RACIALISM IN GERMANY

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 64, 9 December 1936, Page 17

RACIALISM IN GERMANY

The Non-Aryan Christians EFFECT ON THE NATION “Only those who have come into direct contact with racial antagonisms know how deeply they are situated in the primitive organization of the human brain.” So said Sir Arthur Keith in the Boyle Memorial Lecture on “Nationality and Race” delivered at Oxford in 1919. Because these antagonisms are primitive, belonging to man before he had evolved the clarifying faculty of his reason, they are, once released, stronger than his civilized qualities, not susceptible of argument, to proof, or to any of the machinery of the intellect. In the historical consideration of the discriminatory laws against Jews in Germany this fact must be borne in mind, says a writer in “The Times,” London. None the less, in other days it was a matter of pride to Germans that all those within the frontiers of Germany were Germans also, and fellow citizens. They contrasted their own homogeneous state with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, distinguished by its agglomeration of ill assimilated and often turbulent minorities —Croat, Czech, Magyar, or Serb. It is only within the last three years that Germany has created within her borders two minorities, the Jews and the “part-Aryans.” The Jews, three years ago, when they were first Isolated from the rest of Germany within ithe invisible barriers of the decrees of National-Socialism, numbered about 600.000; to-day perhaps some 400,000. The number of “partAryans” (the Germans call them halfbreeds) is variously estimated at figures which range between 200,000 and several millions. The extraordinary diversity of ithe estimates is due to lack of precision in the laws which determine “non-Aryanism” and the natural reluctance of people to reveal any trace of Jewish blood unless forced. Outcast as Citizens Roughly it may be said that one Jewish grandparent constitutes “nonAryanism,” though in certain occupations people are required to prove freedom from Jewish blood back to the year 1800. In view of the liberalism with which the older Germany interpreted citizenship, the assimilation of “non-Aryan” elements was rap'd throughout the nineteenth and the first quarter of the twentieth centuries. In the same period marriages between Jews and non-Jews were very common, and the descendants of these marriages grew up to think of themselves as Germans, and, most of them as Christians. To-day they are outcast as citizens, and even as Christians they lack the moral and material support of their own communities. The nature of the discriminatory laws can be studied in the official documents of National-Socialism, 'buit in what manner, may one ask, do these laws actually affect individuals, men, women, and children who have to live under them and have so lived for three years? The answer must be: In every aspect of their daily existence and in every function, political, social, economic, and private, which goes to make up the life of man. No "n-on-Aryan,” Jew or Christian, can be a Civil servant, a judge, a teacher a professor; he may not be admitted as a lawyer or doctor, nor become a journalist or publisher, nor be employed in a public orchestra or theatre or film studio, nor be apprenticed to an '“Aryan” firm. All municipal employment is closed to him, and all semi-official organizations such as gas and electricity companies, insurance companies, banks, and railways; all forms of public welfare work; all forms of agriculture, even that of ploughboy or cowman; all domestic service in “Aryan” households; all employment in “Aryan” firms, factories, or shops. Unemployment is a grim spectre with which Britain is only too familiar, but there a man is not singled out for •unemployment because of an event which happened before he was born. Moreover, whatever mitigation can be offered by the State is free to all men, whereas in Germany the Jew and “part-Aryan” cannot claim., relief from the National-Socialist Welfare organisation, and even in the branch of “winter relief work” they must take their place after the “Aryan” applicant. Where there is a heavy roll of “Aryans” it is unlikely that the “non-Aryans” will receive any assistance. The Jews may have recourse to the Jewish welfare organisations, excellently run and maintained by the generosity and devotion of the Jewish people. But what of the Christian “part-Aryan,” for whom no such provision exists? Stringent as are the material conditions brought about by these discriminatory laws, the moral and spiritual effects are perhaps even harder to bear. A German lady, an “Aryan” and a Christian, married to a Jew, said once: “They take away your livelihood, and at first you might think that the worst which could happen. But afterwards it seems nothing, for they take away your country.” The pastor of the church in the little country town where she had been baptised, confirmed, and married and where the children had been baptised could no longer recognise her as a communicant or greet her when he met her in the street The same woman said: “It is impossible to imagine what it is like to live among 60,000,000 people all pledged to be your enemies.” Spiritual Starvation The story of these moral sufferings will never be written, but the psychological effect of continuous humiliation and despair must have serious consequences for a large number of people. The plight of the “non-Aryan” members of the learned professions is perhaps better known to the general public than ■that of other classes because the academic bodies of* foreign countries, notably England and America, have done what they could to provide facilities outside Germany. Even so, one half of those affected by the discriminatory laws remain unhelped. These men are not always in actual want, for .if they had held their positions fo r 10 years, or if they were front-line soldiers, they were retired on pension. But their life’s work is finished, often when they are in the full tide of their powers, since all laboratories, libraries, public archives, clinics and hospitals are closed to them. How can a historian, a physicist, or a pathologist continue his work when all means of study and research are debarred? There is a starvation of the spirit as well as starvation of the body. “Non-Aryans” can hardly be said to enjoy the protection of law. Nominally, of course, they have certain legal rights, but it is now a fundamental thesis of the German Courts that the right of a German “Aryan” citizen '

