862.4016/1268
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
The German Ambassador called and offered three complaints.19
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The third complaint was the boycotting of German goods. I stated, unofficially, that officials of our Government had been subjected to personal criticisms, which were really offensive in their denunciatory and condemnatory nature, about the alleged treatment of Jews by the German population and government, while I and other officials had been endeavoring to avoid complications with the German Government by refusing to attack it on account of this alleged mistreatment of its Jewish nationals. I said that we had undergone the most bitter criticism in our efforts to refrain from criticising the German Government on account of its internal policies of alleged persecutions of the Jews; that more than once I had sent for congressmen and senators and urged them not to go beyond the proper bounds, in the hope that we might all the sooner secure readjustments of this delicate situation in Germany and also avoid the possible risk of causing increased mistreatment of the Jews rather than of lessening it. I stated that when Congress met next January, there would likely be a flood of denunciation of the German Government and nationals on account of their attitude towards the Jews in Germany, unless the facts were entirely different from those on which the impression in this country was based and unless his government saw to it that those facts were revealed to our country in a more convincing manner. I finally stated that the people in this country believed that something serious was taking place in Germany with respect to mistreatment of the Jews, and I added that if and when the German Government would bring about a cessation of whatever was taking place in Germany in the way of Jewish treatment by the German Government and nationals, it would then be possible to check boycotting and similar incidents and occurrences in the United States.
- The first two complaints by the German Ambassador related to the raising of a red flag over the German Consul General’s building in Chicago, and an extradition matter pending in Boston.↩