Download - SWASTIKA THE NAZI TERROR - JRBooksOnline.com€¦ · scribed the Swastika-symbolizing hatred of the Jew-and in that sign the new German Government, with Hitler at its head, declared

SWASTIKATHE NAZI TERROR

SWASTIKATHE NAZI TERROR

JAMES WATERMAN WISE

NEW YORK • 1933HARRISON SMITH AND ROBERT HAAS

COPYRIGHT, 1933, BY JAMES WATERMAN WISEPRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

BY QUINN & BODEN COMPANY, INC., RAHWAY, N. J .

CONTENTS

II Psychic Factors 21

III Out of Their Own Mouths 3 3

IV The Brown Terror 47V World Reaction 66

VI Boycott 88

VII The Cold Pogrom I00

VIII What Can Be Done? 115

Foreword 9

I The Advance Guard of Hate 1 3

For mankind are one in spirit, and an instinctbears along,

Round the earth's electric circle, the swift flash o fright or wrong ;

Whether conscious or unconscious, yet Humanity'svast frame

Through its ocean-sundered fibres feels the gush o fjoy or shame;-

In the gain or loss o f one race all the rest haveequal claim .

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

I :)

FOREWORD

Y DECREE ISSUED IN BERLIN MARCH 12) 1933) THENazi banner together with that of the Old Empire

was proclaimed the flag of Germany . Upon it was in-scribed the Swastika-symbolizing hatred of the Jew-and in that sign the new German Government, withHitler at its head, declared and is waging official andrelentless war upon 600,000 of its own citizens.

That war is the subject of this book . Its antecedents,its conduct, its effects, and above all its implications bearin a double sense on the contemporary scene. First, asthey affect, in common with events in all lands, thehighly intricate and closely related mechanism of inter-national life . Second, as they present an issue in humanvalues which includes but transcends the fate of GermanJewry, an issue which, made in Germany, must be meteverywhere .

That the world is aware of these implications isclear from the far-flung and profound reaction to theevents of the last months. Quite apart from Jewishprotest, civilized opinion stands aghast at the reportsfrom Germany. Increasingly so . For these reports nolonger deal with the fierce attacks and brutal outrages

9

I0 FOREWORD

perpetrated upon German Jews during the first daysof Nazi accession to power . Concerning such reportsthere was, in the beginning at least, the possibility ofexaggeration and hysteria. Moreover, hideous as theywere, there was the explanation if not the excuse thatthese were the deplorable incidents of an overthrow ingovernment, concomitants of a tragic but temporaryperiod of transition .

Days have lengthened into weeks, weeks into months .But despite an iron rigidity in censorship, the reportsfrom Germany to-day are infinitely more alarming thanthe first so-called atrocity tales . They no longer tell ofStorm Troop attacks upon civilians in the streets, ofhomes invaded, of individuals subjected to indescribableindignities, of terror and sudden death in the night .These have not ended. But they sink into insignificancecompared to the reports which now come from Ger-many-not despite censorship but with its full sanction :Reports vaunting the organized, open campaign againstGerman Jewry upon which the Nazi Government hasembarked.

This campaign to-day engages the attention of allpeoples. Not yet fully informed as to its exact natureand extent, they evidence a growing sense of uneaseand concern . For it embodies concepts which the worldhad considered as archaic and outgrown as the belief inwitchcraft. Since such concepts, however, have becomeboth the central fact and the dominant mood in thepolity of a great nation, an attitude toward and a courseof action on them must be adopted.

If that attitude is to be informed and that course a

FOREWORD

I I

wise and just one, it is necessary to present more factsthan are yet widely known, to coordinate these facts,and to relate them in historic perspective and to con-temporary events. To that cnd there are included inthis book, sections which trace the background of thepresent situation as well as the psychologic factors whichplayed so large a part in producing it .

While all that follows is in the hope of explicatingthat situation, its essence may be stated here . It is theattempt on the part of an overwhelming majority touproot and extirpate a minority group from its midst .The manifest injustice of the Versailles Peace Treaty,the unwillingness of the German people for democracy,the economic crisis in which Germany finds itself, theinnate and inbred German love of the imperial and theimperious-are obvious and potent factors in the pres-ent situation. But they are only its background . Theforeground is the minority phobia which provides theNazi Government with political principle and economicprogram, with immediate objective and ultimate aim .It is the dominant motif of the New Germany .

The minority in question happens to be Jewish . Iuse the word happens advisedly . For, if the configura-tion of German life is such that the minority there sub-jected to the delenda est formula must be the Jew, itmight well, under other circumstances and elsewhere,be a wholly different racial or religious or nationalgroup. Thus the situation which the German Govern-ment creates as it wars upon the Jew is potentially ap-plicable to minorities of all kinds and in all lands . Espe-cially to America-whose genius consists in the will of

12 FOREWORD

differing groups to struggle together toward commonobjectives-the German situation presents a grave warn-ing. The Swastika of Hitler's Jewish hatred constitutesa challenge alike to all majorities and minorities hold-ing that the common right to existence and equality isbasic to any civilization worthy the name .

ITHE ADVANCE GUARD OF HATE

«"'~ S TUT NICHTS, DER JUDE WIRD VERBRANNT! 77 (IT.matters not, the Jew goes to the stake!) is a saw

old alike in Teuton folk speech and political action . Thepeople chosen by destiny to provide a scapegoat formankind, has nowhere so fully discharged its tragicfunction as in Germany. Not that other lands havefailed to make use of their Jewish minorities in likefashion. Or that both in Europe and Americaa there havenot been parties and leaders who have sought andgained power by exploiting hatred of the Jew . But Ger-many provides the classic instance of this phenomenon .There it took its modern and scientific source ; there itdeveloped a philosophy, a vocabulary, and a vogue.This background must be recalled and understood fullyto gauge the character and strength of the weaponforged and to-day being wielded by Hitler with devas-tating effect.

Anti-Semitism-the very name which to-day connotesactive hatred of the Jew-was coined in Germany somefifty years ago. Its sponsor was the then new science ofethnology which propounded the theory that Jews were

13

14

SWASTIKA, THE NAZI TERROR

members of the Semitic, as opposed to the Aryan peo-ples, and that their psychic and spiritual traits were ofnecessity hostile to and unassimilable with one another.This deduction was accompanied by scientific strictureson the inferior nature and origin of the Semites, andequally scientific eulogies of the superior characteristicsand destiny of the Aryans . In 1872, Friedrich von Hell-wald, writing in the weekly journal Ausland, stated :

The Jews are not merely a different religious com-munity, but-and this is to us the most important fac-tor-ethnically an altogether different race . The Eu-ropean feels instinctively that the Jew is a strangerwho immigrated from Asia. The so-called prejudiceis a natural sentiment. Civilization will overcome theantipathy against the Israelite who merely professesanother religion, but never that against the raciallydifferent Jew. The Jew is cosmopolitan, and possessesa certain astuteness which makes him the master ofthe honest Aryan. In eastern Europe the Jew is thecancer slowly eating into the flesh of the other na-tions. Exploitation of the people is his only aim.Selfishness and lack of personal courage are his chiefcharacteristics ; self-sacrifice and patriotism are alto-gether foreign to him .

Hundreds of articles, pamphlets and books echoedand elaborated this thesis in the years that followed .The amazing popularity it gained may be ascribed tothe social and political trend of the German times . Ex-treme nationalism, then rampant in every country ofEurope, was whipped into a very frenzy by the German

THE ADVANCE GUARD OF HATE 1 5nationalists. Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, French Catholicscholar, wrote :'

The nineteenth century will rank in history asthe age of nationalities. National feeling, followingabruptly upon the cosmopolitanism of the eighteenthcentury, constituted the chief strength of the hun-dred years that followed the Revolution . Under ourvery eyes, and largely, through our exertions, ittransformed Europe, working miracles the like ofwhich history could not recall ; bringing the deadback to life, and making the halt walk again . It isdangerous to have so formidable a power arrayedagainst one ; and in more than one country the Jewshave realized this by experience . The experience wasdue to no fault of theirs; it was one they could notavoid or avert . National feeling, over-excited by itstriumphs or by its sufferings, was bound, in its pas-sion, to assail the men of alien blood, and who-insome instances but a short while before-had arrivedfrom foreign countries. Every nation resents the pres-ence in its body politic, of what seems to be a foreignelement. Thus it came about that, in Germany, Teu-tonic exclusiveness arrayed itself against the "Sem-ites ."

Characterizing anti-Semitism as a German importa-tion, he continues :

Our age has a liking for 1Parned formulas ; espe-cially is Germany fond of covering its hatred with a1 "Israel Among the Nations."

16


scientific veneer. The theories which the conquerorof Alsace-Lorraine held in regard to race and nation-ality were made to apply to the sons of Israel . TheGermans bethought themselves that not only hadthe Jew no Teutonic blood in his veins, but he wasnot even of Aryan stock, or, as they say in Berlin, ofIndo-Germanic stock . He was considered an Asiatic,a Semite, brother to the Arab, cousin to the Cartha-ginian; by virtue of which fact there was no roomfor him beneath the Gothic wings of the Hohenzol-lern eagle. Rather was his presence in the midst ofthe Germans a constant menace to the genius of Ger-many, a danger to deutsche Kultur, the mother andnurse of modern civilization. And this cry of alarm,uttered by the Germany of Bismarck, reverberatedwith that peculiar resonance which the trumpet-blastsof victory give to the popular voice . The summonsthat issued from Berlin found an echo along the entirefrontiers of Germany .

Such a cry of alarm could have arisen only in a na-tion uncertain of its national strength, unsure of itself .Homogeneous France or England could not have ut-tered it. The fantastic fear that the character of theGerman people and the unity of German life wereendangered by so small and powerless a group as itsJews, could have been felt only because that characterand unity did not yet truly exist. Bernard Lazare, inhis history of anti-Semitism, writes :'

2 "Anti-Semitism : Its History and Causes ."

THE ADVANCE GUARD OF HATE 17Long ago, in Spain, the persecution of the Moris-

coes and the Marranos was an attempt to eliminatea foreign element in the Spanish nation ; and in thesame way the Jews were regarded as a strange tribe,a horde of deicides, whose aim was by propaganda toinfuse their spirit into the Christian peoples, and, inaddition, to obtain possession of great wealth, the im-portance of which was becoming apparent even dur-ing the early years of the Medieval period . Anti-Semitism, at present, finds different expression fromthat of former times ; the charges brought against theJew have also varied, in that they are formulatedafter a different fashion and are given a basis of eth-nologic and anthropologic theory ; but the causes havenot altered appreciably, and modern anti-Semitismdiffers from the anti-Judaism of former times onlyin that it is more self-conscious, more pragmatic, andmore deliberate. At the bottom of the anti-Semitismof our own days as at the bottom of the anti-Judaismof the thirteenth century, are the fear of, and thehatred of, the stranger.

Yet this fear and hatred were not confined to theignorant or the weak . "The Jew," wrote Richard Wag-ner, "is the plastic demon of the decline of mankind ."Nietzsche promulgated and popularized a philosophicparadox that the Christian character of the Jew andof Judaism threatened to corrupt the rugged virility ofthe Nordic superman. And Professor Heinrich vonTreitschke asserted that "even in the circles of besteducated men who ordinarily spurned every thought of

i8


religious intolerance with abhorrence, echoes to-day asif from one mouth `the Jews are our calamity.) )3The Assembly of anti-Semites summed it up when

in Berlin on July 15, 18773 they declared that "theJew is about to strangle the native idealism of Old Ger-many ; the Jew threatens to corrupt German character,German fidelity, German purity, German probity ." AndLeroy-Beaulieu, recounting this pathetic plaint, com-ments with a not inexplicable sarcasm : "This seemssomewhat ridiculous to us outsiders ; all these Germanvirtues must be very insecurely grounded in the Ger-man heart if a handful of Semites are able to uprootthem."

As a matter of fact, those who translated the theoriesof the ethnologists into a political program were neithernaive professors nor troubled musicians . Committed toreactionary and militaristic policies, they were astuteenough to recognize the potentialities of anti-Semitismas a means to their end. Combining the advantages ofa scientific jargon and a popular prejudice, it could beand was used against every liberal and democratic tend-ency in German life. Brilliantly camouflaged in thehands of Bismarck, violently paraded by Court Chap-lain Adolf Stoecker, and crassly exploited by countlessimitators, it became the stock in trade of German reac-tionaries before the War.

That their violent diatribes and drastic proposals werenot translated into anti-Jewish action was due to threecauses. First, the general understanding that they them-selves did not expect to be taken too literally, that theirinveighings and denouncings were largely for election

THE ADVANCE GUARD OF HATE iq

day consumption. Second, the resolute and unyieldingopposition of the liberal and socialist parties which-fully aware of the tactics of their foes--were deter-mined to defend Jewish rights as a first and strategicredoubt in their battle to maintain and advance the causeof a free and enlightened Germany . Third, the normaland even favorable economic conditions which made itimpossible to win the masses to the grotesque thesis thatthe welfare of the fatherland was imperilled by a scat-tering of obviously harmless fellow citizens.

Yet, though no official or overt policy against the Jewwas adopted, there was evidence in plenty that the re-actionary party had not sown the seed of their ill-willin wholly barren ground . "Racial and cultural anti-Semitism met with great success," writes ProfessorIsmar Elbogen : 8

Hardly any branch of science was free from anti-Jewish prejudices. Luminaries of science at the Ger-man universities brought up many generations ofacademic youths in this disgusting spirit and they im-mediately poisoned the minds of the masses and in-fected all the strata of society with their hatred . Socialas well as economic discriminations against the Jewsresulted, but the reaction which took place in the po-litical life was even more perceptible . Although thegovernment professed adherence to the constitution,acts d ty, by means of "administrative fraud," asTheodor Mommsen termed it, they tried to excludeJews from the possibility of holding state offices, re-

' "History of the Jews."

20

SWASTIKA, THE NAZI TERRORfused to allow them to advance into leading positions,and kept them from military and naval careers .

The crop of hatred resulting from this planting wasnot to be reaped until a war, a revolution, and an eco-nomic debacle had blinded the common sense andbroken the morale of the German people . There canbe no doubt, however, that the ceaselessly iteratedcharges of the anti-Semites sank imperceptibly but deepinto the German consciousness, there to lie fallow until,in a mood of bitterness and blind anger, their latentpower for evil was cynically evoked and deliberatelytransformed into a national mania.

2PSYCHIC FACTORS

W HEN THAT CLASSIC PERVERSION OF WOODROWWilson's fourteen points known as the Versailles

Treaty was presented to Germany, Count Brockdorff-Rantzau protested, "We have no illusions as to the ex-tent of our defeat and the measure of our impotence .. . . We have no intention of absolving Germany ofall responsibility for the war . . . but we expresslyintend that Germany, whose people was convinced thatit was fighting a defensive war, should not be saddledwith the whole responsibility."

But Germany was as helpless to shed the guilt of waras she was to save her economic and territorial skin . Thetreaty that she signed retained unmodified the protestedArticle 231, stating with inescapable clarity that "theAllied and Associated Governments affirm and Germanyaccepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies forcausing all the loss and damage to which the Alliedand Associated Governments and their nationals havebeen subjected as a consequence of the war imposedupon them by the aggression of Germany and her al-lies." Thus on June 28, 1919, Germany stood in the

21

22


court of world opinion a confessed criminal among thenations. It was a burden too terrible to be borne .

Had Germany won the war, the assumption of itsresponsibility would readily have been transformed inthe national mind into a claim of achievement. It wouldhave been epic . Laureates would have arisen to sing itspraises, legends would have been woven about its he-roes. Failing of this, the years 1914-18 appeared amonstrous and purposeless demonstration of barbarism,inacceptable as a concept, galling, intolerable .

Implicit in the disproportionately cruel terms of thetreaty that Germany was forced to sign was the self-righteous unloading of guilt on to her by the Alliedand Associated Governments. Having thus routed thelast irksome vestiges of their own culpability from theirpolitical consciences, they were prepared to reestablishfriendly relations with Germany. Germany appearedwilling to reciprocate the friendship, but under the ex-ternalities of diplomatic and economic acceptance, sherejected and regurgitated the role assigned her. Thesin she had been forced politically to name and to con-fess became insupportably hideous . Had she not beentoo crippled and too disorganized within, she mightwith the waging of another war have proven her indif-ference to her guilty status. But denied this only safety-valve and unable longer to endure it, Germany castviciously about her for a whipping-boy . And found him,immemorially accredited, helpless to defend himself orto escape, within the boundaries of her land and themargins of her shame .

It is difficult to convert content into aggression . Had

PSYCHIC FACTORS

23

the people of Germany been wellfed, sheltered andamused, they might conceivably have sublimated theirsense of guilt into the pursuits of prosperity. Had theybeen even normally employed, their signature on thedocument of guilt might gradually have resolved itselfinto a formal gesture . But Germany was racked fromwithin and without. Hands and bellies were empty .What had survived the war had been laid waste byrevolution. An inescapable feeling of unrest and a de-moralizing sense of fundamental insecurity obtained .There was a surfeit of the inactivity of despair . Thehigh suggestibility of the individual or the mass at sucha time is the recognized meat of party politics . Throughthe long tension of thirteen years the Nazis channelized,deepened and directed the river of spleen .

Any accessible minority people would have servedthe purposes of scapegoatism. But Hitler recognizedthe peculiar qualifications of the Jew for the part . Asidefrom the indispensable fact of its minority status, Ger-man Jewry was inevitably the object against which allthe self-loathing, humiliation and physical hunger ofGermany could vent itself . Long in the land, deeply inand of its culture, a familiar of its political and scientificthoroughfares, yet racially distinct, the Jew was a Ger-man and he was not. Of exactly the proper proportionof identity and difference, he provided the perfect ob-ject for a transference of guilt . It is tragic and ironicto note that the very effort of the Jew to be assimilatedinto the German genus betrayed him most completelyinto the hands of his enemies . Even in early childhoodmimicry is recognized as a stimulus of rage. It is argued

24


that in mimicry one may perceive one's own flaws inanother and strike out against them with no pain to theego. Thus the most successfully assimilated Jew becamethe likeliest target for the Nazi, and his willingness toabandon his own as bespoken by his assimilability, madethe violence of the Hitlerite seem rather a furtheringof suicide than the murder which it was .

