Hungarian Jews Protest Anti-semitic Bill; Danger to State Seen

The organizations of orthodox and progressive Jews in Hungary today issued a joint declaration expressing deep sorrow over the new drastic anti- Jewish Bill and asserting that ” the elimination of Hungarian citizens of the Jewish faith from the national community” would harm not only the Hungarian Israelite religious community and its members, but also fatally harm the nation.

“We are most deeply moved in our souls by the fact that 100,000 Hungarian citizens professing our faith, who at all times loyally gave their lives, blood and energy for the fatherland, should be ousted from the national community to which they belonged for generations,” the declaration said. “We protest against the denial of our national honor, the deprive of our national rights, our unshakable Hungarian character and our unbroken loyalty to the State.”

The third Jewish suicide within four days occurred here as a result of the bill. Dr. Irma Szabo, 45-year-old wife of a Budapest physician, took a fatal dose of poison after stating in a farewell note: “I cannot remain Hungarian, so I choose death.” The physician’s wife was considered a Jewess under the proposed law because she did not have three Christian grandparents although she was born a Hungarian and brought up in the Christian faith.

The press reported that a league to aid the exchange of Hungarian Jews for Christian Hungarians in the United States will be established shortly. This body will request the Hungarian Government and religious groups to appoint delegates and will urge Washington to send an observer to Budapest, it was said.

The question of whether the Hungarian Government will decide to resist Pan-Germanism dominated interest here at the end of a year in which Premier Bela Imredy experimented with efforts to benefit from the German drive without risking the independence of his country. A compromise between reaction and revolution was the chief objective of internal policy during 1933.

Questions of domestic and foreign policy were linked by the fact that Nazi propaganda threatened the political system and institutions of the present regime. In this threat were involved the interests of the large landowners, of the Catholic Church, of the aristocracy and a part of the gentry, of Jewish industrialists and bankers, and of numerous citizens, the prosperity and even the existence of whom are closely connected with the Economic and social status quo.