must be given precedence over those claimed by “non-Aryans”; a thesis which totally invalidates the doctrine of equality before the law. Further, in view of the’ “purging” of the legal profession, the Jew and the “partAryan” must be represented by a lawyer and tried by a judge who are pledged to be racially antagonistic toward him. In such circumstances a “non-Aryan” would seldom choose to bring an action against an "Aryan" litigant. The best policy for the “nonAryan” is to avoid observation altogether, to escape notice, official or nonofficial. Discriminatory Laws. The discriminatory laws operate in the most intimate affairs of daily existence, even in the life of the affections. An “Aryan” may not marry a Jew nor a “half-Ary an,” whether Jewish or Christian. A “half-Aryan” may marry only a “half-Aryan” or a Jew; a “threequarters Aryan” may marry only an "Aryan,” and a “quarter-Aryan” may marry only a Jew. All this sounds fan- . tastic, and well-nigh comic, on paper. But not to those who have ever heard of stories of broken engagements, of young men and women barely restrained and not always restrained—from suicide. It is not comic when one sees the frustrated lives when one meets the man or woman, devoted and loyal, on whom divorce has been forced by the “Aryan” partner for no other reason than that inescapable strain of “non-Aryan” blood. In such divorces guilt or innocence is of no account: the children belong to the “Aryan” partner because a. “non-Aryan” is a “race-stranger” to children with “Aryan” blood. So a “non-Aryan” woman, after 10 to 15 years of honourable married life, may be divorced on the plea that her husband cannot continue in association with one of. her race, and she will find herself deprived of the custody of her children. Such grounds for divorce are, if not the strict law, undoubtedly allowed by the courts. In other ways also families are divided. If one member of an “Aryan” family has married a “non-Aryan” he or she is often cut off from the rest of ■her family, since there is a stigma attached to social intercourse with “non-Aryans,” and sometimes indeed more than a stigma—a definite disability in the “Aryan’s” career, even a loss of employment. So the friendships of years are broken, and the proud and sensitive among the “non-Aryans” live in an isolation difficult to imagine. They do not wish, as was said by one of them, to embarrass former friends by making claims on their loyalty. The Children. In what manner are the children of these two “minorities” affected? Born into the German Reich, they are obviously innocent of any act which could be construed as inimical to German interests, but they are compelled to suffer the full weight of the discriminatory laws. In September, 1935, a decree was promulgated that after Easter, 1936, no Jewish child should be allowed in a State school. This is not yot generally enforced, and possibly cannot be enforced, since all children have to attend school till the age of 14. The Jews arc permitted by the Government to build their own schools under certain conditions, but it is not possible in every small country; town or village. The regulation that in elementary and high schools “nonAryan” children may be 1.5 per cent, of the total number of scholars still holds good. But school life is often in the nature of martyrdom for these children. They are set apart from their fellows, physically and morally; often they are made to sit on a separate bench] they are debarred from joining in games; they cannot go to the swimming baths, nor compete in the sports that mean so much to healthy children, nor join the “hiking” parties which are so marked a feature of German life. Owing to the 1.5 per cent, regulation a Jewish or “part-Aryan” child may be alone in its school, and the isolation from which it then must suffer is very bitter. Part of the school curriculum consists of anti-Semitic diatribes, and the child is compelled to listen to the grossest and most shameful accusations levelled against its Jewish forebears. What must be the effect of a "non-Aryan” child of being the object lesson of such teaching? And what, ultimately, the effect on the “Aryan” child of being the witness of it? Gentleness, justice, and" mercy are contaminated at their source. The future is very dark for these children. Even where they have the courage to support their school-days, a cramped and hostile environment awaits them Though a “part-Aryan” may not be a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, or professor, he may, unlike, the Jew, sit for the examinations —an’ ironic concession to his “part-Aryan” blood. But lie may not join tbe Hitler Youth, and by this one disability he is almost certainly debarred from all opportunity in his adult life. For in all enterprises, even those not legally closed to “non-Aryans,” it is a sine qua non that preference must be given to members of the Hitler Youth.