More than a year ago the psychic bases of the presentJudeo-mania in Germany were brilliantly presented byDr. Nahum Goldmann, who wrote that 1 "the wholenew wave of anti-Semitism in Germany is an extremelycomplicated sociological phenomenon and comprisesmuch larger circles than the National-Socialist move-ment alone."Dr. Goldmann expounds with incontrovertible insight

and clarity the factors prerequisite to an understandingof the success of the Nazi campaign against the Jew .His analysis follows :

The fantastic rise and success of the National-Socialist party are plain evidence of the powerfulmotives which have given birth to and nourished it .Five or six years ago this party consisted only of asmall gang of fanatics and demagogues ; to-day it isnot only the strongest party in Germany, but also oneof the most important factors in European politics .The unbelievable extent of this movement indicatesthat petty negative motives like envy, greed, hatredcannot be made to account for the rise of Hitlerism .1 "The Psychology of German Anti-Semitism," Opinion, A

Journal of Jewish . Life and Letters, March 21, I932 .

PSYCHIC FACTORS

25

To try to explain it as the product of such petty nega-tive forces alone would be not only too facile an ac-counting for this disagreeable phenomenon, but also,from a Jewish angle, self-deception . Some definitelypositive forces must have been at work to create notonly a new political party of millions of people, butto inspire them to a point of fanaticism.

In trying to classify these various forces we areable to discern three different groups of motives. Thefirst group comprises old traditions, for German anti-Semitism is not an outgrowth of the present post-warperiod but a definite tendency which more or lesspermeated German life throughout the nineteenthcentury and made Germany the source of scientific,i .e., theoretical and ideological anti-Semitism . Thesecond group of motives embraces mass-psychologicalprocesses which, in the years since the armistice, be-long rather to the realm of pathology . The thirdgroup, which leads a great part of the German peopleto fight against Jewry, results from a new mentalattitude of the rising generation .

The great influence traditionally exerted by anti-Semitism upon the German people throughout thenineteenth century has resulted from two main fac-tors. The first is the predominant position of Jews inGermany. There was hardly any country in the world-until a short time ago-in which Jewry played suchan important role and held a position so totally outof proportion to its numerical strength . German Jewsnot only exercised their influence in the economic and

26


intellectual life of the German people, but even inthe political sphere they played an important roledespite the fact that they could not take any directpart in it. They did this rather indirectly by way ofintellectual influence through the formulation of newpolitical ideas, e.g., Marx and Lassalle as the creatorsof modern Socialism ; Stahl-though baptized, still aJew-as the founder of the Prussian ConservativeParty; and many Jewish publishers and politiciansas organizers of the Democratic party. This outstand-ing position in German public life has been one of thechief causes of the strong, "permanent" German anti-Semitism. The other factor which is more important,is based upon the peculiar psychology of the Germanpeople. It is a people of unique gifts, perhaps richerin its potentialities and specific abilities than anyother; as great in industry as in music, in practicalorganization as in abstract metaphysics, to instance thepolarity of its capabilities.

But, even at this very day, the German people hasnot found the true outward form of its inward char-acter. . . . Here lies, perhaps, the intrinsic reason forthe innumerable difficulties which the German peoplehave again and again caused in European politics ; thereason also for its jumpiness and its incalculable posi-tion which the rest of the world rightly perceives asa source of incessant disturbance .

I mention this because in it may be found the rootsof German anti-Semitism which has always been morea psychological than a purely economic or politicalmovement. It is characteristic of the extremely com-

PSYCHIC FACTORS

27

plicated, antagonistic, fermenting, and chaotic natureof the German people that it can so easily be influ-enced by other nations outside its frontiers and byminorities inside, at the same time that it is fightingagainst these very influences . The predilection of theGerman for everything foreign . . . is not onlyone of the recognized peculiarities of the psychologyof the German nation, but also an explanation of theamazing role the Jews have played in German cul-ture. . . . The people cannot help feeling thestrength of Jewish influence and trembles for thepurity of its own national genius. Hatred is alwaysa sign of inner weakness . Strong men and strong na-tions ignore the enemies or influences they reject ;whereas those who are not strong enough to resistthe influence of others have to endure it and hatethose who dominate them .

. . . The deepest hatred in human relations is al-ways preconditioned by the closest intimacy. If welook upon German anti-Semitism from this angle, wecan distinguish it as a consequence of Jewish strengthand German insecurity. . . . It is fundamentally anexpression of mass-psychosis .

This thought leads us to the second group of mo-tives for anti-Semitism in Germany : those arisingfrom the psychology of the German people afterthe war. Since 1918 the inner uncertainty, the tor-ment and the contradictions of the German characterhave been even more accentuated . The lost war hashad the effect of a neurosis on a great majority of

28


the people. They suffer from the defeat as from anunfortunate shock upon soul and nerves . They can-not recuperate because they are mentally not strongenough to lose the war like gentlemen, to acknowl-edge the defeat to themselves, to forget it, and lib-erated from the consciousness of it, to turn the pageand start a new chapter of their history .

This mental behavior of a majority of the Germanpeople is a most arresting and tragic case of mass-psychosis-the mental infection of an entire nation .The people resort in their suffering to a kind of reac-tion which is only too well known in psychiatry ; theyrefuse to admit to themselves the very fact whichcauses their suffering . Millions of people are livingnow in Germany who, despite the fact that they knowthat the Allies won the war, will not admit that factto themselves . At least they will not recognize it asthe outcome of a just and fair battle fought withequal weapons . The very thought that Germany couldhave lost the war is insupportable, and in this emer-gency they seek some means by which to explain afact that has obviously happened against the laws ofnature. Demoniacal forces must have been at work tobring it about and in the search for these forces theyseize on the Jews as the most natural objective . Forgenerations a great part of the German people hadbeen educated to see in the Jew the permanent scape-goat for its ills, and now the fact that the Jewish So-cialists played a leading role in the German revolutioncan also be used against them . Thus they were heldresponsible for the defeat as well as for every disad-

PSYCHIC FACTORS

29

vantage that had ensued from that debacle . Obviouslythis root of anti-Semitism will not be eradicated aslong as a major part of the German population suf-fers from the neurosis. This also accounts, more thanany other reason, for the depth of hatred, the pas-sionate rage, and the brutality of Hitlerism .Whoever has read any products of German anti-

Semitic propaganda and literature in the last ten yearsmust be revolted by the bestiality of the insults andinvectives, by the confessions of feelings expressed inthese prints. It is hardly necessary to be a student ofpsychology to realize that such a phenomenon, if itoccurs in a nation of the spiritual and cultural levelof the German, can be understood only as a mass-psychosis, as a mental ailment of hundreds of millionsof people. If we could afford to disregard the prac-tical consequences of this mental poisoning, our reac-tion to this phenomenon would be pity rather thanindignation.

Logical argumentation and proof by facts and docu-ments, that the Jews are not responsible for the de-feat and that the German revolution has been causedby totally different factors, have not the slightesteffect . The passionate propaganda campaign, launchedby Jewish organizations in Germany to combat anti-Semitism with statistics and documents, impresses usas rather naive . In the age of Freud it ought to beknown that mental ailments cannot be cured withlogic, since logical argumentation will make the pa-tient only more furious because he will feel the weak-ness of his position and is bound to react to it with

30


more rigorous resistance and more acute hatred . Thispsychopathic situation is also the reason for the manycontradictions in the anti-Semitic accusations, some ofwhich, if seen from a logical viewpoint, seem to bealmost humorous in the way they annul, one another .Jews have caused the war and Jews have stopped it ;Jews are the masters of Capitalism and Jews are thechieftains of Bolshevism ; Jews dominate internationalpolitics and at the same time they are concerned withthe politics of Jewish solidarity only. It is not a ques-tion of logic or of proofs but rather of a diseased mindseeking a symbol for its hatred, an outlet for all itsrejections and aversions .

Besides these two groups of psychological motives,we are aware of a third which, seen from a historicalangle, may be considered most important and dan-gerous. It is an entirely new phenomenon foundednot in psychopathic reactions but in spiritual and po-litical tendencies.

A new conception of politics among a great part ofthe younger generation of the German universitiesexplains a great deal of the attitude of the leaders ofthe anti-Semitic movement. In previous periods theintellectuals of all nations, and especially the studentshad always been against anti-Semitism which, duringthe nineteenth century, had been the monopoly ofdemagogues, politicians, petty-bourgeoisies, and simi-lar elements. The intellectuals had always been lib-eral, youth always progressive, and both thereforeopposed to anti-Semitism. To-day, however, the sit-

PSYCHIC FACTORS 3 1uation is reversed in Germany-and not only in Ger-many. A considerable part of the intelligentsia is in-clined toward anti-Semitism and, what is much moreimportant, the major part of the student body ap-proves it. This vital fact means that anti-Semitismwill not quickly disappear from the German stage .These youths will only start to play their role inGerman life five or ten years hence, and will thenonly have their chance to implement their anti-Semitic tendencies .

The change in the attitude of these classes is basedon a profound change in our cultural and politicalideology. The great political and social ideas of thenineteenth century-individualism, liberalism, democ-racy, toleration, in brief, liberty-are being con-sciously rejected. Contemporary youth has a newconception of the nature of the State which is morestrict and severe and disciplined . It tends in the di-rection of the collectivistic ideal . These youths acceptCommunism or Fascism-which have much more incommon than one might suspect at a hasty glance-and they certainly have in common the fight againstthe liberal ideals of the nineteenth century. The entireatmosphere of that liberal century is being ridiculed .Respect for minorities as well as toleration of dis-senters is depicted as developing a chaotic situationwhich must be vanquished by the lofty new concep-tion of the nature of the State.

This is the most profound cause of the attitude ofthe major part of the German intelligentsia againstthe Jews. Very rightly they feel that the Jews are

32 SWASTIKA, THE NAZI TERROR

the natural born champions of these ideals . Jews as aminority are ready to fight and to die for them.Wherever the state demands the hundred percentstandardization of its citizens, it must annihilate theindependent and individual existence of the Jews asJews-and the best example of this is provided bySoviet Russia which certainly is not deliberately orofficially anti-Semitic . Those German intellectualswho have established the theories and the ideologyof National Socialism and who are the spiritual lead-ers of Hitlerism are conscious of this fact . Their fightagainst democracy is identical with their fight againstthe Jews as the champions of democracy . Their rag-ing hatred against the "Jewish Press" is not hatredagainst Jews alone, it is equally directed against allliberal journalism .

The causes and root of German anti-Semitism ele-vate the whole subject to the plane of a problem ofhistorical significance and also demonstrate its inter-national importance . This is really one of the greatspiritual conflicts between the eternal ideals of lib-erty, toleration, and liberalism on one side, and na-tional militarism, collectivism and dictatorship on theother. The battle has run its course through all his-tory and now has again become the central problemof our day.

3OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

«

HE GERMAN HAS NOT THE SLIGHTEST NOTION OF.how a people must be misled if the adherence of

the masses is sought," wrote Adolf Hitler in 1924.'The phenomenal rise to power of the Nazi party is ex-plained in this cynical boast of political sophisticationby its leader . Since first he made it, he has supplied themost thorough and effective instruction in the art ofdeliberate misleading which history records .

It is in the light of this boast that Hitler and themovement which is interchangeable with him, must beviewed. His is no case of misguided fanaticism in a naiveand untutored man. Hitler is fully aware of the ab-surdity and mendaciousness of his propaganda . Farfrom hiding or denying, he revels in it . "To win thesympathy of the broad masses," he wrote, "you musttell them the crudest and most stupid things ." He hasand does .

We have already seen that the German stage wasset and the actor-audience impatient for any illusion

1 "Mein Kampf" (My Struggle), by Adolf Hitler. Quotationdeleted from 12th edition, 1932 .

33

34


through which it might forget its misery and despair .Magic, strong and black, was required, and the magicianwho sways the German scene to-day was ready to fur-nish it. His recipe was an old and simple one . Nothing,he held, could rouse the nation from the slough ofdespond in which it had sunk save a common purpose .And since any positive or creative purpose was by thevery nature of the times precluded, he chose to uniteGermany by means of a common hate : hate of the Jew.

The story of that hate is Hitler's history . By meansof it he captured the first Munich beer-hall audienceswhich supplied the nucleus of his party . And, as theincreasing response of his followers confirmed theshrewdness of his choice, he made it the foundationand the capstone of his "unalterable" party program .Resorting to it as an escape whenever otherwise insolu-ble problems arose, widening its scope to include everyaspect of domestic politics and international relations,deepening its intensity to the point where uncheckedviolence seemed the inevitable channel for its expression-Hitler attained his goal.

This is set down neither in depreciation of the man'sability nor power. No estimate of the present GermanChancellor could be more incorrect than that of an in-competent nonentity swept to incongruous heights bythe illogic of events. Even the showmanship and theforensic effectiveness which have been advanced as hisonly leaderlike qualities, fail to explain his career . Theymerely divert attention from the Jew hatred which hehas made his medium; they serve only to allay the fears

OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 35of those who will not recognize the dimensions of hisevil .

To gauge the present status of the war being wagedby the Nazi Government against the Jews of Germany,its campaign of approach must be traced . Originatingwith Hitler's calculated formula of hate, it establishedits object as a point of reference for all the ills thatGerman flesh or spirit was heir to . In its earliest andcrudest stage the campaign may be termed scape-goatism, impure and simple . Edgar Ansell Mowrer,for ten years Berlin correspondent of the Chicago DailyNews, depicts it thus :'

If Germany lost the war, the Jews betrayed it .If the Kaiser and the grand old order had to go,

the fault lay with the Jewish revolutionaries .If money vanished during the inflation, look for it

in the pockets of Israel .If you were unemployed, you need merely note

how many Jews still had good safe jobs. If as lawyer,physician, scientist, professor, teacher, artist, successdid not smile upon you, it was because the Jews hadtaken the best for themselves.

When a high school youth failed in his mathe-matics, it was because Jewish influence in Germanschools caused overimportance to be laid on numbersand rationality : true Germans "think with theirblood."2 "Germany Puts the Clock Back," by Edgar Ansell Mowrer,

1933 .

36


If a shopkeeper went broke, the proper coursewas to break the windows of the Jewish departmentstore. If a manufacturer could not keep up with tech-nical methods, the fault lay with Jewish usurers inthe banks. For whereas German capital is "creative,"Jewish capital is "appropriative."

In short, if girls went wrong and religion decayed,if Germany paid reparations to negroid French andgreedy Americans, if abortion became common andarchitects built flat roofs and the rumba swept theglobe, the fault of it all lay with the Jews!

Aided by his lieutenants, Feder and Goebbels, Hitlerspeedily graduated from this comparative kindergartenof hatred . They orientated their instrument of ill-willupon every issue confronting the German people . Thuson the vexed question of banking and the interest onloans, the Nazis discovered a profound if elusive dis-tinction between two types of capital . The one theylabeled Jewish, the other Christian . The Christian orschaffendes capital was defined as employed in industrialand constructive enterprises . The Jewish or raffendescapital was described as pertaining to loans, mortgages,etc., and therefore parasitic. Despite the obvious diffi-culty that Jewish and Christian capitalists were indistin-guishably engaged in both varieties, it became a partyfetish that, on assumption of power, "Christian" capitalwas to be safeguarded, "Jewish" expropriated .

No weapon in the armory of hate was more cleverlyemployed than the bogey of Marxian revolution . Thenatural antipathy of the German spirit to radical change,

OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 37

the insular position which since the war had been foistedon the nation, the repellent yet attractive proximity ofthe Communist experiment-all were concentrated anddirected upon the menace of the international Jew. Forwas not the Jew the international people par excellence ;had not Russia been dragged into Communism byJewish conspirators ; were not Jews in Germany andelsewhere disproportionately active in the organizationof labor; above all, was not the evil genius of interna-tionalism-Marx himself-a Jew? In a frenzy of non-sequitor, Hitler affirmed, "If the Jew wins over theworld with the help of the Marxian doctrines, thentheir crown will be the wreath of death for mankind. . . so I believe in the spirit of the Almighty Creator .I shall defend myself against the Jew, I shall fight forthe work of the Lord!"

Most ingenious of all the mechanisms employed inthe Nazi campaign was its approach to the religiousquestion. To denounce Judaism as an inferior faith anda subversive creed, as Christian apologists had done inall ages, did not suffice. Not only must Judaism be de-stroyed but Christianity must be purged of all Jewishaspects. The practical difficulties of this purification-inview of the land, language, race and faith of the authorsof the Old and New Testaments as well as the centralfigure of Christianity-failed to discourage the Nazi cru-saders. The true Jesus, it was discovered, following thehints of Houston Stewart Chamberlain, was "throughand through un-Jewish, rather he was Indo-Germanic,he was German!" And Christianity, to be genuine, musttherefore be revised to harmonize with its founder's new

38


nationality. "Nordicus" comments on this transforma-tion as follows : a

It is modestly admitted that Christianity has at-tained its true worth through the Germanic charactergiven it through the Reformation . . . . This heroicTeutonic spirit rather than Christianity based uponlove will be the new keynote. Christ's doctrine of for-giveness and loving thine enemy are obviously out ofplace in a country that must preach eternal enmity tothe "French swine ." Nazi pastors will be expected todilate upon the heroic character of the ancient Ger-man gods-even though they be heathens-since theyexpress the real, aggressive, positive Christian spirit .The love-thy-neighbor-as-thyself Christian will betaboo. Any portion of the Christian doctrine thatsmacks too much of Jewish influence must be for-gotten .

As the Nazi philosophy developed, the gap widenedbetween the cross of Christian love and Hitler's Haken-kreuz of hate.

