What I Saw in Germany
BY SIR EVELYN WRENCH.
y HAVE just returned from the third lecture tour I I have made to Germany and Central Europe on behalf of the cause of international co-operation during the past year. To try and understand " the - other fellow's point of view " is the fundamental basis on which the All People's Association (APA) was started over three years ago.
I will try to explain to readers of The Spectator the Jewi,11 problem as seen from Germany. While in that country I made no attempt to hide my feelings as to the injustice of the anti-Jew campaign. At a public dinner at Hanover and at a public meeting in Berlin, at both of which the Press were present, I said that the society which I represented stood for no racial discrimina- tion between Christian and Jew—sentiments which were warmly applauded, although they were not reported in the Press. Apart from the members of the German Cabinet and one woman of English birth married to a German, I met no German who approved of the Nazi Government's anti-Jew policy.
The usual 'explanation given by friends, who were not members of the Nazi Party, was something as follows: " We admit certain members of the present Govern- ment have an anti-Jew complex. We do not defend it. We hoPe.it will soon pass : we think it will. But please remember we have just been through a revolution, in which there was little , bloodshed compared with the revolution of 1918. In times of revolution, as you English know from history, some regrettable things happen." I thought back to what the feelings of many Englishmen were when the British Government embarked on its " Black and Tan regime" thirteen years ago, and I knew that Governments often do what large sections of the community disapprove of.
As I walked along the Kurfurstendam, Berlin's great shopping street, ten days ago during the official boycott, when flaming posters inciting the populace not to buy from the Jews were stuck up on the shop fronts, and when the word " Jude " was painted across many shop windows—and every second shop seemed to be Jew- owned —I was heavy of heart.
I talked to many Jewish friends, whose sufferings are great ; I talked to many German friends outside the Nazi Party, to others who are definitely opponents of it ; and to Nazis. I think Herr Hitler's greatest blunder has been his anti-Jew policy, but to understand the German point of view it must be remembered that Communism and Bolshevism seem real dangers to Germany, with its practically unarmed Eastern frontier towards Russia. The Jewish population in Germany- 600,000—is 1 per cent, of the population. In many places, just as in other countries in Eastern Europe, there has been jealousy of the Jew for economic reasons. In Berlin, out of 3,500 lawyers more than half were Jews. In the medical profession the percentage of Jewish doctors is often nearly as high. I am not excusing the anti-Jewish outburst, but I am merely stating facts. When mass emotions are stirred it is difficult to get people to think rationally. Germans consider that in a country which has terrible unemployment, and has suffered severe economic depression, the Jew has got a diproportionate share of the " plums."
The Nazi Government, if it wished to eliminate Jewish predominance in certain professions, should; I think, have declared that in future no more Jew lawyers or doctors would be admitted until the number of Jews in these professions more nearly corresponded' to "the ratio of Jews to the total population. On the other hand, I think that Jews should be permitted to enter all the professions and Government. Departments, which I am told is at preserkt not the ease.
If the Government wished to reduce the number of the Jewish population in Germany it should have said : " After January 1st, 1985, we do not want more than a certain number of Jews in Germany. In the next twenty months — Jews will have to find . homes elsewhere—especially those who have come here since the War—and we will accord them every facility for leaving the country." It is in my view neither good policy nor just, on the one hand, to say to the Jew in most professions and trades " No Jew need apply," and simultaneously to refuse to give him a passport to enable him to leave the country.
What is the Jew, whose ancestors have lived in Germany for hundreds of years, to do ? He knows no other country. He is a German first and a Jew second. I talked to many Jews, of both sexes, sonic who said with tears in their eyes that they were Germans, their fathers and brothers had died' for Germany on the battlefield, and they refused to believe that Germany really intended to carry out the war-cry of some of the hot-headed youths : " Juda Verreckung " (let the Jews die). I returned from Germany with the conviction that the Government would like now to drop the anti- Jewish campaign. I think the best service we can do the Jews in Germany, having expressed our disapproval of the anti-Jewish campaign, is to try and maintain an impartial attitude towards Germany and show that we are really desirous of understanding the German aspirations.
The Communist bogy may have been exaggerated—it probably has been—but five million Germans voted Communist in the last election, and many people think that the Communists would be in power to-day if they had had better leadership.
The great difficulty about international relations is that the same situation looks entirely different seen from different angles. To the Englishman, living in England, who only reads the British Press, what is happening in Germany appears incomprehensible. He says : " Oh, the Prussian is only being true to type ; the Germans never were civilized and never will be." The racial discrimination against the Jews blots out everything else for him.
To the German, who has to depend for his information on the censored German Press—apart from any foreign papers which he can buy—the situation seems otherwise. He says : " In the War Germany was surrounded by enemies who carried on an atrocity campaign in the Press throughout the world against us. To-day our enemies—and we are surrounded by them—arc at their old tricks again. We expected better treatment at the hands of Great Britain. Don't the English people know the corruption scandals we have lived through, don't they realize the sinister part Marxism and Jewish-inspired Communism have played in our national life ? We are defending Europe against Bolshevism."
To stay-at-home Englishmen reading about Hitlerism in the Press Germany seems to have taken leave of her senses. To Germans Hitler appears as the saviour of his country. Despite the theatricalities, the brown shirts, red armlets with Swastika badges, top boots and Nazi salutes, Nazism has captured the imagination of the German people. - Germany is to-day surrounded by enemies, France, Czecho-Slovakia, Poland, Russia (repre- senting the Bolshevist menace behind the Polish and Lithuanian frontiers), and feels isolated.
The youth of Germany thinks that German subservience to the Allies since the War spelt disaster. Ten years ago there was a very strong international public opinion in Germany : to-day public opinion is largely national. Young Germany trusts Hitler. It will follow Hitler. It knows that Hitler cares nothing for wealth, ambition or place—he only wants to create a, happier, greater Germany. Ile is ready to die for that cause.
Germany to-day has rediscovered her soul. She believes in herself. The 65,000,000 of Germans in Germany and the Germans in foreign countries are going to make their voice heard in the world. Germany's unemployment and her economic plight are desperate. " She has nothing to lose," so thinks Youth. " Wei') then, let us follow Hitler, who promises better times."
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