As Germany is reviewing the life and work of Dr. Gustav Stresemann, leading statesman and Foreign Minister who died suddenly yesterday, the Jewish angle to his life story is being recalled here.
Dr. Stresemann was married to a Jewess, Miss Kleefeld, of Czechoslovakia. This played an important role in his political career, since from the very beginning of his participation in the government, he was continually under heavy attack on the part of the German reactionaries, who charged that he was “the exponent of an international regime of the Jews.” As a result of this campaign, Stresemann anxiously avoided discussing Jewish questions publicly or in private. It is said the relentless campaign of the anti-Semites greatly contributed to undermining his health and hastened death.
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