The keystone of this structure of hatred was of coursethe obsession of race and blood. Thomas Mann, in the"Magic Mountain," introduces a debauched and degen-erate character whose only justification for existence inhis own eyes is that, whatever else his shame, he is atleast not a Jew. Hitler set about inculcating a not dis-similar sense of pride in the German people. Divided,disorganized, and disunited, Germany could at least find

s "Hitlerism, the Iron Fist in Germany," by "Nordicus."

OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 39solace in its Aryan blood . Into this citadel let no Semitepenetrate .

With the slogan, "No Jew can be a German!" Hitlerset about the regeneration of the fatherland . The statewhich he visioned was to be a "racial" one . Its unity(and here lies its basic difference from Italian Fascismwith which it claims kinship) was to be a unity of blood .Alfred Rosenberg, philosopher of the Nazi movement,outdid even his leader when he rhapsodized over "thebelief embodied in the sublime knowledge that Nordicblood represents the mystery which has replaced andvanquished the ancient sacrament."'

Having solved the racial mystery-a task whichscience rejects as impossible-the Nazis turned to incor-porating their hate of the Jew into a concrete politicalprogram. The document in which this is accomplishedand which may be described as the constitution or rather,the repeal of the constitution of the New Germany, isdivided into twenty-five sections . Of these, seven dealdirectly with the disenfranchisement, the pauperization,and the expatriation of German Jewry . A detailed andan illuminating analysis follows : 5

Point number 4 : "A citizen can be only one suitedto the state . The latter can be only one who has Ger-man blood, without regard to confession . No Jewtherefore can be a person suited to the state." Herethe rights and duties of citizenship are denied the4 "The Myth of the Twentieth Century," by Alfred Rosen-

berg ." "Hitlerism, the Iron Fist in Germany," by "Nordicus ."

40

SWASTIKA, THE NAZI TERRORJew. Under a Hitler regime he must live as a non-citizen .

Point number 5 : "Any one not a citizen can live inGermany only as a guest and must remain under leg-islation for foreigners ." In other words, Jews can bedeported at the will of the government, since they donot enjoy the privileges of citizenship and are classedas foreigners .

Point number 6 : "Only the citizen has the right todetermine the guidance of the state . Therefore wedemand that every public office, no matter what kind,whether in the Reich, state or county, be filled onlyby citizens." Thus the Jew is summarily shoved backinto the Middle Ages and refused the right to voteand to hold office. The rights granted him by theGerman Constitution are to be changed-in somemanner.

Point number 7: "We demand that the state beobliged first of all to give the citizen a chance to earnhis livelihood. If it is not possible to sustain theentire population of the country, citizens of foreignnations (Nicht-Staatsburger) are to be deported." NoGerman must be unemployed in the Hitler-Reich. Inorder to elevate the jobless into economic paradise,all Jews having jobs or earning a livelihood mustmake way when Germans blessed with pure Aryanblood live on the dole . Jewish business men, doctors,lawyers, professors, all may be deported if there beany unemployment whatsoever. Where this army ofJews will be sent is not made clear .

Point number 8 : "Further immigration of non-

OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 41

Germans is to be prohibited. We demand that allnon-Germans who have immigrated to Germany sinceAugust 2, 1914, be forced to leave the Reich imme-diately."

Point number 23 : "We demand a legislative battleagainst conscious political falsehoods and their diffu-sion through the press . In order to make possible thecreation of a German press, we demand that

"(a) All editors and co-workers of newspapersappearing in the German language must be personssuited to the state (Volksgenosse) ;

"(b) Non-German newspapers must have the per-mission of the government in order to appear . Theymust not be published in the German language ;

"(c) Legislation must prohibit the financial par-ticipation of non-Germans in German newspapers ; ifthis be disregarded the guilty newspaper will bebanned and the non-Germans immediately deported ."

Thus according to the program the press, regardedas an important factor in the political control of Ger-many, must be cleansed of all Jewish influence . Everynewspaper criticizing Hilter's anti-Semitic policy willbe muzzled if the least bit of Jewish backing befound.Point number 24: "We demand freedom for all

religious confessions in the state, in so far as theseconfessions do not offend the morality of the Germanrace." There will be freedom of religion in the HitlerReich, that is, for all except Jews .

Points 4 to 8 (concerning rights and duties of citi-zenship), point 23 (concerning the press), and point

42


24 (concerning religion), are aimed directly at theJews. In the rest of the program: points i to 3, for-eign policy ; points I I to 13, administration of justice ;points 14 to i g, industrial program ; points 2o to 22,education and administration of youth ; and point 25,administration of the state, the problem of anti-Semitism remains as a fundamental principle .

Such is the new Hymn of Hate which Hitler intonedand with which he captured control of the German Re-public. Lest it seem strange that this program was of solimited and negative a kind one need only recall thequotation with which this chapter opened. At all events,save for the general desire to rebuild a mighty nation,there is no other organized, intelligible, unified conceptadvanced by the Nazi Party. For on economic pointswhere its paradoxes and contradictions are not whollymeaningless, the program, "stands foursquare for noth-ing at all." Oswald Garrison Villard says of it : 6

Hitler's economic views are vague and contradic-tory, not to say childish, and always subject to changewithout notice. . . . One of his many utterances onthe gold standard reads thus : "For Germany thisquestion is not important anyway, since we have butlittle gold!" Soon, however, he stated after all hedid have some ideas about the proper gold policy ofGermany, but "our economic ideas are something wedo not propose to uncover now. They are, if youplease, patented." . . It would be hard to find aclearer case of the ignorance and the shallowness of6 "The German Phoenix," by Oswald Garrison Villard . 1933

OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 43this man who assumes that he alone is entirely fittedto lead Germany out of her troubles .

Indeed, the Nazi Party has frequently been madeuncomfortably aware of the hash of Nationalism, Capi-talism, Socialism, and even Communism which makesup its program. In a moment of revelatory candor,Joseph Goebbels, its chief of propaganda, lamented, "IfI had founded the party I should not have put outany program at all." Can there be any wonder that theNazi leaders turned ever and again to the sure groundof Hitler's intuition concerning the efficacy of hate? Onthat rock the Nazi church is founded .

Having secured the theoretic bases of the movement,Hitler set out to translate its tenets into action . TheGerman people must be given a foretaste of the sweetsof victory which a despoiling of the Jew would bring.Those who were amazed at the outbreaks which coin-cided with Hitler's final victory have but to consult therecord to learn that no act committed since that datewith official connivance but can be paralleled in thepreceding years. Everett R . Clinchy, Secretary of theNational Conference of Jews and Christians records :'

Actual past experiences wherever National Social-ists obtained control of municipal provincial Govern-ment has shown the determination to carry out theanti-Jewish policies outlined in their program . WhenNational Socialists were for a time in control of theGovernment of Thuringia, the Jewish method ofslaughtering animals was forbidden, and the National7 "The Strange Case of Herr Hitler," by Everett R . Clinchy.

44


Socialist Minister of the Interior, Frick, now a mem-ber of the Cabinet of the Reich, introduced in thepublic schools of the province the recitation of prayersin which appeals were addressed to the Almighty torid the country of the "enemies of Germany." Inother places, National Socialists dismissed Jewish ac-tors, opera singers, university professors and publicofficials . National Socialists in the Prussian Diet intro-duced a statute providing for the confiscation of theproperty of East European Jews who entered thecountry after August 1, 1914.

In a list of one hundred criminal acts committedagainst Jews in the year 1932, the following instancesare chosen almost at random.'

6.-January 24th :-The University of Berlin wasclosed on account of renewed anti-Semitic riots .Jewish students were injured and had to betaken to the hospital. As they were carried outfrom the hall on stretchers, the Nazis accom-panied the stretcher bearers chanting the song,"Jewish Blood Spurts from the Knife." Morethan forty students, women among them, wereinjured.

15.-March 11th:-Nazi attacks upon Synagogueshappened during services in Duesseldorf andEmden and the homes of the Rabbis were at-tacked. In Duesseldorf the Nazis fired shots atthe windows of the Synagogue, smashing the

8 "Anti-Semitism in Germany in 1932," by Dr . Trude WeissRosmarin.

OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 45panes and through this opening proceeded toaim missiles at the congregants .

28.-May loth :-The first act on the part of the Nazileaders who won a victory in the recent dietelections at Anhalt was to adopt a measure com-pelling Jewish children to imbibe Christian edu-cation. The diet abolished the separation of re-ligious education from the State Schools andintroduced compulsory Christian education forall children attending State Schools.

44.-June loth:Three Hundred Nazis marchedthrough the streets of Breslau and terrorizedJewish passersby, shouting, "Let the Jews go toPalestine." The Nazis attacked a Jewish funeralprocession just opposite the Police Headquar-ters. They shouted : "Here one Jew is leavingfor Palestine, and we will soon get rid of therest ."

68.-August i ith :-A bomb was discovered in aSynagogue in Cologne . Police arrived in timeto remove the bomb before it exploded . ManyJews were attacked at the gate of another Syna-gogue in Cologne.

8o.-August 3oth :-A 25o-year-old Cemetery inAschersleben was desecrated . A number of thetombstones were removed and some weresmashed.

As Nazi strength increased and government authorityrelaxed, the record grows blacker. Hitler had written,"If you fail to see your name maligned in the Jewish

46


press in the morning you made no good use of yourtime yesterday ." Conversely, his followers deduced andwere explicitly instructed that anti-Jewish violencewould be munificently rewarded in the hour of partyvictory. The conclusion was a foregone one .

1 have chronicled this campaign of hate, and recordedthese instances of persecution occurring before Hitler'saccession to power, not so much for what they were asfor what they portended. What followed was inevitable.A doom had been invoked. A broken and embitterednation had been "misled" for ten years toward Der Tag.Not as of old Der Tag of open combat against an equalfoe-but of pillage, of rapine and of murder committedone hundred against one upon defenseless men, womenand children within Germany's own border .

4THE BROWN TERROR

N THE SHADOW OF AN APPROACHING DOOM, MEN TENDto deny its reality. When the world declared war in

19 14, the conflict was of such proportions that it wasscientifically demonstrated and universally accepted thatit could not continue more than six months . When Hit-ler came into power, it was commonly held, both in andout of Germany, that the terror which he and his partyhad prophesied and promised could not transpire. Yettranspire it did-to an extent which even those whodreaded it most had not dared to fear ; on a scale whicheven its conjurers had not dared to hope . For morethan a decade the Nazis had sown the winds of hatred .Within a fortnight of their victory the whirlwind ofviolence and bloodshed had been reaped .

One is loathe alike to read as to recount what tookplace. Its evil savor and its harrowing details blanch theheart. Yet to omit them were to falsify the record .Whatever the ultimate verdict of mankind, it is needfulto set down and to make known these outrages andatrocities . No milder terms can be applied . Nor can thejustified disrepute into which these terms fell after the

47

48

SWASTIKA, THE NAZI TERRORWar be suffered to obscure the facts. Even though manyof the atrocities then reported have since been dis-credited as propaganda, it does not follow, as the NaziGovernment adroitly suggests, that propaganda andatrocities are synonymous . Whether or not they havebeen so in the past, they are so no longer in Germany .

The evidence of outrages and atrocities committedagainst Liberals, against Communists, and in greatestmeasure against Jews, is incontrovertible . Apart fromthe sworn testimony of victims and attested depositionsof refugees, the reign of the Brown Terror is recordedin the despatches from Germany by foreign corre-spondents of the press of the world. These men are notthe foes either of the German people or of its presentgovernment. They have no political, racial or religiousax to grind. Many of them have established homes andpersonal ties in Germany. They know that the goodor ill-will of the Government can lighten or maketheir work infinitely harder . And in the last monthsthey have been made acutely aware that any unfavorablereports will jeopardize not only their professionalactivities but their personal safety . Yet it is from themthat the most damning evidence comes .

Faced by this evidence and the deep resentment itevoked throughout the world, the Nazi Governmenthas had recourse to three devices . First, a blanket denialof all charges. Goering, who is Prussian Minister of theInterior, declared on his assumption of office : "I refuseto turn the Police into a guard for Jewish stores." Twoweeks later he categorically denied all outrages andstated, "Not a single Jewish shop in Germany is pre-

THE BROWN TERROR

49vented from doing business. Not a single synagogue hasbeen damaged. Not a single Jewish cemetery has beendespoiled."

Since this demonstrably false statement reassured noone, and since the press despatches to other countrieswere too numerous and too unanimous to brand aswholesale falsehoods, the Nazi Government took asecond tack. Goebbels, Minister of Public Enlighten-ment and Propaganda, according to the Berlin corre-spondent of the London Times, "confirmed all that theresponsible foreign press has published-namely, thatthere have been beatings, killings, and house visitationsby private individuals ." He called attention to the fact,however, that the Nazi accession to power had beenmore in the nature of a national revolution (Hitler in-sists it was a strictly constitutional proceeding) than achange in government. Thus it was inevitably attendedby certain untoward "incidents" of which Jews had beenthe victims, but for which the Nazi Government couldin no wise be held accountable. This, despite the factthat all revolutionary activities had been conducted bythe Nazi Party and its Storm Troops .

Finally, it was urged that the "incidents" in questionhad ended ; that they had been maliciously distorted byenemies of Germany and that they could be dismissed asgross exaggerations of the facts . In this defense theNazi Government had one ally-the natural disinclina-tion of the human mind to credit as possible the newswhich came from Germany. Despite this will to dis-believe, however, there can to-day be no question thatthe atrocities and brutalities reported from Germany,

50


far from being exaggerated are incomplete and under-stated accounts of what took place .

There is the incriminating fact of the iron censorshipwhich exists in Germany to-day. That censorship isexercised in two directions . First, upon the German pressitself. The special correspondent of The ManchesterGuardian writes that "there is not a word in the Press .Any newspaper that dares to give even a hint of thetruth would share the fate of hundreds of newspapersthat have been totally ruined by the terrorist dictator-ship." Moreover, the Government has made everyeffort to block the foreign correspondents of Germanyin their attempts both to ascertain the facts and to com-municate them. Under such circumstances what con-clusion is possible save that the little that has come tolight is proof not of more but of less than the wholetruth.

Even more damaging to the claim of exaggeration, isthe silencing fear on the part of the victims that anyword they may utter will bring further and yet moreterrible reprisals. This holds true, not only for thosestill in Germany, but even of the statements of refugees,and of letters mailed from beyond the German border-full of fear lest what they say or write may causethose who still remain in Germany further anguish .

Whatever the Nazi Government may say concerningexaggerations, it will be months and perhaps years be-fore the full measure of the Brown Terror may beappraised. But it is already certain that that terror willprove in degree and in extent to be even worse than theworld yet knows or than is here recounted .

THE BROWN TERROR

5 1

Before citing the evidence a word must be said as towho constitutes the victims . They are for the most partJews. Despite the political antagonism of Hitler toCommunists and to Liberals, the largest measure ofofficial rage has been directed against Jews . This hasbeen both in line with the Nazi policy which we havetraced, and because Jews furnish the easiest and mostobvious targets. Too, Jews have been victimized re-gardless of the political party to which they belong .Liberal and radical Gentiles of all groups have sufferedunder Hitler. But the most conservative of Jews havebeen no less subjected to the Brown Terror than themost radical of Communists .

It is not possible to give here a detailed and completeaccount of what took place following the election ofMarch 5 and Hitler's appointment to the Chancellor-ship. The nearest analogy is to be found in the ancientTeutonic custom of Freinacht-the customary night oflicense granted to warriors by their commander after avictory, a night in which order and discipline wereabandoned in an orgy of bloodlust and revenge .

The analogy is inadequate, however, since the NaziFreinacht lasted not for a night but for weeks. Noris its end yet in sight . Thus in a cable to The New YorkTimes dated March 25, Edmund Taylor writes :

On the nights of March 9 and io, bands of Nazisthroughout Germany carried out wholesale raidscalculated to intimidate the opposition, particularlythe Jews. As hundreds have sworn in affidavits, menand women were insulted, slapped, punched in the

52


face, hit over the head with blackjacks, dragged outof their homes in night-clothes and otherwisemolested.

Most of these incidents have been admitted by theauthorities, but officially they asserted they were car-ried out by irresponsible hands. Reliable witnesses,however, declare that in the literal sense of the wordthere were no mob scenes at all . Perpetrators of theoutrages were all uniformed Nazis .

The following more detailed accounts of what trans-pired are divided into two main groups. The first con-sists of reports and dispatches culled from the reputablepress of the world and in every instance carrying theauthority of a journalist of recognized standing . Thesecond comprises letters, statements, and affidavits ofthe victims themselves. In each case the identity of theindividual is known and the authenticity of the materialpublished is vouched for by the present writer .

In a series of articles in the New York Evening Post,its special Berlin correspondent, H . R. Knickerbocker,describes the course and extent of the Brown Terror inthe following terms :

An indeterminate number of Jews have been killed .Hundreds of Jews have been beaten or tortured .Thousands of Jews have fled .Thousands of Jews have been, or will be, deprived

of their livelihood.All of Germany's 6oo,ooo Jews are in terror . . . .It is impossible to ascertain how many Jews have

been killed . The newspapers are suppressed, the oppo-

THE BROWN TERROR 53sition is terrorized and the families of the victimswould be the last to utter a protest.

It is only possible to estimate in the vague term"hundreds" how many Jews have been beaten, tor-tured and robbed . The only means of information isthrough personal knowledge, by word of mouth andin those cases where the Jews are of foreign nation-ality and have complained to their consulate .

The foreign Jews whose consulates have protestedto the Foreign Office of maltreatment and savagetorture number around 15o. The Polish Embassyalone had an imposing list of affidavits to submit toHerr Neurath. They comprised more than roo in-stances wherein Jews had been attacked in their homesor places of business, robbed at the point of revolversand taken to torture chambers where men "in theuniforms of storm troopers" have beaten them withleaden balls. Nine American Jews were beaten orotherwise maltreated . Altogether, since the nativeJews outnumber the foreigners by roo to i, it is con-servative to estimate that during the first days of theterror "hundreds" of Jews were tortured .

