Pleading for a union between Jews and Catholics in the fight against Hitlerism. Prince Hubertus zu Loewenstein, in an address he delivered before the B’nai B’rith here, said that Pope Pius has sided against Nazism and is “taking a special interest in the Jewish question.”
“Jews and Catholics must stand together,” he said, “for we are faced with the same troubles. Everyone calling himself a Christian must be deeply affected by the present regime of terror in Germany. The struggle is between God himself and Satan.”
Prince Hubertus said that the Pope is preparing an encyclical on the Jewish question. He scathingly assailed the Nazi program and said that is “not European.”
Speaking of the non-Jewish aspect of the anti-Nazi fight, the Prince said: “The Gospel refuses to recognize any differences of race or nationality. Only recently the Pope banned Alfred Rosenberg’s book as being opposed to the fundamental ideals of Christianity and Catholicism. Yet this same Rosenberg has been appointed a sort of spiritual leader of the Nazi youth of Germany.
“To claim, as many Nazis are claiming, that Christ was of ‘Aryan’ origin, is not only absurd. It is heresy. The Nazis are now trying to Nazify the Bible. By the time they have finished with it, it will have become a pamphlet against the Holy Scripture. To change Scripture is blasphemy. From the Catholic point of view anti-Semitism is against our faith and our beliefs. As Cardinal Faulhaber said, anti-Semitism is not only opposed to religion, it is against all the unwritten divine and human laws. It is going back to barbarism and paganism.”
The Prince assailed the Nazi “doctrine” of some day ruling the world.
“I wish to give you warning,” he continued. “You must face this danger in every country in the world. Be careful before it is too late. We must appeal day by day to the conscience of the world. We must inform all those who do not realize the danger and consider themselves safe. Never must we forget the things that have been done under this dictatorship, the blood that has been spilt, both Christian and Jewish. And this unites us in this battle for freedom and justice.”
The Jews have not strength of resistance “until they have a nation of their own,” asserted the Prince. “That is why you must fight harder for Palestine. As soon as Palestine is strong no one will dare any longer to attack your brothers.”
He said that the Catholics are behind the Jews in their war on Hitlerism, and the solution of the Jewish problem.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
