German Jews Are Apprehensive of New Outbreaks, Deuel Says

Fear stalks in the home of Jews of Germany—fear that a new storm of terror is about to break over their heads.

Weymouth Hogue and Wallace R. Deuel, correspondents of The Chicago Tribune and Chicago Daily News, respectively, report this to their newspapers.

“The assembling of a large number of veteran Nazis in Dresden has aroused especially grave apprehensions among the Jews,” Deuel’s dispatch says.

“The meeting is officially described as a purely sentimental one arranged for several months ago but postponed by the death of President von Hindenburg. Jews, however, note the presence of Julius Streicher, most rabid Jew-baiter of the third Reich after Reichsfuehrer Hitler himself, and wonder what his presence may signify.

“Others scheduled to attend the meeting include Rudolf Hess, deputy leader of the Nazi party; Dr. Joseph Goebbels, minister of propaganda and people’s enlightenment; Robert Ley, head of the Nazi labor organization; Victor Lutze, new chief of the storm troops; Baldur von Schirach of the Hitler Jugend (youth); Constantine Hierl, chief of the labor service, and Dr. Hans Frank, minister of justice.

OTHER HINTS OF NEW TERROR

“Other indications also point to the possibility of a new reign of terror. One of these is the increase in the number and bitterness of references to Jews by Hitler and other party leaders in public speeches. Another is the favor which der fuehrer has recently shown to Streicher.

ECONOMIC CRISIS IS FACTOR

Even should no new outbursts of violence against the Jews develop, the steady, remorseless campaign to destroy them continues. Even in cases where the law leaves them relatively free, private revenge and unofficial terror exert merciless pressure. Incitements to persecution by leaders, from Hitler down, make this inevitable.

SMALLER TOWNS ARE WORST

“Persecution is worst of all in the smaller towns,” Deuel reports. Jewish business men are bankrupted. They are attacked in the street. Their children are beaten by their playmates. Their women are insulted.

“An undetermined number have preferred suicide to a life which the Nazis have made virtually impossible for them, especially since even those who are able to leave the country usually find it impossible to take their savings with them.

“The threat of a new anti-Semitic campaign is part and parcel of the general activity within the party which has been going on ever since ten percent of the voters opposed Hitler in the last plebiscite. The Nazi leaders are convinced that they must do something about these and others who give the goat laugh.’ What they will do apparently has not yet been decided upon, but one of the most obvious things they may do is to take it out on ‘the Jews.'”

Hogue, the Tribune’s representative, tells of the boycott of Jewish shops in Nuremberg during the recent Nazi party congress there.

“Minister of the Interior Frick issued decrees forbidding Nazi interference with Jewish shops,” Hogue cabled Luxembourg.

“He threatened dire punishments for those who violated the decrees. Yet Jewish shops were picketed and boycotted in Nuremberg and Frick did not take one single step to enforce his laws. Crowds applauded the pickets.

MOBS THREATEN CUSTOMERS

“Heavy-boned, big-fisted youths stood guard in the doorways of Jewish shops on Nuremberg’s main street. I walked into several of these shops despite the threats of mobs. The pickets only said ‘Jewish shop,’ but the way they said it gave me gooseflesh. They glared and plunked down their feet encased in kneehigh boots with a thud.

“Packs of civilians, who evidently had been lying in ambush, gathered around as if by a prearranged signal and jabbered menacingly. In most places women were the ringleaders.

“In all my six ventures to enter Jewish shops I noticed that the people who ganged together to threaten me were well dressed. Before their fists came down upon me I said just one word—’foreigner’—and looked squarely, and I am afraid not respectfully, at the would-be assailants. They drew back. They had been ordered to void clashes with foreigners.

SHOPKEEPER IS FEARFUL

“As I stepped into one shop a tiny man of about sixty hurried forward from behind a door to which he seemed to have been clinging. He appeared to be trembling with fear. His little pointed mustache wabbled. Two emaciated women followed him. When they saw their lone, undenibly Nordic customer they bustled forward.

“I spoke loudly to enable the gang outside to hear every word I said. The shopkeepers did likewise, lest later the mob accuse them of having made ‘treasonable statements.’

“Near by a Woolworth store, decked out in Nazi flags and garlands, was doing a thriving business despite occasional attempts of Nazi Storm Troopers to start raids. Small squads of these Nazis would rush in and ‘pick on’ some man. The manager would then step up and tell the Nazi ringleader how loyal his store was to the Nazi cause, that Woolworth was not boycotting German goods. The Nazis would then retreat after verbally assailing ‘American boycott of German goods.'”