In the London Daily Herald of Monday, March 27,its special correspondent replying to the challenge ofGoebbels that no one "can name one single Jew thathas met his death in the course of the national revolu-tion" states :

I am in a position to answer to-day the challengeof Dr. Goebbels, the Nazi Propaganda Minister, andto name more than "a single Jew" who has met his

54

SWASTIKA, THE NAZI TERRORdeath in the course of the national revolution . Firstlet me give three names, not one, to answer Dr .Goebbels.

Max Neumann, a Jewish merchant from Konigs-berg, was seized by the local Nazis, taken to theirtavern and beaten until his body was one raw wound .Pepper was then spread on the wound and the muti-lated body was returned to the family. Fearing totake the victim to a Konigsberg hospital, the familyrushed Neumann to Berlin . He was admitted to thehospital there, but died of blood-poisoning on thethird day.

Kindermann, a Jewish youth from Berlin, was kid-naped by Nazi Storm Troops, taken to their housein North Berlin, and there beaten until he collapsed .The family did not know where the boy was untilthey received a letter informing them : "Your son isin the mortuary ." Kindermann was buried in the Jew-ish Weissensee cemetery. Whoever wishes can con-vince himself, as I did, of the truth of the story .

Krel, a Jewish youth from Berlin, was taken to theNazi headquarters and there tortured to death . Thefamily was officially informed that Krel had com-mitted suicide by jumping out of the window fromthe fourth floor.

I mention these three names only because they aredead. No more harm can be done to them . I have inmy possession the names and addresses of many Jewswho have been brutally mishandled, beaten, floggedbut not killed .

I have spoken to a victim of one of these outrages,

THE BROWN TERROR 55a Jewish youth in the twenties. He was one of agroup of five Jews who were flogged until they wereunconscious. "I could count only until the tenthstroke," he said . "After that, I no longer knewwhether my own or some one else's body was beingbeaten into pulp with india-rubber whips ."

In like vein is the dispatch sent by the representativeof the Jewish Telegraphic Agency from Berlin, Marchi8. He writes :

The effect of Hitler's call for discipline is begin-ning to wear off. For several days after the publica-tion of Hitler's communique, violence subsided some-what in Berlin, although there were sporadic out-breaks in the provinces.

Nazis yesterday attacked the Berlin slaughter-yard,maltreating a number of Schochtem (butchers), andinjuring one . There have also been a number of in-dividual attacks in the Jewish quarter of the Grena-dierstrasse. Individual Jews have been attacked, andthese assaults are continuing .

Unknown persons entered a synagogue in theGrenadierstrasse and terrorized the worshipers . It wasonly the timely arrival of the police that saved theworshipers from violence.

In parts of the provinces Nazi violence is of a moreserious character, if only because the police are ratherunwilling, or unable to interfere. At Munich, thevenerable Rabbi Baerwald was pulled out of bed atnight by unknown persons . He was dragged from thehouse and taken out into the street, where he was

56


placed against a wall by hooligans, who pointed riflesat him. The aged rabbi believed that his end hadcome when the leader ordered the others to fire .However, the hooligans, instead of firing, burst outlaughing . They then disappeared, leaving the rabbi,who had collapsed, unconscious on the street .

This dispatch of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency is, in-cidentally, confirmed by the correspondent of the Chi-cago Tribune .H. R . Knickerbocker writing in the New York Eve-

ning Post of April 5 attests the reliability of the follow-ing instances of the Terror : "All cases cited here areeither confirmed by personal investigation by the Eve-ning Post correspondent or are citations from affidavitsfiled with foreign diplomatic representatives ."

I sat beside the sickbed of a young Jewish matronwho told me the following incident :

On March i4-two days after the Hitler decreeagainst terror-four men dressed in the uniform ofthe storm troops broke into her home as she was onher way out. They threw her into a corner and pro-ceeded to demolish the apartment .

She cried : "But I am not a Communist!" Theyanswered : "You're a Jew." Then one seized a knife,grabbed her arm and gashed again and again at herwrist. She screamed, but he kept on cutting. Thenthey must have become frightened, for suddenly allfour fled .

She reached the telephone and called for help .Luckily he had failed to cut her artery . Afterward

THE BROWN TERROR

57they called the police, and a detective exclaimed : "In-credible!" but he believed it when he saw her wrist .

When this story first became known by word ofmouth most people exclaimed : "Incredible!" but theEvening Post correspondent is able to testify that hepersonally saw the wounds.

March i5, about io o'clock in the evening uni-formed men took four Jewish guests from the CafeEnglaender in the Schoenhauserallee to a storm troopbarracks in the Schillingstrasse, where 400 marks oftheirs were confiscated . Their protocol reads, "Theywere beaten by the uniformed men with blackjacksuntil they were unconscious and when they revivedthey were forced to lick the blood from one anotherand from the table ."

This last item should suffice . The protocols aresworn statements.

Among the mass of depositions by the victims them-selves, it is possible to present only a few typical docu-ments. Yet they should prove ample . The first are in-cluded in a note recently submitted by the Polish am-bassador in Berlin to the German Government com-plaining of the attacks made on Polish subjects inGermany and demanding action . The text of the note isas follows :

In Berlin :On March 8th, Isaac Gordan, of r9, Alte Schoen-

hauserstrasse, was attacked at 8 P.M . by people inuniform, who beat him into an unconscious state withsticks.


On March 9th, Isaac Adler, of 5, Linienstrasse,and his son were terribly beaten . The windows of hisshop were smashed.

The same day, in the Sachs Cafe, Hillel Celtbaum,of 16, Muenzstrasse, was beaten till he streamed withblood. Eight hundred and fifty marks which he hadon him were taken away from him.

The restaurant of Moses Pariser at 12, AlteSchoenhauserstrasse was entered by persons wearinguniform, who beat the customers with rubber cudgels .They threw all the food off the buffet and threatenedto kill everybody, and then ordered the restaurantto be closed. Four days previously, at 2 P.M ., twelvepersons in uniform had hunted all the customers outof the same restaurant and had then demanded 250marks from Pariser for carrying out a police search .

The same day, at 6 :45 P.M., Aron Lizband, of 31,Grenadierstrasse, was attacked in the Linienstrasse.He and his parents were terribly beaten till the bloodran down them. On the orders of the uniformedpersons he was compelled to close his shop .

In Magdeburg :On March 8th, at i i o'clock at night six persons,

some in uniform, entered the hotel of HannahBrzostowiecko . They fired a revolver and beat allthe visitors in the hotel lounge. Many were stabbedwith knives. Brzostowiecko's daughter, who wantedto call the police, was dragged away from the tele-phone, the furniture was wrecked, the windows weresmashed and a great deal of damage was done .

THE BROWN TERROR 59In Worms :On March 9th, Chaim and Moses Armianer and

Herman Gruenbaum were called into the premisesof the Storm detachment of the Nationalist SocialistParty. They were beaten and were compelled to flogeach other . In addition, Gruenbaum was compelled topay 300 marks .

The following letter was sent from Zurich by a dis-tinguished Berlin attorney after his escape from Ger-many

Zurich, March 29, 1 933 .I thought it wiser for me, my wife and my child

to come here for the present and to wait and see howthings would develop and whether I could return toBerlin and resume my practice. It is impossible for meto put into a few words everything that I have seenand heard and lived through in the last few weeksin Germany. I am a veteran of the war. Neverthe-less I had to listen to the shouts of "Jude Verrecke"of the organized bands of demonstrators marchingpast my house . Daily there were attacks upon peopleand kidnapings, the most terrible kinds of mistreat-ment of any number of people of my acquaintancewho were known to have Democratic or Socialisticviews, or simply because they were Jews . These latterare according to the view of those who have the powerin Germany now, ipso facto, criminals. In Berlin atthe present time it is barely possible for two peopleto speak aloud to each other. Every letter, every tele-phone conversation is watched. In spite of that, how-

6o


ever, as is the case in all periods of tyranny, newstravels rapidly from mouth to mouth and when cer-tain statements are confirmed from various quarterswe know that they must be true. Naturally, in thecase of such reports, there are occasionally mis-statements or exaggerations. But on the whole theterrible reports are understatements rather thanexaggerations, for the simple fact that many ofthe victims or their relatives are afraid to mentionthem because they would be subject to further per-secution. The formal statements of the Centralvereinof German Citizens of the Jewish Faith and ofsimilar organizations are to be read only in thelight of this terror. In general the mildest threat isnow sufficient to compel a Jew living in Germany todo or say anything . When I left Berlin a few daysago I had the feeling that I was living in a conditionof a constant and continuous pogrom worse than thosethat once took place in Russia because there thepogrom started and ended at a definite time . You willprobably have heard by this time of the terriblepogrom in Koenigsberg of which the most importantand leading Jews of the community were victims .Here in Zurich I received from an absolutely reliablesource the confirmation of the terrible reports fromKoenigsberg. The relatives of the Jews who hadbeen attacked and wounded did not dare even to bringthe poor victims to the hospitals in Koenigsberg buthad to transport them to Berlin and many succumbedto their wounds in the course of the transportation toBerlin. It was only foreign protests, especially that of

THE BROWN TERROR

6i

America, which prevented even worse happenings, agreater number of kidnapings and bloody beatingsand possibly one big general pogrom .

I beg you most fervently to withhold my name inpassing on the contents of this letter and for heaven'ssake not to allow my identity to be brought to light,as I may possibly have to return to Germany, and Iwould in that case certainly be lost . Therefore pleasemention my name to no one. Possibly I should nothave written this but how can I keep quiet at the sightof the blood of my people that remains unavenged .

In a letter published in The Nation under the title"Escaping the German Hell," by a correspondent forwhose authority and responsibility the editors vouch,occurs the following :

You do not know how lucky you are, dear M ., tobe in the United States . If you had stayed in Ger-many, I assure you, you would now be among thedead. Two young men among my friends in Berlinwere arrested. Both families have been informed ofthe death of their sons . If they had been shot imme-diately after their arrest it would have been a terribletragedy, but the poor boys would not have had tosuffer infernal torture . Their brothers told me theywere terribly beaten up and brutally treated . One ofthese young men was a Reichsbanner man, healthy,tall, and strong. A week after his arrest his peoplewere informed that he was in the hospital on accountof a nervous breakdown ; some time later they weretold that he had died of heart failure. The other

62


young man was a journalist. Four days after his arresthis parents were informed that he had died of tuber-culosis and heart failure. In reality he was perfectlyhealthy and fit . I do not know what his political atti-tude was. His brother went to the morgue to take alast look at the corpse . It was covered, and he couldsee only the head, which showed distinct marks of aterrible beating. He insisted on seeing the wholebody and asked for a post-mortem examination. Thiswas refused in the following words : "If you don'tget the hell out of here and shut your mouth aboutthis, we'll do the same thing to you!" The bodieswere not returned to the families for burial .

. . . The atrocity tales are in truth "tales," sincethe atrocities are committed behind closed doors inall secrecy. In the streets everything seems to bevery peaceful. However, in Berlin in the Friedrich-strasse, No . 132, there is a Nazi home in which thereis a room whose walls are all smeared with blood .Even the Nazi neighbors of the building are said tohave protested against the daily and nightly screamsand cries of the tortured victims . This report I re-ceived from Dr. L. M., who as a Berlin reporter hasheard the screams himself, and knows some of thevictims.

The final document comes from an American womanand is sent from Paris :

DEARFST FAMILY :You have received my cable telling you where I

am. I have been through a horrible, horrible night-

THE BROWN TERROR

63mare. Writing about it upsets me terribly. L. and H .were sent by God.

Things in since Hitler came in were quiet .There was excitement in the air but nothing hap-pened. Friday night L. and H. and a few members ofthe family came to dinner. L. had a cold and was inbed. They all left about i i : oo o'clock. About t I : 15the bell rang furiously . I was already in bed. L. and Ijumped up frightened . We heard shouts saying if youdon't open the door we'll break it down . The porterdownstairs opened . Then our immediate door bellrang. L. said : "Who is it?" "Open, it is the police ."We opened the door, and five Hitler men in uniformentered, one with a bayonet . My God, my God, I amcrazy when I think about it. They asked if L. wasarmed. Of course he was not . Then they asked wherethe telephone was, and I pointed to the other end ofthe apartment. They thought I was going to use itso they threw me on the floor. It is all so horrible .I went to the bedroom where they were with L. Theyasked for our passports and as L. turned to get it,four of them jumped on him and beat him terribly .His head was cut open, his hand half broken. Theykept saying : "Jews, we hate you. Fourteen years weare waiting for this chance and to-night we will hangyou all."

I kept begging them to stop . They left L. uncon-scious and came to me . I told them I was American.One of them struck me with a club and said why didyou marry a Jew. They wanted to enter J .'s room .I begged and pleaded and said my baby is an Ameri-

64


can. Again they shouted, "Jews, we hate you." Theytook my American pass, L.'s pass, and my Germanpass. After they got the passports they beat L . again.

The nurse was off that evening and I alone . Theparents sleep at the other end of the house . It is amiracle they did not hear . I begged them not to gothere as the old lady has a very bad heart .

How can I tell you what I went through? I got L .on the bed. His face I shall never forget . Bloodstreaming all over him, dazed and bewildered . Bythat time M . came down . We got a doctor, a Gentile,as we were afraid to call a Jew. He dressed hiswounds and wanted to take him to a hospital . It wasafter midnight and I tried to get the American Con-sul. After one hour I reached him . He called thepolice, but they are Hitlerites too . I was afraid theymight return. That night I shall not forget .

In the morning L. went to the hospital . Whenthe parents found what happened the mother-in-lawgot a horrible heart attack . We thought she wasdying .

Father-in-law prayed all morning . I went to theConsul with L. and they were all excited. I had tosign ten affidavits about what happened . The paperswere sent to the American Ambassador in Berlin .

They tried to locate my passport at the Hitlerheadquarters but could not.

The American Consul was marvelous . They gaveme a new passport immediately and told me to leave

. They took me to the train, as it was dangerous .I am in Paris with H . and L. They are the most

THE BROWN TERROR

65

wonderful friends. Please thank them for all theyhave done for me and J . I shall stay here until thingsquiet down. Ask H. to show you L .'s pajama coatcovered with blood .

God help the poor Jews who are not American. Ibelieve that my experience will help them, as it wasofficially reported .

Hope you are all well . I am so tired . Love .

Be careful not to mention names. It may bedangerous.

So much for the evidence of suffering, the record ofpersecution . It is but a minute part of what is alreadyestablished by unassailable witnesses. It does no morethan hint at the muted anguish of those who darenot speak. And it is here collated and published, not inorder to harrow or incite, but because, while the peak ofthis bloody business seems for the moment to have beenpassed, it is not yet ended. Nor is there any assurancethat it will not again assume the same ghastly propor-tions. Up to now-save for denials and minimizations-the Nazi Government has given no sign of being awareof its responsibility for and in the matter . Until it does,the fact and the facts of the Brown Terror cannot bepermitted to pass from men's minds and hearts .

WORLD REACTION

« HIS IS A MATTER OF INTERNATIONAL CONCERN,"Tdeclared Viscount Cecil speaking before the House

of Lords of the barbarities perpetrated by the Nazisagainst the Jews of Germany. His word epitomized thereaction of mankind . Perhaps never before in historyhave the internal events of one country so swiftly be-come a matter of world import . A tidal wave of re-vulsion swept civilization into a storm of moral pro-test .

In analyzing this world reaction, certain facts standout. Foremost, perhaps, its spontaneity and immediacy .It was inevitable that Jews in all countries would raisetheir voices and hands against the heavy wrong putupon their German brothers . It was predictable thatthey would call upon their Gentile fellow-citizens toparticipate in their efforts. But the non-Jewish worldneither waited that call nor needed the stimulus ofJewish example to arouse it . As immediately, as in-stinctively as though the victims had been of their ownraces and faiths, the nations responded to the ordeal ofGerman Jewry. In England, in France, in Italy, in

66

WORLD REACTION

67

Russia, in Poland, as in America, non-Jews vied withJews in the expression of amazed indignation .

Equally significant was the unanimity of the world'sreaction. It was not limited either to liberals or con-servatives. Lines of political demarcation like those ofcreed and nationality merged in a common protest . Thetribunes of world opinion-from Communist Russia toFascist Italy-spoke with a single voice . Nor was theirreaction formal or superficial. It bore no trace of theconventional politeness of indifference . Characterizedby profound concern, it expressed itself in blazing re-sentment. And it has not ebbed nor ended .

It is possible here only to outline the nature and de-velopment of that reaction, since it found expression inall tongues and through such diverse channels asgovernment inquiries, religious pronouncements, and thepress. Typical of the last is this excerpt from The Man-chester Guardian of March Q :

The rumors which have long been circulating of aNazi terror are given substance by the news whichreaches us from Germany; organized, authorizedmurder is both possible and common in Germany to-day. If there is not the open massacre which manyfeared before the election, there is a secret terror . Itsorganizers learn from Italy and Russia. "Auxiliarypolice" who make their prisoners sing a Nazi song be-fore they fill them up with castor oil or beat theirfaces out of recognition are doing better than theirprototypes. The sinister buildings in the Friedrich-strasse and the Friesenstrasse recall the quiet prisons

68


of the Moscow Cheka or that Rome Palazzo whereso many odious tortures were inflicted upon prisonersin 1923 and 1924 . How can a great and civilized na-tion like the Germans tolerate these horrors?

And in America, The New York Times, in an edi-torial on March 30, entitled "The Larger Question,"stated :

The German Nationalists are forcing the world tosee something more than a "Jewish question" in theReich. By their methods and manifestos they aretaking the matter out of the realm of narrow racehatred and making it appear one of humanity andcivilization itself. The proposal is not to deprive6oo,ooo people in Germany of their lives, but only oftheir livelihood. "You take away my life who takeaway the means by which I live ." There is to be,moreover, a sweeping condemnation of children toignorance as well as to starvation ; the doors of oppor-tunity are to be slammed in the faces of ambitious andtalented youth ; a whole series of medieval restric-tions and oppressions are to be revived . To crown all,if humane citizens of other countries venture to raisetheir voices against what seem to them barbarousmeasures, striking down the innocent along with theguilty, the victims are to be held as "hostages" untilforeign governments take steps to silence the ex-pression of generous and liberal sentiments. . . .

