862.4016/1260
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
During his call, the German Chargé referred to boycotting conditions in this country due to the agitation of Samuel Untermyer and others against Germany on account of the alleged Jewish persecutions there. I stated to him that something clearly was going on in Germany in relation to Jews and Jewish conditions; that it was not my purpose to go into detail as to just what it was, except to say that to my knowledge an immense amount of news or information has been coming out of Germany to the effect that serious mistreatment of the Jews has taken place and is still being continued. I said that I myself had been hearing enough of such reports from Germany to understand how private citizens in this country had been receiving like information to a greater or less extent, and, of course, become much wrought up. I added that if the German Government, whose politicians and officials more or less are quoted as being in favor of driving the Jews out of Germany and at the same time prohibiting them from taking their property along, would assemble official and other facts sufficient to convince the outside world that this sort of treatment of the Jews had been absolutely discontinued and abandoned, there would then be a chance for us to appeal to our fellow-Americans to desist from the boycott. I further added that as conditions were, we were being terrifically bombarded from week to week, over a period of many months back, in the way of demands for strong characterization of the acts of German officials in mistreating Jews in Germany.