862.4061/1451
The Ambassador in Germany (Dodd) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 15.]
Sir: I have the honor to report that since the writing of the Embassy’s despatch No. 1823 of March 4, 1935,41 there have been signs of an intensification of pressure upon the Jews in Germany. Fresh outbursts against the Jews in public speeches, additional discriminatory ordinances, and finally undercover work by the police all seem to furnish evidence that the State, profiting by the period of internal calm and by the strengthening of its hand through the declaration of military conscription, is engaged in a new anti-Jewish drive.
Julius Streicher, Gauleiter of Franconia and famous as a Jewbaiter, is making a speaking tour of several German cities, a fact of significance in itself, even though many of his public utterances have to be discounted because of their very violence. Last week before a large meeting at Cologne he was acclaimed by the local Gauleiter, Grohé, as “the man who had waged war without compromise against Jewry.” “Those who believe that the measures against the Jews will be relaxed, are grievously mistaken,” Grohé declared. “The Jewish question will be solved once and for all along the lines recommended by the Stürmer!” (Streicher’s notorious anti-Jewish paper which advocates measures little short of annihilation.)
Streicher then delivered a speech which even he evidently considered too violent for the papers to carry, particularly the foreign press, inasmuch as he left the press the alternative either of printing the full text of his address which, according to the Easier Nachrichten lasted three hours, or of publishing nothing at all. The Westdeutscher Beobachter, a reliable party organ of the west of Germany, which incidentally has just issued a special anti-Jewish number, was apparently permitted to disregard this injunction, however, and reprinted certain of Streicher’s statements in brief, as follows: “To those who argue that Christ was a Jew, I would say, ‘Were I to call Christ a Jew, I should be calling him a criminal.’” Entering the field of international politics, Streicher acknowledged Germany’s debt to Mussolini for Fascism but warned him “that he who consorts with Jews goes with them to ruination.” “We know who has prevented France from accepting Germany’s outstretched hand of peace, who in Soviet Russia holds the power and plots world revolution—the Jews!” Streicher exclaimed.
Although such statements border on nonsense and are mostly a variation of what has frequently been said before, they are somewhat [Page 393] stronger in tone than has been heard for some time. It may have been of some importance, moreover, that the Fxihrer himself saw fit to put the seal of his approval on Streicher’s work by honoring him on his fiftieth birthday (see Embassy’s despatch No. 1807 of February 27, 193542) and that more recently Streicher’s ideas should receive confirmation from a responsible Minister of the Reich. Speaking before the Kulturverein in Nurnberg on March 29, Minister of the Interior Frick said: “I should like to pay a special tribute to the very great service performed by our party comrade, Julius Streicher, who for a decade has tirelessly combatted the baleful influence of racial mixture and Jewry, and I believe that after two years of power we stand very close to his goal.”
Against the background of remarks such as these the several new measures which have recently been taken against the Jews stand out in particular prominence. Within the last fortnight orders have been issued forbidding Jewish lawyers to handle cases for the Aryan poor and excluding Jewish apprentices from the State schools for the book and publishing trades. Furthermore, the Reichsschrif tums-kammer has addressed a circular letter to, it is understood, several thousand Jewish authors, many of whom have been doing freelance work for the papers, denying them the right to publish any more of their writings on the ground that their status of non-Aryan deprived them of a sense of connection and obligation to the community. A translation of this letter, which has been received from two different sources, is enclosed herewith.42
That pressure is being renewed possibly with the end in view of stimulating a fresh wave of emigration, is indicated by a number of police measures reported by the London Times. It is stated that a confidential order has been circulated to the secret police to the effect that propaganda in favor of the Jews remaining in Germany is to be strongly discouraged and that in accordance with this order a meeting in the South of Germany was recently dissolved merely because the speaker had pointed out that all the Jews at present in Germany could not possibly go to Palestine. The Times also reports that a new policy has been prescribed with respect to Jewish organizations engaged in the training of young farmers. These organizations have had as one of their objects the placing of the Jewish youth upon the land in order to meet National Socialist complaints against Jewish absorption of the intellectual professions; now, however, they have been instructed to train the Jewish youth for the sole purpose of emigrating to Palestine. The same paper reports that, with a view to discouraging the repatriation in Germany of Jews who have been working abroad, [Page 394] many of those returning recently have been arrested at the border and informed that they would have to undergo a period of “education,” preferably in a concentration camp, before they could resume their place as inhabitants in Germany.
The latest fear of the Jews is that in the execution of the new conscription law a step will be taken which will emphasize perhaps more than anything else to date, their separation from the German community. The following apt remark made by the Consul General in Hamburg44 in a report to the Embassy with respect to feeling in his district, can undoubtedly be said to have general application: “The inauguration of ‘Wehrpfiicht’ is causing the utmost concern to leading Hamburg Jews, as they expect that a non-Ayran clause will be inserted which will prevent them from serving the compulsory period in the army. Such an action would finally shatter the faint hopes to which some of the local Jews still cling, namely, that the depth of persecution had been reached and that conditions would slowly become better. This element now feel that if army service is barred to Jews all hope is lost and that conditions, for them, paralleling the Middle Ages are only a matter of time.”
It is understood that several Jewish groups including the association of Jewish Front Fighters whose membership comprises some forty thousand war veterans, have addressed communications to the Government affirming the right of Jews to serve the Fatherland and to have equal opportunity of enlistment. On the whole, the Jewish community is not optimistic that these petitions will be heeded and it is rumored that a negative answer has already been conveyed informally through spokesmen for the Reichswehr Ministry. It is noted moreover that several quarters incline to interpret a passage in an article by General von Blomberg appearing in a recent number of the Völkischer Beobachter, to the effect that the defense arm of the State “must stand in inner harmony with national and social principles which spring from the forces of race and blood,” as meaning that Jews generally will not be accepted under the conscription regulations.
An interesting characteristic of the new anti-Jewish campaign is that, apart from the outbursts of Gauleiters Grohé and Streicher as quoted above, it is for the most part being carried on unobtrusively. There appears as yet to be no general attempt to incite the population to excesses against the Jews and in contrast to the first anti-Semitic drive, violence on any perceptible scale is apparently being avoided. Even the fanatical Julius Streicher lately published a warning against “certain irresponsible elements who have spread rumors that the Jews were planning an attack upon the Fuhrer’s life and that consequently they must be exterminated.” Streicher claimed that he demanded [Page 395] the utmost discipline in his district and that he had recently dismissed a local leader for “undue rashness.” In conversation with a journalist known to the Embassy, Dr. Goebbels made the significant statement that the “Jewish question will soon be liquidated,” but denied permission that publicity be given to his remark. The new campaign seems rather to be directed at a further restriction of the Jews’ legal rights. It is impossible to say at present how far the measures may be carried but it might be mentioned that announcement has been made of an early codification of the German citizenship laws and that in this connection many Jews here fear for the worst.
Respectfully yours,