The thing has already gone far beyond an attackupon a single race or religion . No appeal to age-longprejudice will suffice in a case like the present . Funda-

WORLD REACTION

69

mental issues of humane and civilized governmenthave pushed into the background the claims andcharges with which the ferocious agitation in Ger-many started. Feelings have been roused which tran-scend political boundaries or definitions of race . Nomatter what people are called, or what religion theyprofess, the modern world cannot sit by in silencewhen they are singled out for exceptional punishmentin the mass. Germans ought not to forget the outcryof the modern world over the Turkish massacre inBulgaria years ago. Sympathy and aid for Armeniansufferers and outlaws had nothing to do with theirdescent or language or religious beliefs. They werethought of as helpless human beings in the habita-tions of cruelty, and that was enough . It is enoughto-day .

One thing the German Government may set downfor certain. It cannot compel citizens of other nationsto be dumb in the presence of what they consider anoutrage upon the finer professions and ideals ofmodern States . If they kept silent, the very stoneswould cry out. Chancellor Hitler may think it pos-sible to suppress within Germany everything he doesnot like, but outside Germany his edicts will not run .He cannot suppress the deep and humane instinctsof civilized men and women . They may hold one viewor another of the political activities of Jews in Ger-many, but they are bound to protest against theproscription of an entire element of the Germanpopulation . . . .

7o


There are few finer examples of religious brotherhoodin action than the instantaneous response of the Churchto the Nazi persecution of Israel. Christendom seemedliterally to have been stabbed awake by this un-Christianinjustice . On other occasions in the long history of theirsuffering, Jews had bitterly and justifiably wondered atthe incongruous silence and apparent indifference of theChurch. In the last months that silence has been elo-quently broken. Clear and strong are the words ofreligious teachers of all faiths, indicting the irreligionof the treatment accorded the Jew by so-called GermanChristians.

An appeal to the German people to end the persecu-tion by the Hitler regime was issued by leading repre-sentatives of all American denominations on March 22 .The appeal reads :"

1 The following names were affixed to the appeal :NEWTON D. BAKER, former Secretary of War .GEORGE GORDON BATTLE, member of national board,

Pro-Palestine Federation of America .ELMER E. BROWN, chancellor New York University .S. PARKES CADMAN, former president the Federal Council

of Churches of Christ in America .RICHARD S. CHILDS, president the City Club of New York .HENRY SLOANE COFFIN, president Union Theological

Seminary.BAINBRIDGE COLBY, former Secretary of State of the

United States .MARTIN CONBOY, former president of the Catholic Club .ROYAL S. COPELAND, United States Senator for New York .J. HARRY COTTON, pastor First Methodist Church, Colum-

bus, Ohio .JOHN W. DAVIS, president Association of the Bar of the City

of New York.

WORLD REACTION 7 1We fully recognize that the German people have

a right to choose such rulers and such form of gov-ernment as they may wish ; but this recognition onlyheightens our right and duty to appeal to them notto permit continuance of the present acts of aggression,injustice and violence toward Jews in Germany. Weappeal to them to prevent these attacks against allthat civilization has gained for tolerance and under-standing since the Dark Ages. The problems of thisdeeply troubled world can be solved only throughmutual good-will and cooperation among all races ;and unless chaos is to inherit the earth, it is the sacredduty of every member of the human family and everysupporter of the Christian Faith to counteract this

STEPHEN P. DUGGAN, director the Institute of Inter-national Education.

AMOS I. DUSHAW, member of national board Pro-PalestineFederation of America .

HARRY EMERSON FOSDICK, minister the Riverside Church .JAMES W. GERARD, former United States Ambassador toGermany.

WILLIAM GREEN, president American Federation of Labor .CARROLL HAYES, president the Catholic Club in the Cityof New York.

JOHN HAYNES HOLMES, minister the Community Church .LUCIUS R. EASTMAN, former president the Merchants'

Association of New York .WILLIAM T. MANNING, Bishop of New York .MARTIN T. MANTON, former president the Catholic Club

in the City of New York .FRANCIS J. McCONNELL, former president the Federal

Council of Churches of Christ in America .J. A. MECKSTROTH, editor-in-chief The Ohio State Journal,

Columbus, Ohio.FREDERICK B. ROBINSON, president College of the City

72

SWASTIKA, THE NAZI TERRORsubversive, un-Christian and inhuman propagandawhich is abroad in the world and is now so painfullymanifesting itself in Germany. We cannot but regardwith profound dismay these recurring instances ofominous reversion to intolerance and persecution in aland which has been a home of culture, justice andprogress. We are deeply moved by the outrage andfolly of acts which seemingly aim at human degrada-tion, and which violate the most elementary humanrights .

To this our solemn appeal and protest we add ourdeep expression of sympathy for those who have beenthe victims of this violence, and our desire to co-

of New York and chairman of American League for HumanRights .

GEORGE E. ROOSEVELT, president Roosevelt Hospital .CHARLES EDWARD RUSSELL, president Pro-Palestine Fed-

eration of America .HARRISON M. SAYRE, chairman Foreign Policy Association,Columbus, Ohio .

ALFRED E. SMITH, former Governor of the State of NewYork .

RALPH W. SOCKMAN, former president the Greater NewYork Federation of Churches.

JOHN THOMPSON, pastor Episcopal-Methodist TempleChurch, Chicago .

CHARLES TREXLER, president the Greater New York Fed-eration of Churches .

CHARLES H. TUTTLE, president the Greater New YorkInterfaith Committee .

ROBERT F. WAGNER, United States Senator for New York .GROVER A. WHALEN, former Police Commissioner of the

City of New York .GEORGE W. WICKERSHAM, former United States Attorney

General .

operate with our Jewish fellow-citizens in the reliefand the protection of their Jewish brethren in Ger-

many-InEngland, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the

Earl of Iddesleigh, who spoke as a communicant ofthe Roman Catholic Church, associated themselves intheir capacities as churchmen with the Marquis ofReading when he urged in the House of Lords thatHis Majesty's Government "use such legitimate meansas are within their power, to let Germany know what isthe opinion in this country and what is felt by the Brit-ish people ." And countless pulpits throughout the Chris-tian world echoed the word of Bishop William T .Manning of New York :

None of us, whether we are Jews or Christians,none of us who call ourselves Americans, have theright to be indifferent to such acts . Such action againstany race or group of men anywhere in the world isthe concern of all of us because those men are ourbrothers and have the same rights before God thatwe have . . . .

The Christian religion calls upon men not only forjustice but for brotherliness toward all, and in thesedays of world crisis we see clearly that we must sweepout the spirit of hate and fear, and banish war anddraw all nations together in brotherhood and fellow-ship, if civilization is to be saved.

Race prejudice, oppression, religious persecution,have no right to exist anywhere in this world, and wehave no right to condone or countenance them .

WORLD REACTION 73

74


While the expressions of governmental concern werenecessarily more guarded and diplomatic than those ofthe Church and the press, their import and earnestnesswere no less evident . Sir Austin Chamberlain, formerForeign Secretary of Great Britain, and close to thepresent British Ministry, declared on April io :

I want the German Government to think of theimpression which its attitude toward fellow-citizenswithin its power must give the world of what its atti-tude to other nations would be if it were in a positionto force its will. Germany met her fate in 1918 be-cause, in overweening pride and egocentric vanity,she was unwilling to allow other people to live asthey wished, but was determined to dominate andimpose her will on the remainder of the world, andwe see again kindling in her internal affairs the samespirit at a moment when she is asking the Disarma-ment Conference-and other States expressed willing-ness to grant it to her-equality of status . . . .

Germany is asking reconsideration of any portionof the Versailles Treaty which is shown to be undulyharsh. Before you can revise those treaties, before youcan reconsider them, you must be quite certain thatthat domineering spirit has departed from the Ger-mans. Before we can return to their level, we mustbe sure they seek equality for their own security andto maintain peace and not to threaten the securityof other nations, and I say, with the sense of re-sponsibility which must attach to a person who has

WORLD REACTION 75held the position I have, that it ill becomes Germanyto be so narrow or overbearing or exclusive.

Sir Alexander MacFadden put the matter even morebluntly at a meeting of the Royal Institute for NationalAffairs in response to a bid by Prince Bismarck, unoffi-cial Nazi envoy to England, for British sympathy to-ward the Hitler regime. He said :

I ask Prince Bismarck to take the following mes-sage to Germany . Undoubtedly many influential peo-ple in England developed a real friendship for Ger-many since the War. But now they openly declaretheir sympathies to lie more with France than withthe Germans. As long as the German Governmentacts in the fashion it is doing at present it is useless toexpect that Germany will receive fair play, which itcomplains it does not receive because nobody believesthe news emanating from Germany which we considerto be officially tainted. The anti-Jewish persecutionsare causing irreparable harm in Germany, especiallyin an economic sense .Similar expressions have emanated from nearly every

important government. As to official American action onthe outrages, a more detailed account will follow . It isin place, however, to quote here from the significantstatement of Senator Robert F. Wagner of New York,German by birth, and powerful in the councils of theDemocratic party and of the nation. For it is typical ofthe attitude expressed and unexpressed of the leadersin American political life .

76

SWASTIKA, THE NAZI TERRORThe emergence of this destructive spirit is of con-

cern not alone to the Jewish people ; it is a menacenot only to the German people ; unless it is dissipatedit threatens to blot out every prospect of progress, topoison the very springs of our civilization .

The lesson of history is that the black brigade ofreligious discrimination does not limit its attackagainst any one people or any one creed . The Jew,the Catholic, the Protestant have in turn been thevictims of its blind abuse . The fields of Europe havetoo often been fertilized with the blood of such con-flicts. Proudly we thought we had brought that mis-erable chapter of human history to an end . Is it nowto be reopened? Is the shameful record to be length-ened? Or will the aroused force of public opinion,alive to the danger, muster the support of men andwomen of good-will of all nations and all creeds toexpose and stop the villainy of a malicious minor-ity? . . .

I cannot emphasize too strongly that the concernof the American people does not rest alone upon thenarrow ground that some of our citizens are reportedto have been molested. Our concern is not limitedby the common kinship of our Jewish citizens withthe Jews of Germany. Our interest and anxiety arein response to the universal call of humanity . We aremoved by the realization that in the little world welive in there can be real tranquillity nowhere as longas violence prevails anywhere .

WORLD REACTION

77When word of the Nazi terror first reached the Jews

of the world-united to its victims by the bonds of raceand love-they were for a space stunned with pain.Not only with the pain of bereavement and anxietybut with the probing of an ancient hurt . It was as if ahideous specter had arisen from the realm of ghosts.Then out of their sorrow they determined to find meanswhereby to abate and, quickly as might be, to end thetragedy which had befallen their brothers in Germany .

The task they faced was overwhelmingly difficult.They were wholly without physical or militaryweapons. Unable even to communicate with theirstricken fellow Jews, they could not counsel with themas to what might be done . Two courses were open . Thefirst was to exert all possible pressure upon the GermanGovernment to cease its anti-Jewish campaign . Thesecond was to summon to their cause the intangiblebut potent ally of public opinion .

Both courses were adopted. Everywhere great gather-ings evidenced the will of world Israel to align itselfwith the fate of German Jewry . In many lands, notablyin England, in France, in Argentina, in Poland and inPalestine, it was felt that while the Brown Terror raged,Jews should not have economic traffic with Germany .Nationwide boycotts were declared and, in some in-stances even without official declaration, they went intogeneral and telling effect .

In the United States, the initiative was taken by theAmerican Jewish Congress which, together with affili-ated organizations and divisions, represents a member-ship approximating 400,000. It sought first, by co-

78


ordinating its efforts with those of the IndependentOrder of B'nai Brith and the American Jewish Com-mittee, to unify the action of all American Jews . TheCongress quickly perceived, however, that it must choosebetween unified inaction and independent action . Itmoved forward alone .

At a conference of Jewish organizations held in NewYork on March i g, it was determined by profoundlymoved and deeply resolved representatives of AmericanJewry to make solemn protest against the "damnableoutrages of Hitlerism ." This decision was taken afterthe advisability of such action had been heatedly de-bated. Dr. Stephen S. Wise, upon whom, then andsince, leadership devolved in this defense of Jewishrights and honor, voiced the conviction of the over-whelming majority of those present when he declared :

How can we expect the Christian Leaders ofAmerica to speak out against Hitlerism if they learnthat Jews themselves deem it unwise to make publicprotest? The time to challenge this thing that comesout of the depths of hell is now, while it is happening .Jews must come out of hiding. The program of theAmerican Jewish Congress must be this : Germanymust be made safe for every Jew who lives in thatcountry.

The first effort of the Congress was to enlist the co-operation of the State Department . On March 22, fol-lowing representations made by Bernard S . Deutsch,president of the American Jewish Congress, and Dr.Stephen S. Wise, honorary president, the State Depart-

WORLD REACTION

79ment requested the American Embassy at Berlin to in-vestigate the situation and to submit a report. On Sun-day, March 26, Secretary of State Hull confirmed in atelegram, the text of which follows, the fact of "wide-spread physical mistreatment of Jews" and "picketing ofJewish merchandising stores and instances of profes-sional discrimination" :

You will remember that at the time of your recentcall at the department I informed you that, in view ofnumerous press statements indicating widespread mis-treatment of the Jews in Germany, I would requestthe American Embassy at Berlin in consultation withthe principal consulates in Germany to investigatethe situation and submit a report .

A reply has now been received indicating thatwhereas there was for a short time considerable physi-cal mistreatment of Jews, this phase may be consid-ered virtually terminated . There was also some picket-ing of Jewish merchandising stores and instances ofprofessional discrimination . These manifestations wereviewed with serious concern by the German Govern-ment.

Hitler, in his capacity as leader of the Nazi party,issued an order calling upon his followers to maintainlaw and order, to avoid molesting foreigners, disrupt-ing trade, and to avoid the creation of possibly em-barrassing international incidents .

Later, Von Papen delivered a speech at Breslau inwhich he not only reiterated Hitler's appeals for dis-cipline, but abjured the victors of the last election not

8o

SWASTIKA, THE NAZI TERRORto spoil their triumph by unworthy acts of revengeand violence which could only bring discredit uponthe new regime in foreign countries. As a result, theEmbassy reports that the authority of the regularpolice has been reenforced.

The feeling has been widespread in Germany thatfollowing so far-reaching a political readjustment ashas recently taken place, some time must elapse be-fore a state of equilibrium could be reestablished . Inthe opinion of the embassy, such a stabilization ap-pears to have been reached in the field of personalmistreatment, and there are indications that in otherphases the situation is improving .

I feel hopeful, in view of the reported attitude ofhigh German officials and the evidences of ameliora-tion already indicated, that the situation, which hascaused such widespread concern throughout thiscountry, will soon revert to normal . Meanwhile, Ishall continue to watch the situation closely, with asympathetic interest and with a desire to be helpfulin whatever way possible.

At the same time the press of the country pointed outthat President Roosevelt had withheld the appointmentof an ambassador to Germany and that this delay mightwell be construed as a tacit demand that the new Ger-man Government give satisfactory evidence of the cessa-tion of its anti-Jewish program and the restoration ofinternal stability. Moreover, it was obvious that-due tothe expression of concern, manifested in the investiga-tion ordered by the State Department, and to similar

WORLD REACTION

8i

measures adopted by Great Britain-the German Gov-ernment felt constrained to discontinue at least the mostcrass and overt aspects of its anti-Jewish campaign .

In the meantime the American Jewish Congress hadformulated a four-point program which it communi-cated to the German Ambassador, Wilhelm von Pritt-witz, for the German Government . These four pointswhich may be characterized as a minimum demand are :

i . An immediate cessation of all anti-Semitic activ-ities and propaganda in Germany.

2 . The abandonment of the policy of racial dis-crimination against and of economic exclusionof Jews from the life of Germany.

3. The protection of Jewish life and property .4. No expulsion of East European Jews, Jews who

have come into Germany since 1914.While these more formal and diplomatic efforts were

being made, a mighty wave of Jewish indignation gath-ered force against the unabated outrages, committed andcondoned by the Nazi Government . This indignationculminated in a series of mass meetings of protest heldthroughout the United States by Jewish and Christianorganizations under the auspices of the American JewishCongress .

The greatest of these meetings was held in New Yorkon March 27, at Madison Square Garden. The situationin Germany was one to induce hysteria, even fanaticism .A thousand police and an army of plain-clothesmenwere detailed to guard against outbursts and unruliness.Excepting to organize the twenty thousand within the

82


Garden and the thirty-five thousand in the streets out-side, there was no need. The spirit that pervaded thecolossal mass of humanity was one of subdued sorrowin the face of dire disaster. The speakers were greetedenthusiastically and their resolute words were cheered,but for four hours only the controlled indignation ofoutrage and the dignity of grief obtained . For the ad-dresses were patently meditated and of unforgettableimportance in the annals of right-thinking .

Those who voiced their protest on this occasion werenot, for the most part, Jews. They included WilliamGreen, President of the American Federation of Labor ;Bishop Francis J . McConnell, former President of theFederated Council of the Churches of Christ in America ;Dr. John Haynes Holmes, of the Community Church ;John P. O'Brien, Mayor of New York City ; BishopWilliam T. Manning; Charles H . Tuttle, Chairman ofthe Interfaith Committee ; Senator Robert F. Wagner;and former Governor Alfred E . Smith of New York .It is not possible to republish here the full texts oftheir addresses. Yet certain excerpts from these ad-dresses cannot be omitted, for they sum up the majoraspects of the world reaction evoked by Nazi persecutionagainst the Jew.

