If there is any future left to us in which to record the history
of the present, Hitler will be represented as the Dark Man of modern
times, a horrible composite of cruelty and criminality.
Five years of barbarism reached its climax last week in Germany.
After a five years' "purge", it remained for a minor incident to precipitate
a wave of horror unparalleled since the Middle Ages.
Hitler announced his aim, that of purging Germany of all Jews,
when he became dictator. How violently and horribly he was carried
out his aim is all too apparent to everyone able to read the newspapers.
Jews may have racial characteristics but it is obvious that it
would be impossible for them to have any national characteristics.
They have been homeless too long to have retained any semblance
of national integrity. For centuries they have been gradually absorbed
into whatever country they have elected as their homeland.
Therefore for Hitler to aim at removal of all Jews was an almost
impossible feat. Intermarriage for centuries has diffused Jewish blood
into an enormous percentage of Germans.
It is actually incredible to realize to what inhuman lengths this
modern monster has gone to make his adopted homeland pure Aryan.
The tortures and human injustices that he has heaped on the defenseless
minority is reminiscent of the Inquisitions and the early Christian
Martyrs.
We who are so proud of our hard-won modern tolerance and
liberty see a scene being enacted across the sea which is in no slightest
way related to modern tolerance or liberty. It even transcends religious
hatred and becomes race hatred, certainly a degrading pastime
for modern rulers to pursue.
In these five years German
that small quota of freedom left to the rest of the Germans; they
have been humiliated and tortured for the simple fact of their Jewish
existence.
They have been denied all rights to political office, to legislative
positions, to administrative positions (sometimes in their own businesses)
, to all positions of trust no matter how well equipped they
are, to almot all ways of earning a living such as radio, screen, stage
and office work. All intermarriage has been absolutely forbidden,
even social contact and trade with Jews has been declared illegal with
brutal punishments for disobedience.
Last week a young Polish Jew assassinated a minor German official
in Paris. With maniacal fury Hitler and his equally rotten henchmen
instituted a week of mass cruelty, destruction and horror.
With one stroke of the pen Hitler has created a world crisis.
He has demolished the last hope of- Jewish independence and he has
made their dependence virtually impossible.
A general tax was imposed on all Jews amounting to one fourth
of all their property and as the government has records of all wealth,
they can set efficiently about their task immediately. After the week
of destruction all businesses have been partially wrecked. The Jewish
owners must pay for the rehabilitation of their businesses preparatory
to handing them over to Aryan ownership at the first of the year.
All Jews have been ejected from universities. They are forbidden
to go to the theater, to concerts and to all gatherings at which Aryans
will be present. Thus with their business taken from them so is their
method of livelihood. That leaves little more than six weeks before
all Jews must leave the country.
Other nations of the world have risen to the rescue of the
persecuted Jews. Homes must be found for them and money wherewith
to support them until they can stand on their own feet. The
Jewish wealth in Germany will remain there because no emigrant is
allowed to take more than a few dollars with him out of the country.
But surely this campaign of horror will turn on its creator and
smash him also. Surely this wave of barbarism will weaken the ranks
of Fascism and restore the faculty of healthy criticism to the mobs
blinded with enthusiasm—We should aid the persecuted Jews with
one hand and try to hasten retribution with the other.
Cornelia Fort.