ADENAUER SPEAKS OUT ON ANTI-SEMITISM

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29105, 18 January 1960, Page 9

ADENAUER SPEAKS OUT ON ANTI-SEMITISM

Pledge Of State Support To West German Jews (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) BONN, January 16. Chancellor Konrad Adenauer told the West German people today to give a good thrashing” on the spot to those responsible for the current wave of anti-Semitism. He also gave Jews in West Germany a personal guarantee that the State was behind them with all its power. In a radio and television broadcast to the nation, he declared that most Germans served Nazism only under the pressure of dictatorship, and said that the recent “abominable events” directed against Jews were mostly hooliganism,” but must be punished.

The case of the desecration of the Cologne Synagogue last Christmas Eve seemed however to be of a political nature, the 84-year-old Chancellor added. He told the German people:' “If somewhere you discover a rowdy, carry out the punishment on the spot and give him a good thrashing. That is the punishment he merits.”

Dr. Adenauer said: “I tell our opponents abroad and the doubters abroad—the unanimity of the whole German people in condemning anti-Semitism and national socialism has shown itself in the most resolute and strongest way imaginable. “The German people have shown that these thoughts and ideas have no fruitful soil among them,” the Chancellor said. “The greater part of the German people served national socialism in the time of national socialism only under the hard pressure of dictatorship. In no way was every German a National Socialist. I believe that should have been gradually recognised abroad too.

"National socialism, dictatorship, has no roots in the German people, and the handful of incorrigibles who are still here will achieve nothing. That I guarantee,” he said-

"The condemnation of antiSemitism and national socialism which has now shown itself so spontaneously and unanimously in the German people is the good side of these abominable events,” Dr. Adenauer said. The Chancellor said: “I turn today to my Jewish fellow citizens and tell them they need not worry at all. This State stands behind them with all its powers. They have my guarantee for these words.”

There are about 30,000 Jews living in West Germany today, compared with more than 500,000 before World War II Referring to the Christmas Eve daubing of the Cologne synagogue with swastikas and the daubing of a Cologne memorial to Nazi victims, on the same night, Dr. Adenauer said: “What hap-

pened to the synagogue and memorial in Cologne is a shame and a crime. The Federal Government, for which I speak, hopes that the justice authorities will proceed against it with all sternness.

“The incidents which followed, here as in other countries, were almost without exception hooliganism.

“They must, so far as punishable acts are to hand, be prosecuted and atoned for,” Dr. Adenauer said. “They seem in most cases to have been acts of hooliganism without a political basis. . . .

“But the case in Cologne seems to be of a political nature. That must be cleared up and the consequences must be drawn in due course.”

Two members of the Right-

wing German Reich Party have been charged with the desecration of the Cologne synagogue. They have since been expelled from the party. The Federal Interior Ministry is investigating the party to see whether the Government can apply to the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe for a ban on the party on the grounds of anticonstitutional activity. Dr. Adenauer, who attended the opening of Cologne synagogue a few months ago, said the synagogue desecration had caused a wave of indignation against the culprits in Germany and “in some other countries a wave of hate above all against the Germans, in particular against the Germany of today.

“About that I would like to say a few words to you listeners at home and abroad. I regard myself as particularly qualified to do so.

“My family and I are ourselves victims of national socialism. It is enough if I tell you that I was four times on a death list of the National Socialists, and that it borders on a miracle that I survived those years. “What about my relations to Jewry? “Well, it was two Jews who were the first to offer me financial help when my family and I found ourselves in severe financial straits in the time of national socialism. They knew what my attitude to Jews had always been.

“When I became Federal Chancellor I worked with all my strength for the compensation agreement with Israel. I wanted to tell the whole world thereby that the Germany of today totally rejects anti-Semitism,” Dr. Adenauer said.