Dominant throughout was the purpose of those whospoke-Jew and Christian alike-to appeal to the reasonand conscience of the German people. No nation hasever been addressed with fuller faith and confidencein its will to justice. Especially was this evinced by JohnHaynes Holmes, who, as pacifist during the war, hadnever spoken a word against Germany :

WORLD REACTION

83

What shall we do in such an hour? "Cry aloud andspare not." Yea, protest till the very stars shout backthe echo of our cry . Such a cry will be heard, as it hasalready been heard. It will be answered, as it alreadyhas been answered . And not only by Hitler, but bymillions of German men and women who are bewail-ing with us this night the horror of their country'sfate. For Hitlerism is not to be confused with Ger-many nor the Nazis with the Germans. These peopleare what they have always been, the lovers of musicand art, of learning and religion, of home and friends .In the grim fury of war, we maligned and betrayedthem. In the fierce vengeance of the aftermath ofwar, we outlawed and degraded them . We drovethem to despair, which has now changed, as it alwayschanges in the end, to desperation . Let our cry, there-fore, be a cry of shame for ourselves as well as ofblame for them. Before it is too late, let us confessour sin, our share in this awful terror of our day .And let us do what we should have done long since,reach out our hands to our stricken brethren in theReich, and, understanding them, trusting them, lov-ing them, join with them in ridding Germany andthe world of this monster born of terror and blacknight .

O Germany, thou land of culture and religion, oftruth and virtue, of Luther and Schleiermacher, ofKant and Hegel, of Bach and Beethoven, of Goetheand Schiller, of Heine and Mendelssohn, of Rein-hardt, Feuchtwanger, and Albert EinsteinDeutsch-

84


land, Deutschland, thou wilt not, thou cant not, failus in the end.

The profound sense of international accountability forthe welfare of mankind was stressed again and again . Inhis address Bishop McConnell said :

There is a document still in existence to whichAmericans are supposed to pay a good deal of atten-tion, namely, the Declaration of Independence. Whenthe American Colonists found it necessary to make aseverance with the people of Great Britain, they usedthis very striking phrase . Through their great spokes-man they said, "When it becomes necessary for onenation to sever the bonds that connect it with an-other, a decent respect for the opinions of mankindcompels that they set forth the reasons for the sepa-ration."

"A decent respect for the opinions of mankind"-that is the thought in my mind to-night . What wehave had in the past few weeks is an indecent dis-respect for the opinions of mankind . It is about timethat some leaders and some nations began to discoverthat the world is getting more and more closely andintensely into a Brotherhood of Nations, at least aCommunity of Nations, and that it is growing upevery day with increased international sentiment, andpeople are thinking in international terms. Whenthe writers of the Declaration of Independence talkedabout a decent respect for the opinions of mankind,their respect was so decent that they thought of thegood opinion of men who were six weeks away,

WORLD REACTION

85

measured in terms of a sailing vessel. Now you knowwhat goes on throughout the whole world over night,and we can reach Germany within a week . And if weare going to have that Community of Nations that weall talk about, then there has to be a public sentimentamong the nations to which the nations must conform .

William T. Green, speaking on behalf of organizedlabor, emphasized the basic interests which the greatmass of the German people, as well as workers through-out the world, had in common with the victims of theNazi program of economic segregation and oppression :

. . . In voicing our protest against the outragesperpetrated upon the Jewish people in Germany,there is no intention or purpose on the part of theAmerican people to interfere in any way whatsoeverin the political affairs of that great Nation . We accordto the people in all countries the right which we claimfor ourselves to establish our own form of govern-ment. We accord to them the right to establish theirown form of government, to manage their own eco-nomic and political affairs and to settle their commonproblems as prescribed by their own form of govern-ment. But, when any nation violates the laws ofhumanity, shocks international conscience, engages inpersecution of minorities and follows a primitive, bar-barian course toward helpless men and women whohave committed no crime and who become the victimsof racial hate then the voice of the American Federa-tion of Labor will be heard in solemn protest . Wewill not remain passive and unconcerned when the

86


relatives, families and brethren of the Jewish mem-bers of our great economic organization are being per-secuted and oppressed. We will come to their defensebecause the bonds of brotherhood which bind us soclosely in a great economic organization make theirgreat human problems a part of our own .

I come to-night in the name of Labor protesting,in its sacred name, against the atrocities which arebeing perpetrated upon the Jewish population ofGermany. I transmit to the officers and members ofthe German Trade Unions, the masses of the people,the hosts of labor in Germany and to the Jewishpeople an expression of sympathy and interest . Laborin America wishes them to know that it is not un-mindful of the suffering to which all of them arebeing subjected and that it fully appreciates the diffi-culty and the distressing experience through whichthey are now passing .

We pledge to them our moral and economic sup-port. We will render every assistance possible and doall that lies within our power to bring about an endof the campaign of persecution which was so un-justifiably launched against the Jewish people inGermany.

Alfred E. Smith with uncompromising directness ad-dressed a solemn warning to the Nazi Government :

No nation can afford a record of persecution . . . .The new administration in Germany is seeking a

place in the great family of nations, and like cominginto a court of equity, they must come in with clean

WORLD REACTION

87hands. And they cannot expect fair treatment fromthe nations of the earth if they in turn refuse thatfair treatment to their own people .

The moral judgment of mankind had spoken . Whatwould Hitler and the New Germany reply?

BOYCOTT

F ITLER AND THE NAZI GOVERNMENT WERE NOT IN-sensitive to the amazed indignation of civilization .

Instead of taking steps to end it, however, their responsewas an example of effrontery as colossal as history re-cords. They constituted further reprisals against theirvictims for the sympathy and protest which their suf-fering had evoked. In a special communique to TheNew York Evening Post it was declared that :

The most extraordinary feature of this announce-ment by Germany's governing party is its unconcealedchallenge to foreign Governments . The official state-ment declares, "Until Governments abroad takemeasures against anti-German Jewish propaganda,the Government of the Reich will take no measuresagainst the National Socialist anti-Jewish defensemovement in Germany. When the Governmentsabroad suppress anti-German propaganda, the Gov-

Acknowledgment: The author wishes to express his gratitude toMr. Norman Winer for his help in collating and preparing thematerial in this and the next chapter .

88

BOYCOTT

89

ernment of the Reich will take measures to check theanti-Jewish movement in Germany ."

"In other words," as The New York Times put it,"if newspapers in other countries continue to print thenews and to say what they think, if citizens of GreatBritain and the United States venture to reprobate theseverities practiced or proposed in Germany, then thefury of Nazi rage will be let loose upon their helplessvictims."

The form which the "Anti-Jewish Defense Move-ment" was to take, it was further announced, would bea nationwide boycott against Jews, the slogan of whichwas, "No German shall buy any longer from a Jew."Characterizing the boycott as a "counter-active meas-ure," Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda and PublicEnlightenment, proclaimed :

Drastic legal proceedings will be undertakenagainst the atrocity campaign which has been un-loosed in America and England by interested Jewishcircles against the new German regime . A blow shallbe struck at the intellectual movers and beneficiariesof these treasonable machinations, most of whom areJews of German origin .

Strangely, the world remained unconvinced of the"defense" character of the boycott . A dispatch fromthe special correspondent of The Manchester Guardianon March 30, stated :

The world-wide protest against Hitlerite anti-Semitism has by no means caused the renewed drive

go


against Jews . That drive was intended in any caseand had long been a part of the Hitlerite program .The protest has only been exploited by the Hitleritedictatorship to justify that drive in the eyes of theGerman public-indeed, to make it commendable .This has been done by representing the protest as akind of Jewish conspiracy against the new regimeand as an attempt to discredit the whole Germannation.

It is to counteract this conspiracy that the GermanGovernment is ostensibly taking renewed action . Thatis to say, Jews in Germany are being made to sufferafresh not only according to plan but also with theintention of making Jews outside of Germany ceaseprotesting. The German Government, in other words,is simply practicing blackmail .

But it was not only the Nazi campaign promises ofthirteen years which belied retaliatory origin for theboycott-the terms of which were mild compared to thelurid pictures which had been drawn for it in advance .Events in Germany since March 5 proved indisputablythat, long before public opinion had had time to solidifyin protest, the machinery of a boycott had been preparedand oiled. It was ready for instant action . Hardly hadthe election passed when it was set in motion. Nazisstood with megaphones before the large Berlin depart-ment stores warning the populace not to enter or topurchase from them. In the provinces the boycott hadbeen even more strenuous. Shop windows were beingsmashed in Gotha and Koenigsberg on March i r, and

BOYCOTT

in Duesseldorf and Gladbach and elsewhere pickets wereimpassable. On March 24-still several days before theprotest meetings were held in America and in othercountries-the press of the world reported picketing,window smashing, obstruction, and boycotts throughoutGermany. And if further confirmation were needed,Goering admitted on March 25 that Jewish shops hadbeen looted or closed . This admission was confirmed inthe always restrained and understated language ofdiplomacy by Secretary of State Hull, in his report tothe American Jewish Congress, which specified : "pick-eting of merchandising stores and instances of profes-sional discrimination ."

The fact of the matter was that, far from being aspontaneous or retaliatory boycott as the Nazis claimed,it had been planned for months and even years ; theprotests which had been made throughout the worldserved merely as the most palpable excuse for its per-petration. This is borne out by the following excerptfrom the letter of an American, long-time resident inGermany, who wrote immediately after the boycott hadbeen instituted :

They claim that all this was done in retaliation forwhat was done to Germany in foreign countries .Could any country in forty-eight hours have a com-plete list of every Jewish shop in Germany? This,mind you, included seamstresses, little shoemakers,tiny shops in basements that sell vegetables-this wasorganized to the nth degree .

91

92

SWASTIKA, THE NAZI TERROROn March 28, Nazi headquarters formally ordered

the boycott to begin on Saturday, April i . This was donedespite urgent pleas by Gentile leaders in German in-dustry, who warned that it must inevitably react ad-versely upon national business conditions . The ordercontained eleven specific points of instruction, the moreimportant of which follow :

i . Local committees were to be formed to directthe campaign, "for the practical and systematicexecution of a boycott against Jewish businessestablishments, goods, physicians, and lawyers ."

2 . The committees were to protect foreigners, as"the boycott was purely a defensive measure thatis to be directed exclusively against GermanJewry. .7 )

3. "No German shall buy any longer from a Jewor let any wares be offered to him by a Jew orhis subordinates . The boycott must be universal .It is supported by the entire people and muststrike Judaism in its most sensitive spot ."

5. "The committees shall watch the newspapersclosely with respect to the extent that they par-ticipate in the intelligence campaign of the Ger-man people against Jewish atrocity propagandaabroad. Newspapers not doing so, or doing soonly to a limited extent, are to be removed fromevery home inhabited by Germans . No Germanbusiness concern shall advertise in such papers .They must be ostracized as being composed only

BOYCOTT

93

for those of Jewish stock and not for the Ger-man people."

7. The boycott "must be pushed forward into thesmallest peasants' villages in order to hit Jewishtradesmen in the rural districts ."

8. The boycott starts universally Saturday, April i,at . 10 :00 A.M . It shall continue until lifted byorder of the party management .

11 . "Do not hurt so much as a hair on a Jew's head .We will accomplish this baiting by the sheer pres-sure of these measures ."

In conclusion the order proclaimed : "On NationalSaturday Judaism will know against whom it has de-clared war." And as a final filip of contempt, the direc-tion of the boycott was entrusted to Julius Streicherwho had, previous to the Nazi accession to power, serveda prison term for disseminating a libelous ritual mur-der accusation against Jews.

On March 30, supplementary instructions were issued .Committees were to ferret out Jewish businesses and"it shall be established what business enterprises areowned by members of the Jewish race. Religion doesnot matter." The Nazi Storm Troops were to be readyto man pickets at 10:00 A.M . on April i and "in orderto identify Jewish establishments, posters or signs show-ing yellow spots on a black ground shall be affixed atthe entrances." Meanwhile, the population had beenswept into a frenzy of excitement by a flood of propa-ganda. "Strike at the world enemy," the VoelskischeBeobachter flashed in huge headlines. Every newspaper,

94


including even those owned by Jews, was drafted andevery broadcasting station in Germany was utilized for"hour-long blasts of anti-Semitic execrations and warn-ings that any German who fails to participate in theboycott will prove himself a traitor to the fatherland ."

The first announcement of the impending boycott wassufficient to translate its injunction into immediate actionin many towns throughout Germany. On March 29, theofficial German news agency admitted that "in the lastfew days countless Jewish shop windows have beenbroken" and on the same day forty-eight Jewish shopsin Berlin were picketed and closed by Nazis .

In the meantime, contrary to expectation, the outsideworld had not been intimidated by this program of gov-ernmental gangsterism . The tide of protest, instead ofhaving been turned by it, continued to advance . Inter-national effects on German commerce and industrywere already beginning to be felt by the German Gov-ernment. And powerful economic and political elementswithin Germany itself brought pressure to bear againstthe proposed boycott . It is impossible to tell just whatmixture of influences and motives affected the decision,but on March 31 it was decreed that the boycott wasto be limited to one day . This retreat was marked, how-ever, in the belligerent and provocative formula ofGoebbels, who declared :

To-morrow not a German man or German womanshall enter a Jewish store. Jewish trade throughoutGermany must remain paralyzed. We shall then calla three-day pause in order to give the world a chance

BOYCOTT

95

to recant its anti-German agitation . If it has not beenabandoned at the end of that respite, the boycott willbe resumed Wednesday until German Jewry has beenannihilated .

With this introductory malediction, the day of boy-cott dawned. 30,000 Nazis picketed Jewish shops inBerlin alone . Scores of motor lorries rolled throughthe streets bearing anti-Jewish placards . Platoons ofNazis marched carrying banners, calling upon the Ger-man people to avenge itself on Israel . Yellow badgeshad been plastered over all Jewish shops, and signsposted liberally about the windows read: "Germans be-ware. Do not buy from Jews ." A few Jewish stores weredesolately open in the morning. By afternoon all wereclosed. No Jew did business that Sabbath Day .

Just how effective the boycott was, may be deducedfrom the following report of an eye-witness. Writtenby an American woman in Berlin, it escaped the inqui-sition of censorship by being smuggled out of Germany .

I will try to give you an idea of my experiences ofyesterday-Saturday, April i . I have had many ex-periences in my life, but nothing I have ever gonethrough can compare with this Nazi boycott in re-taliation for "the atrocity propaganda" against theGermans. No blood was shed, that is true, but thehumiliation of the Jews-the absolute helplessness oftheir position-the cowardliness of those brutes incarrying out to the last vestige the most minute de-tails on orders from above beggars description . . . .

I wanted to see for myself just what was happen-

96


ing and so went down the Kurfurstendam, a streetmuch like Fifth Avenue in New York-very long,block after block of both large and small exclusiveshops interspersed by large coffee houses and movies .Here, on a Saturday afternoon, it is a sort of prome-nade and window shopping, but the sight that metone's eyes yesterday! On the large windows of allshops bearing even the semblance of a Jewish name. . . on office buildings where Jewish lawyers, no-taries, or doctors have their small signs, they smearedover the signs of the Jews and pasted small plac-ards, "Judea, geht nicht bier!" (Jews, don't enterhere!) . . .I went down the street to my dressmaker. Through-

out the entire street, on both sides, every Jewish shopwas pasted with these signs . An hour later, after amass meeting in the Lustgarten where MinisterGoebbels again took the opportunity to wildly agi-tate, I returned to the street and what a sight metmy eyes. These young devils like a lot of hungrywolves let loose (it was the first time they had beenallowed to really go after the Jews as they had beenpromised in all of the rabid Nazi speeches by theirleaders) with banners filled with red paint and withlarge paint brushes, rushed from one shop windowto another, and not satisfied with having put hugeposters against the Jews thereon, painted in huge let-ters at the side of the posters JUDE. These werefollowed by other troops with white paint bucketswho hastily painted a large Shield of David on thesame windows . It was a concerted action, completely

BOYCOTT

97organized so that one atrocity followed upon theother. . . .Thank God that the other countries know, and,

despite what this country is preaching that the massmeeting of the Jews in England and America hasreacted injuriously to the Jews in Germany, I tellyou this is not so. No matter how much they suf-fered in humiliation and insult last Saturday, it is notone hundredth of what we are all convinced wasplanned. According to their real program (the Box-heim documents and others) they had intended notonly to close the shops but to plunder them every-where and do a lot of other things far worse thanwhat they did, and which they brag about as havingbeen carried out in strictest discipline . Hitler madethe statement that the "people" wanted to carry allthis through themselves and that only by organiza-tion and by their storm detachments and the regula-tions which they carried out to the letter were atroci-ties averted. That wasn't it. They were afraid nowthat the outside world knew, to carry out completelywhat they had so systematically planned and organ-ized-a huge pogrom .

The official boycott ended at nightfall . Its effect uponGerman Jewry has not yet ended . That effect measuredin economic terms was enormous ; in human terms,immeasurable . Georg Bernhard, former editor of theVossiche Zeitung, a refugee because of his liberal viewsand Jewish race, estimated the effects of the boycott inan article published in Copenhagen. He wrote:

98


. . . The Jews may reopen their shops, but whowill buy from them? The official boycott is with-drawn, but the actual boycott continues . The Jewishbusiness world in Germany was brought under moraland spiritual pressure . Nothing can be worse than thefear that the Damocles sword may fall any day . Onemust go as far back as medieval times to realize howstrong is the feeling of dejection and uncertainty andthe deterioration gripping German Jewry .

Besides, the general unemployment growing out ofthe anti-Semitic excitement last year had left manyJews unable to obtain employment in the larger com-panies. German retail concerns then began in everincreasing degree to act in accordance with the motto,"Gentlemen prefer blondes," and this sad conditionhas now become hopeless .

The damage which has been inflicted on the poorestpart of the German population-that is to say, allthose who live on the work of their hands-now,thanks to the one-day boycott, has been made irrepa-rable. That day breaks down for the Jews the laborsof the ioo years since the liberation of the Jews.

