentration camps. Among those arrested are aged Jews who returned to Germany because they were not able to stand the climatic conditions in other countries.
The return of German Jews to Germany has assumed large proportions during the last weeks following reports spread abroad that the Nazi government intends to modify its anti-Jewish policy. Many of the refugees, still, being German citizens, applied for reentry to Germany at the German consulates abroad.
After proving that during their stay outside Germany they did not engage in any anti-Nazi propaganda, and after submitting evidence that they had not withdrawn any of their capital from Germany, most of these refugees were granted special permits by the German consulates to return to their native land as German citizens. No difficulties were made for them on the German frontier by the German border officials. Upon reaching Germany they were not only certain that nothing would happen to them but they were even anxious that those members of their families who still remained abroad should also return to Germany.
SHOE MAN SEIZED
The mass arrests which started today indicate definitely that the Nazi government does not desire the return of those German Jews who fled abroad, even if they did not engage in anti-German propaganda there.
Among those seized is the well-known Jewish shoe manufacturer Krojanker, who, being anxious to return to Germany, has transferred all his deposits from foreign countries to the German Reichsbank, in order to have a clear record showing that his entire capital is deposited in Germany in accordance with the existing exchange regulations.
Regulations issued by General Goering as the Minister of Interior soon after Hitler came to power provide that all those German citizens who fled from Germany during the first months of the Nazi regime may be readmitted to Germany if they prove that they have not conducted anti-Nazi propaganda abroad and have been registered all the time with the German consulates there as German citizens.
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.