If the Nazi Government had hoped by the ruthlessefficiency of the boycott to silence Jewish protest andto inhibit foreign criticism, it was grievously disap-pointed. The spectacle of a nation being constrained byits government to wage economic war, if only for a day,against its own citizens, served but to strengthen theconviction that every protest had been amply war-ranted; that Hitler and his followers were resolved bythe worst means to justify every evil report concerning

BOYCOTT 99them. The loss to German Jewry sustained on April iand the gains to the German Government were surelya pyrrhic victory . The Daily Telegraph of London cor-rectly evaluated them :

Perhaps the appropriate comment on the "success"of the anti-Jewish boycott throughout Germany onSaturday is that of old Caspar in the poem-"It wasa famous victory ." But it certainly was not a victoryof reason or judgment. The day will come when theGerman people will wish the senseless story expungedfrom their annals, and will wonder what madnessdrove the leaders of the triumphant Hitlerite Revo-lution to choose so shameful a way of celebrating thedawn of the new era. It is "Young Germany," as theNazis style themselves, which devised this mode ofself-expression . When "the midnight of intoxication"is past, and they come to their sober senses, they mustsurely realize that Saturday's proceedings were not atall grand and heroic in character-and the Nazisreally seem to aim at the heroic-but were, in fact,contemptibly sordid and mean. The new Nazi"frightfulness" was not even frightful . It was calledoff before it reached that dangerous pitch . . . . Itmay give Herr Goering and Herr Goebbels satisfac-tion to pretend that if the "Judean campaign" is notresumed on Wednesday it is because their brave fronthas scared the "foreign atrocity-mongers" and Ger-man boycotters into better behavior, but none will bedeceived. The Judean campaign has been called offbecause the German Government realized that itwould ruin Germany if it continued .

7THE COLD POGROM

WORLD-WIDE POLITICO-MORAL PRESSURE, AND THEfear of economic self-injury, induced the Ger-

man Government to end its official Jewish boycott . Nochange of Nazi mind or heart was effected. The arro-gant boast of resumption, unless the world "recanted"was not made good. But that its withdrawal was omi-nous for the future of German Jewry was clear fromthe statement of Julius Streicher, head of the CentralBoycott Committee :

I have a feeling that the battle [the boycott] willnot be further taken up Wednesday . This will provea disappointment to millions of Germans, but disci-pline must be observed in any event . It was not easyto yield, but Adolf Hitler can only proceed one stepat a time .

One step at a time! But let no one imagine that theNazis, thwarted for the moment, were resourceless orwithout further plans of persecution. If the lurid andspectacular procedure of a national boycott must beabandoned, there were equally effective means of gain-

Too

THE COLD POGROM

101

ing their end. Means which they trusted would reas-sure civilized opinion and rob their victims of thatsympathy which, for a space, had seemed to save them .With this purpose they inaugurated what is technicallyand officially known as the "cold" pogrom-economicannihilation and moral degradation, effected throughlegal measures and without physical violence .

The basis for such a pogrom had, as we have seen,been carefully and systematically laid in the party'sofficial program . The racial or Aryan state it visioned,supplied the rationalization of its real objective : thedestruction of the Jew . Moreover, what the partyprogram demanded, Hitler re-affirmed before theReichstag on April 6, as the aim of his government :"The purification of the people, especially the intellec-tual classes, from foreign influences and racially alienelements."

There were other important motivations for institut-ing the "cold" pogrom. A host of camp-followers hadbeen drawn to the Nazi standard by promises of futureemolument in return for their support . Unless they wereto be disaffected, those promises must be kept . The im-portance of this economic basis is stressed in a dispatchfrom the special correspondent of The Chicago Tribunewho wrote on March 30 :

Back of the anti-Semitism of Hitlerism one getsthe impression that economic pressure, particularlyamong the members of the ruined middle class, ac-counts for many of the attacks against the Jews . Likeevery revolution, the Nazi revolution is seriously

'o2 SWASTIKA, THE NAZI TERROR

concerned with the spoils of war, and in this case thenormal spoils-political and administrative jobs-donot seem to be enough to satisfy the appetite of thevictors . . . .

It is openly alleged in some quarters that the agi-tation over Jewish propaganda and reprisals abroadis being staged by government order as a pretext foreconomic sanctions against the Jews. It is evidentfrom conversations with Nazi leaders that the au-thorities aim to take a number of jobs of all sortsaway from the Jews and give them to Christian sup-porters of the regime .

There was, too, a political basis of the "cold" pogrom.The other plank in Hitler's program comprehendedrevision of the Versailles Treaty, recovery of war-lostGerman possessions, and restoration of German mili-tary glory. These objectives were obviously distant anddifficult of achievement . It must be months, perhapsyears, before they could be adduced as party triumphs .In the meantime, popular attention could be divertedto the purging of 6oo,ooo "corrosive cells" from thebody national of 64,000,000 helpless Germans!

It would be an error to suppose that the "cold"pogrom began only after the boycott was withdrawn.That incident merely concentrated upon it the full at-tention of the Nazi party. But it commenced a fullmonth before-immediately upon the accession of Hit-ler to power. Since then it has gained in momentum,widened in scope, deepened in intensity . To-day it is in

THE COLD POGROM

103

full swing, silently crushing its victims according to plan-a terrible tribute to the ruthless and sadistic geniusof its perpetrators .

It will be instructive to survey the hierarchy whichhas by proclamation and edict carried on this legalized"cold" pogrom. The decrees may be separated : thoseof the President, the Reich Cabinet, the individualFederal Ministers, the several States, the Municipali-ties, and the "coordinated" professional organizations .From top to bottom there is uniformity of purpose andmethod, each one ruling in its sphere.

It was on February 28, that President von Hinden-burg promulgated the "Enabling Act" which permittedhis Nazi Chancellor to encroach upon "personal free-dom, including the freedom of speech, the right to formassociations, and to assemble," to invade the privacy ofmail, telephone, telegraph, and dwellings. These rights,granted by the Constitution, it suspended. On the sameday the President acted for the "defense against mali-cious attacks upon the Government of the National Up-rising," providing prison terms for willful or grosslynegligent injuries to the Government or a State or "theparties or associations which are behind these govern-ments."

This effectively silenced both criticism of, and com-plaint concerning, any measures the Nazis might adoptagainst their opponents. Official dignity could not wellexceed "enablement." But these Acts not only enabledbut fostered Nazi violence . The gates were opened forthe subordinates .

The capitulation of the Legislature of the Reich was


a foregone conclusion after the elections of March 5 .The Reichstag confessed itself a lapdog and bade itsmaster rule. While the tactical advantage of allowingthe Nazis and the true Germans to purge their countryrather than have the Government do it was clear . Stillthe Cabinet did not refrain entirely from legislation .On April 4, obviously inspired by the humane qualitieswhich characterized the national uprising, the Cabinetpromulgated a law forbidding slaughter of cattle with-out first stunning them ; by coincidence the JewishShechita prohibited such stunning . On April 8, the newCivil Service Law was approved' by the Cabinet andpromulgated by Dr. Frick, the Reich Minister of theInterior. It barred all non-Aryans (except those whofought at the front or who lost a father or son in theWorld War) from any position in Federal, State orMunicipal Civil Service. Those whose misfortune it isto be 25 percent Jewish are non-Aryans, as are the un-fortunates married to Jewesses .

On April 12, the Cabinet decided that student cor-porations would be formed in the universities . But evenmatriculated Jews could not be members of the studentbody. On the same day the Government barred Jewishpolitical editors from its press conferences . On April i9,it was announced that Dr. Frick was preparing for theCabinet its quota law for Jewish university students .On March 20, the official Court Bureau announced thepurging throughout Germany of the offices of the prose-cuting attorneys and the removal of Jewish judges fromthe Criminal to the Civil Courts. But by March 31,there had been a change of heart and all Jewish lawyers

THE COLD POGROM

105

and judges were removed, including Chief Justice KurtSoelling, a convert to Aryanism, and a rival of theChancellor himself in virulent anti-Semitism . Now theCabinet is deliberating as to the Jewish quota of lawyerswho will be allowed to practice-whether a percentagerule will be strictly adhered to, or whether those whohad been admitted prior to 1914 will also be privileged .

The individual ministers, not shackled by formali-ties, cleaned house more rapidly . Thus, Dr. Hugen-berg, one of the three Nationalists in the Cabinet, hasannounced the immediate expulsion of all Jews fromthe organizations affiliated with his Ministry, such asthe Corn Exchange and the Agricultural Council . Norwill the Government Grain Trade Company buy fromJews.

Next in order of descent come the State Ministers .One of the most true-Brown of the Nazis is Commis-sioner of Justice, Hans Frank of Bavaria, who onMarch 27, stole a march on the Reich in barring allJewish judges and denying Jewish attorneys the rightto appear in criminal cases. His fellow-Bavarian Min-ister of Finance on April 7 announced that those Jewishcommunity taxes which had been collected from Jewsfor the support of their synagogues would not be dis-bursed to them . In Prussia on March 31, the Diet peti-tioned the Minister of Education for dismissal of allJewish teachers and for limiting Jewish students-notonly in universities-but in lower schools to r percent .Hans Hinkel, under-secretary in the Prussian Ministryof Culture, announced on April 7, that Jewish artistsand managers (only geniuses excepted if they passed

io6 SWASTIKA, THE NAZI TERROR

muster) would be barred from German theater andopera. Meanwhile Jewish professors had steadily beenforced to resign from such institutions as the Universi-ties of Breslau, Westphalia, and Kiel, and on April 13,Dr. Bernhard Rust, Prussian Minister of Education,"granted leave of absence" to thirteen noted Jewishprofessors and three non-Jewish Marxists. In order thatthe faithful might not be impatient at these niggardlydisplacements, Dr . Rust announced on April i 8 thatnew oustings would follow.

We now drop another step in the hierarchy to themunicipalities. Berlin on March 18 decreed that noJewish lawyers or notaries were to be employed inmunicipal affairs . On March 22, its municipal em-ployees were discharged, and it was announced that thecity would buy from Nazis only . Frankfurt was notlong in emulating Berlin . In Brown Munich, as mightbe expected, similar measures were taken, and theSuperintendent of Schools went farther to announcethat, in the next term, no Jewish children would beallowed in Christian schools, nor would Jewish schooldoctors be allowed to treat Christian children . OnApril 7, the Municipality of Baden showed its patriot-ism by discharging all Jews. Others, announced andunannounced, have similarly protected their Teutonicpurity.

The professions and trades, with such official inspira-tion, were not lacking in zeal. The Bar Association,dominated in the cities by Jews, has at last been lib-erated, and the Physicians' and Dentists' Societies, withnoble aspirations for the health and well-being of man-

THE COLD POGROM

107

kind, have joined in barring Jews from their organiza-tions. Even the Government's strict limitations havenot satisfied these fervent eugenists who demand thatthe Jewish virus be absolutely and completely extermi-nated from their professions, in which "the confidentialrelations are so favorable to further germ incubation."Moreover, the Medical Association has decided to barJews from the Public Insurance Company business,which has furnished the bulk of doctors' incomes . Inone way or another the greatest physicians of Germanyhave been driven from hospitals and clinics throughoutthe Reich .

The Theatrical Exchange as early as March i i or-dered withdrawal of Jewish artists and managers. OnApril 8 the German Motion Picture Federation an-nounced it would not buy - from Jewish salesmen . OnApril 12, the Association of German journalists votedto eliminate Jews. Similar laws are being preparedfor music critics. The purging process invaded the realmof sport (!) on April 13, when both the Football Fed-eration and the Track and Field Sports Associationbarred Jews from international competition .

Perhaps no single aspect of the "cold" pogrom ismore portentous than its fanatic support by nationalistGerman students. The universities and secondary schoolshave long been used as Nazi incubators. But theirhatred of the Jew reached a new pitch of violenceunder the official drive. On April 8, the German Stu-dent Association comprising ioo,ooo members, an-nounced the following "campaign of enlightenment" :

io8 SWASTIKA, THE NAZI TERROR

The Jew is our most dangerous opponent .The Jew can only think Jewishly . If he writes

German he lies .We demand that all German students despise the

Jew as an alien .We demand that the censor compel all Jewish

works to appear only in Hebrew . If they appear inGerman they must be clearly marked as translations .

The German language must be used only by Ger-mans .

In the third week of the campaign every studentmust purge his own library of all un-German, bookswhich may have been thoughtlessly acquired . Everystudent must search the libraries of his friends andacquaintances, and delegations from the students'associations will search the public libraries . On thetenth day of May all this degenerative literature willbe consigned to the flames .

So speak the future leaders of the New Germany!We have traced in crudest outline the program of

the "cold" pogrom. Taken together with the stringentregulations against emigration, its objective is clear : tomake it impossible for the Jew, forbidden to leave Ger-many, to live in it .

Already the effects of this legalized infamy are to beseen. It has succeeded, even in so short a time, in ex-patriating from Germany men who are among itschiefest intellectual and human assets. Their constantlyincreasing number includes Albert Einstein, Lion

THE COLD POGROM

iog

Feuchtwanger, Stefan and Arnold Zweig, Georg Bern-hard, Max Reinhardt, Ernst Toiler, Emil Ludwig,Bruno Walter. Nor is the list of the expatriated lim-ited to Jews . Thomas and Heinrich Mann as well asGerhardt Hauptmann dare not, as liberals, return tothe fatherland. As to the effect of these banishmentson Germany, The Mmnchester Guardian says :

In effect it is death to all the best elements in Ger-man culture, common to all civilized members of thecommunity, whether they are Jew or German .

The special contribution of the Jews to Germanlife cannot be overestimated. Without them its artsmight almost have remained the merely local crea-tions of a few Teutonic tribes . What the Jews havecontributed to economic and industrial life is no lessgreat. But attacks on any one who happens to be botha Jew and a man of culture show that Storm Troopersreject this civilized element, which is neither Jewnor German but European . . . . With all the under-standing in the world and every desire to see an ac-complished revolution turn to Germany's good, onecannot without a sense of disgust see booted andspurred Storm Troopers force a great nation to re-volt against its own culture, to manhandle and expela race with whom Goethe recognized his affinity, andto acclaim a philosophy of history and national lifeproper only to Goths and Vandals .

The efficacy of the "cold" pogrom in shattering theeconomic structure of Jewish life in Germany is alreadyapparent. Countless Jewish businesses and business men


have been ruined, thousands of Jewish doctors andlawyers, as well as other professional men, have beendisemployed, and the lists of those who face bankruptcyand starvation are lengthening. The most primarycharities and relief are to-day required by familieswhich a few months ago were wholly independent andself-supporting . On April 25, the Jewish TelegraphicAgency sent the following report from Innsbruck :

Jewish breadlines in Germany are doubling overnight, the number of the helpless leaping from thirtyto eighty thousand in less than a week, according toauthoritative reports received here to-day. Estimatedlast week at thirty thousand, the crowd of German-Jews absolutely dependent on the soup-kitchens forsubsistence is given to-day as between sixty and eightythousand.

Most of these are ruined middle-class folk, shop-keepers, white-collar workers, and professional peoplewho have been forced to give up their means of live-lihood by the economic anti-Semitic measures insti-tuted by the Nazi administration . The few who stillpossess some means of subsistence are bravely sharingtheir depleted fortunes with those who have nothingwhatever left, but the number of those who are ableto give assistance is rapidly diminishing, as all whocan are fleeing abroad. Meanwhile the mass of Jewsdependent on charity is doubling and trebling. Thisis especially true in the provinces, where the Jews areisolated as stringently as though they were withinprison walls.

THE COLD POGROM

III

In Chemnitz, passports have been confiscated fromall Jews, and orders have been issued prohibitingthem to leave town. Unable to find aid within thecity, and powerless to seek aid elsewhere, they are ina virtual death-trap .

The full record of what the Jews of Germany areundergoing has not been, and can never be, set down .Its significance can be grasped only in terms of humantragedy and spiritual anguish. For Hitler and his gov-ernment have in substance declared the Jews of Ger-many to be enemies of the public weal, outlaws in theirown country. Only when one recalls that this outlawryis no longer the theory of a minority party, but the offi-cial enactment of an intrenched dictatorship, is the fullmeasure of the catastrophe apparent.

Some inkling of the effects of the "cold" pogrom maybe gleaned from two or three documents typical of hun-dreds which have been recorded and tens of thousandswhich cannot be set down. The first is the report of adistinguished American lawyer, made upon his return tothe United States, after a visit in Austria where he in-terviewed large numbers of German re ees .

I feel that no useful purpose will be served by de-tailing the instances of vicious brutality which theseeye-witnesses related to me . These instances, distress-ing as they are, are the merest fringe of the persecu-tion which is systematically being developed for visita-tion upon German Jewry in its entirety, and as suchshould, I believe, be relegated to a minor place inany discussion of the situation .


At the time these refugees spoke to me-and it isonly a matter of a few weeks past-they spoke interms of what plans Hitler had . The Jews were to beremoved from the Bench and the Bar ; from themedical profession ; from all official connection withthe Government ; from all positions in the universi-ties, etc.

Before my return to the United States, these fearshad already been translated into fact .

I had hoped and believed, while listening to theirrecital, that their fears were exaggerated . Eventshave shown that they were not. I am therefore nowmore inclined to accept at par everything that wastold to me as to Hitler's plans and the party program .

I was told that the economic emasculation is to becarried forward until the German Jews are the lowestof the proletariat and form a cushion of beggars, uponwhich the Hitlerite structure may be rested .

The degradation is to be virtually complete, withperhaps one percent of the Jews tolerated in theirerstwhile pursuits, but of course, as marked men . Theeconomic and social annihilation is to be all embrac-ing, so that the Jew within Germany will again wel-come a ghetto existence .

The resignation of Professor James Franck, NobelPrize winner in 1925, from Gottingen University is aspecific instance of the "cold" pogrom in action . In aletter to the University rector he writes :

I have requested the authorities to relieve me ofmy office, but I shall try to continue my scientific

THE COLD POGROM

113

work in Germany . We Germans of Jewish descentare being treated as aliens and enemies of the father-land. We are asked to have our children grow up inthe knowledge that they must not profess themselvesto be Germans. Although those who served in thewar have received permission further to serve theState, I decline to avail myself of this privilege . Evenso, I appreciate the viewpoint of those who deem ita duty in these times to continue at their posts .

Not all victims of this latest phase of the Nazi Terrorare in position, as is Professor Franck, to resign oftheir own free will in protest against the fate of theirfellow Jews. To the vast majority no other course isopen. Typical of their fate is this letter written by adistinguished physician and scientist, whose family sincethe Middle Ages has lived in Germany, and who hasbeen a leader in the communal life of his city. This let-ter, mailed from across the German border, strikes per-haps the most plaintive and tragic note of which humanexperience is capable .

I have arrived here to-day to take care of my for-eign correspondence which at home would requiregreat caution and a thousand reservations. The pointhas been reached where I must approach friendsabroad as an applicant, for our lot is untenable. Ihave been removed from all positions. My son-in-law, as well as I, like all Jewish physicians, may notpractice any more in the state medical societies andso our financial ruin is sealed. It is impossible to letthe children grow up here where-at least for the

"4 SWASTIKA, THE NAZI TERRORtime being-they are exposed to every kind of deg-radation. One has the feeling of being dishonored . Ifone could only get out of the witches' cauldron . The"cold" pogrom has dispossessed us . The intellectualprofessions-the physicians, lawyers and officials arehit the hardest. . . . I feel so ashamed to have towrite such a letter after a life of duties fulfilled andof honor . . . .

To this status has the third German Reich, led byHitler and established by the Nazi Party, reduced theJew. For what it has done, there is neither example norparallel in the antiquity of primal brutality, in the Mid-dle Ages of religious persecution, or in the darkest daysof Tsarist Russia. It is the apotheosis of cold and cun-ning cruelty. A bloodless war of extermination whichgives no quarter and recognizes no non-combatants. Awar which is waged without pity, without honor, andwithout ruth .

8WHAT CAN BE DONE?

UCH IS THE RECORD OF THE SWASTIKA. WE HAVEtraced its stages-an ethnologic hypothesis, a patho-

logical expression, a political pretext, a national pro-gram. To-day in its complete and unchallenged su-premacy there may be read the doom of GermanJewry. The first encroachments of that doom are al-ready manifest. Short months ago it walked in bloodand terror. Yesterday it took the form of brazen boy-cott. To-day it moves resistlessly and in silence towardthe despoiling, the degrading, and the destroying of itsvictims.

It is with this incontestable evidence before us thatthe question is raised : what can be done? No single orsimple answer may be made ; no decision can be reachedout of hand . At the very outset there is the all but para-lyzing knowledge that whatever means are employed,whatever efforts made, they will be seized by the NaziGovernment as excuses for inflicting even more terriblewrongs, more cruel hurt . Faced by this situation, onlythe shallow and insensate could offer hair-trigger judg-ment or cock-sure counsel .

II5


Yet certain conclusions are inescapable. However im-politic it may seem, or even be, to oppose it, this evilmay not be mutely borne . Silence in all tongues includ-ing the German, is acquiescence . And even though itappear the better part of indignation, acquiescence ininfamy is humanly and morally impossible. Thus, it isin a sense only incidental, that the dictates of wisdomand expediency confirm the necessity for action .

Should the Nazi Government succeed in terrorizingthe conscience of mankind and silencing its protest, . thensurely the Jews of Germany are lost . Not only becausetheir safety-if it hangs upon the expressed opinion ofthe outside world-is no safety. But let it once be con-ceded that their fate is the affair of no one beyond theGerman border, and the last instrument of interventionwill have been surrendered .

Efforts made in behalf of German Jewry, however,must be undertaken with gravest care, planned in ut-most deliberation . Haphazard or ill-considered meas-ures will prove not only ineffective, but perilous, thoughno peril could be as great as that of inaction. Four po-tentially effective courses of action are open .

I. The effort to alleviate present sufferings . Thou-sands of refugees have fled Germany in the last months .They are without means of support and without a des-tination. The countries in which they have found tem-porary haven cannot or will not permanently harborthem. The first and most obvious task is to ease theirlot. Financial succor, while an elementary requisite, can-not meet the present need . This can be met only by

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

117

making it possible for these exiles to emigrate some-where. In order to do this, immigration restrictions mustbe liberalized and humanized wherever possible, at leastto the extent of the immediate emergency. The Man-chester Guardian-recognizing the advantage whichmay accrue to England as well as the human obliga-tion involved-urges the adoption of such a course :

We should seize the chance now given us to re-assert our love of freedom, not only for ourselvesbut for any who, himself deprived of it, asks us togive him refuge. We may be able to welcome someof the refugees to Palestine, of which we hold thegates. We can certainly welcome them to this coun-try. The "National" Government would on this oc-casion well deserve its name, it would represent thenation, if it opened its doors to the unhappy membersof a race which from its earliest days was ground be-tween the powers of the north and the south, of theeast and the west, was dispersed over the face of theearth, and has never, by pagan or by Christian, beenallowed wholly to rest.A similar viewpoint has been expressed by leading

members of the United States Senate and House Com-mittee on Immigration. A bill providing for an in-creased quota for expatriated German Jews has beenintroduced by Congressman Dickstein of New York. Itis at present under consideration . Every effort shouldbe made to bring home to the Department of Labor,within whose province the question ultimately falls, thejustice and wisdom of such a policy.


The question inevitably arises as to the feasibility ofopening the doors of Palestine to great numbers ofGerman Jews. As the National Jewish Homeland, itseems the logical, the inevitable, place for them . In thepresent emergency, the super-caution of permitting onlythose to enter who are immediately and demonstrablywithin the economic absorptive capacity of the country,is patently unfitting . A Jewish Homeland, if it meansanything, means a land in which homeless Jews mayfind a home. This stand has been taken by the ZionistOrganization of America. It has urged (a) that GreatBritain, the mandatory Government, "make possiblethe immediate admission into Palestine of a maximumnumber of refugees": (b) that the League of Nations"organize and establish a commission on which theUnited States be invited to be represented, with powerto undertake the execution of a plan for the settlementin Palestine of as large a number of Jews as Palestinemay be placed in a position to absorb ; and that suchcommission be given authority by the League of Na-tions, in cooperation with the Mandatory Governmentand the Jewish Agency for Palestine to find the meansto finance the operation."

But efforts to provide a haven and a home for thosewho have already escaped or been driven from Ger-many, do no more than scratch the surface of the prob-lem. The fate of German Jewry cannot be solved inEngland, in Palestine, or in America. It must be solvedin Germany. And it is necessary to consider how thatfate may be safeguarded and secured .

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

119

II. The appeal to Germany. The extreme unlikeli-hood of success in such a course is apparent, yet it mustbe attempted. An appeal to the present German rulers,however, would be an emptier than futile gesture . Theyhave shown themselves too resolved and implacable intheir hate to be approached with considerations of rea-son and of equity . The Jew has ceased in their eyes tobe an object of rational conduct. He has become anobsession. In addition, the Nazis are so committed to thetheory and practice of their war against German Jewrythat retreat is psychologically impossible . Hitler mightwell argue with Macbeth :

. . . I am in bloodStepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more,Returning were as tedious as go o'er.

The only possible appeal is not to the German Gov-ernment, but to its people. The difficulties in making itare manifest . They include that censorship which makesit as hard for the German people to-day to know theopinion of the outside world as it is difficult for theworld to secure full and accurate information concern-ing Germany. But despite this obstacle, and the moreserious one of the adherence of the majority of Ger-mans to the Nazi Party in the last elections, a distinc-tion must still be made between the nation as a wholeand its present Government .

That there are millions of Germans who shrink fromand reprobate the Jewish phobia of the Nazi Partythere is no doubt. That it is difficult and dangerous forthem to speak is also clear . Yet they must make their


condemnation felt. Even Hitler cannot obliterate half anation. And as Alexander Hamilton declared, "It isimpossible to exculpate a people that suffers its rulersto abuse and tyrannize over others." It must be dem-onstrated to the German people that, in their struggleto secure a broader justice for themselves from othernations, they are hopelessly prejudicing their case bytolerating a supreme injustice .

III. The appeal to international opinion . Techni-cally and theoretically no nation has the right to inter-vene in the internal affairs of another . In practice suchintervention is a common international custom . And inview of the desperate case in which German Jewrystands to-day, such action is justified alike by interna-tional procedure and humanitarian considerations . Espe-cially in the United States there is reason to urge thatthe good offices of the Government may be still furtheremployed at this time . Ample precedent exists for suchaction. In a letter to the New York Times, Max J.Kohler recalls that :

As far back as 1870 Charles Sumner, as chairmanof the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, whenoffering a resolution of inquiry into Rumanian anti-Jewish atrocities, said he did so "in the interest ofhumanity and in that guardianship of humanity whichbelongs to the great Republic ."

Mr. Kohler cites leading instances of American govern-mental representations on behalf of persecuted Jewsabroad. They include :

1 Quoted from "Alexander Hamilton" by Johan J. Smertenko .

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

121

(i) Secretary Forsythe's course in i 84o under Presi-dent Van Buren's direction, on behalf of theDamascus Jewish blood-accusation victims .

(2) Our State Department representations and Min-ister Fay's successful efforts in Switzerland toremove anti-Jewish domestic statutory discrimi-nations .

(3) President Theodore Roosevelt's vigorous protestin connection with the Kishineff massacre in1903 .

(4) American abrogation in 1911 of the RussianTreaty of 1832 because of discrimination againstJewish citizens .

(S) President Wilson's course in connection withrepresentatives of the other great powers at thePeace Conference in i g i 9 to safeguard the statusof racial and religious minorities .

It is not too much to ask or to expect that the UnitedStates Government, in keeping with these precedents,move forward immediately and vigorously .

Similar appeal may be addressed to the League ofNations. There are definite clauses in the Covenant of.the League, under the terms of which representationsnot only can but should be made. An example is Arti-cle 23, the first part of which reads :

Subject to and in accordance with the provisionsof international conventions existing or hereafter tobe agreed upon, the members of the League (a) willendeavor to secure and maintain fair and humane con-ditions of labor for men, women and children, both


in their own countries and in all countries to whichtheir commercial and industrial relations extend, andfor that purpose will establish and maintain the neces-sary international organizations ; (b) undertake tosecure just treatment of the native inhabitants of ter-ritories under their control .

Apart from these general provisions the protection ofminorities is one of the pillars on which the Leaguerests. It has entered into solemn covenants with theGerman nation which agreed to furnish "full and com-plete protection of life and liberty as assured to all in-habitants, without distinction of birth, nationality, lan-guage, race or religion ." 2

It is certain from the following resolution adoptedby the American Jewish Congress on April i 9 and for-warded to Washington and Geneva that action, lookingto intervention, both by the United States Governmentand the League of Nations will be sought .

WHEREAS, the Hitler Government is pursuing arelentless and ruthless policy of persecution and re-pression against the Jews in Germany, and

WHEREAS, it is the avowed intention of the Ger-man Government to deprive the Jews of their civic,political and economic rights ; be it

RESOLVED, that this Conference of Jewish Or-ganizations initiate action for the gathering of signa-tures to a petition to be presented to the UnitedStates Government and to the League of Nationsprotesting against the inhuman attempt of the Ger-2 American Journal o f International Law, October, 1919 .

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

123

man Government to deny to a peaceful and law-abiding element of its population the full civic rightsand the elementary right to life, liberty and the pur-suit of happiness, and to petition them to use theirgood offices to the end that justice shall be done tothe Jew in Germany .

In addition to employing the foregoing channels ofinternational representation, a continued and renewedappeal to the enlightened opinion of mankind may bemade. Such opinion has already aligned itself as unal-terably opposed to the war of extermination, beingwaged in Germany to-day . But that opinion must beorganized and directed, and if it is to be effective, theremust be behind it a unified plan of action. No aspect ofthe situation is of greater import . Particularly in liberty-loving lands, it is necessary to emphasize the truth-thatthe battle of the Jews of Germany for survival and forhonor is the battle of all free peoples. Recognition ofthis fact is growing. The Springfield Republican writeseditorially on this aspect of the German situation :

While the Jews happen to suffer the first shock ofthe Fascist assault upon freedom in Germany, thereis a much broader front upon which the offensive ofthe Fascist movement is hurling itself. All liberal anddemocratic aspirations are in the zone of fire .

By their protest meetings both in England and inthis country, the Jews are fighting the battle of de-mocracy and liberalism against the aggressions of re-surgent autocracy, their ancient enemy . It is a battleof varying fortunes and phases in periods of revolu-


tionary change ; the present period of world-widedepression has placed on democracies a strain pitilesslyexposing their weaknesses, and the reaction againstthem is observable even where they had become mostfirmly established .

In America we cannot be hypercritical of FascistGermany, in view of the range of intolerance andpersecution in our national life . Yet the division be-tween these opposing forces, broadly envisaged, doesbecome more distinct as the tide of reaction rolls up .

It may be that in revolting against the worst aspectsof Hitlerism, the Jews are making themselves thespearhead of the counter-offensive that must even-tually reclaim the lost provinces of emancipated hu-manity.

In that perilous and exposed position, the Jews ofGermany deserve, and have the right to count upon, thereenforcement of those whose battle they wage as trulyas their own .

IV. The exertion o f economic pressure . Necessaryand immediate as are the measures contemplated in thepreceding paragraphs, they cannot be relied upon alone.Up to the present time, the Nazis have shown them-selves callous to reasoned argument . Other weapons ofdefense must be sought in the struggle for Jewishrights. It is inevitable that economic pressure should beemployed to bring the present German Government-not to its knees-but to its senses.

The use of that weapon is both distasteful and dan-gerous. But Germany has declared open and official war

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

125

upon its Jewish population and there can be no shrink-ing from or avoidance of the issue. In many lands aboycott of German goods exists to-day. The institutionof these boycotts has not yet been carefully calculatedor highly organized. They have been rather the reflexand instinctive refuge of a scattered race without armyor navy, without diplomatic representatives or statedepartment .

In the United States no such boycott has yet beenofficially established, though it has been repeatedlyurged. Mr. Aaron Sapiro and Mr. Samuel Untermyerhave been among those who hold that it is not onlyjustified, but that no other course of action can proveefficacious . And non-Jewish individuals and organiza-tions have come forward to support their view . Otherorganized and responsible leadership, however, includ-ing that of the American Jewish Congress, has heldthat every other means must be attempted, and everyother avenue of approach explored, before recourse toit. But the conviction grows-nurtured by every newdispatch from Germany-that no other road is open .

It is not yet known just when, and in what form, andto what extent a boycott will be established. But thatsuch action is imminent and demanded by events growsdaily surer. If the Nazi Government persists in outrag-ing civilization by demolishing German Jewry, it mustbe prepared to accept the consequences of its crime andfolly. Those consequences, in view of the responsibleposition of Jews throughout the commercial and indus-trial world, may give serious pause even to the hate-blinded rulers of Germany .


Such in outline are the potentially effective courses ofaction to save German Jewry from its impending doom .Their unavoidable limitations leave much to be desired .Whether they can avert the tragedy-greater than thatalready obtaining-which threatens, there is much todoubt and more to fear. This at least is certain : nomeans must go unattempted, no weapon unused in thisstruggle for human and Jewish rights.

A word must be added as to the ultimate implicationsof the Swastika. Its threat is not limited to GermanJewry, to political democracy, to world peace . It men-aces the very basis of civilization . For, in essence, it isa return to the tribal mood and to the savage mind .Such, indeed, is its purpose and its boast. Difference anddistinction it abhors . Uniformity and the imposition ofa single mold are its objectives.

To-day that uniformity is conceived in racial terms .The homogeneous group, the Teuton tribe, the Aryanstate-are the shibboleths which the New Germany em-ploys as it extirpates from its midst whatever is notidentical with itself . But the demonstrably false andabsurd synthesis of race and state, in whose name Hitlerwars upon the Jew, is no more than a pretext. Beneathit lies the primitive fear of what is alien, the ancienthate of what is strange.

No people has wholly purged itself of that hate andfear. Their trace is still to be found everywhere . But itis in the will to battle, the effort to subdue them, thatcivilization consists . They, and not the stranger, are theenemy within the household. When a nation abandons

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

127

the struggle against them, and capitulates to their in-sistent clamor, it relapses into barbarous sub-humanity .

The record of mankind's bitterly slow advance maybe traced in terms of this conflict within itself. Theright to independent thought and disparate action wasits earliest victory. It achieved religious liberty onlyafter centuries of striving . And though that cause hasbeen largely won, its sentinels dare not relax theirvigilance . So, too, in international affairs. The nationsare to-day struggling with the concept that differinglanguages and customs imply no inherent hostility, thatother songs and flags need constitute no challenge totheir own .

It is this historic process which Nazi political atavismseeks to reverse. Herein lies its menace to mankind . Ifit prevail and its contagion spread, old wounds will bereopened and new ones made. For it will institute in-quisitions not only into belief and creed, but into bloodand race. It will kindle strife, not only between nations,but within them .

Against this menace civilization must contend . "Fa-cilis descensus . . ." especially into the hell of primor-dial fears and hates. Nor is it adequately reassuringthat the Swastika and all it connotes cannot ultimatelytriumph. Hitlerism may be no more than a swirlingeddy in the long, sure sweep of social destiny . But ithas already taken awful toll .

The Jews of Germany have borne the brunt of itsfirst assault. Their wounds will not be healed, theiranguish assuaged, their dead raised by considerations ofpolitical philosophy. If the destruction that is upon

128 SWASTIKA, THE NAZI TERRORthem is to be stayed, sterner methods are demanded,more heroic measures required . This task devolvesupon men of all lands and faiths . I have said that thefate of German Jewry is not a Jewish but a world issue .That fate is still in doubt. Civilization is at death gripswith madness in Nazi Germany. Yet we may renewcourage, if not take comfort, knowing that if hysteriais on the side of Hitler, history is on the side of Israel .