THE “BORKUM SONG"

Evening Star, Issue 18998, 21 July 1925, Page 2

THE “ BORKUM SONG"

AHTHEM GF THE GERMAN ANTI-SEMITES The .summer has been definitely ushered in by the periodically recurring case of tho “ Borknm Song.” Borknm is the ono spot in Germany where no Jew may set foot (writes tho Berlin correspondent of the ‘Observer’). Tiie Prussian Diet has now been called’ upon to decide whether the polioo of a holiday resort, iu this cane a small island, have the power and tho right to forbid visitors in search of health and strength to sing a certain song, ami bo prevent the municipal band from playing a bar or two of the said song in lieu of ‘Deutschland fiber Alios,’ with which all other programmes conclude. As the law stands at present it seems tha t the police have the right to forbid tho public singing, but not to prevent the band playing the offending song. From the protests raised it appears that magnates of the financial, industrial, Press, and theatrical world, who arc all debarred access to this small, sandy, gritty, and sliadeloss i island where those in possession await tho j arrival of every small steamer and scan newcomers in * a threatening attitude, would give worlds to spend a week there. One can only imagine that, originally those ‘ with money to spare left Borknm for years to the poor in pocket and' patriotic in .spirit, and that this is the result. Those who have heard the strains of the offending song from afar in a heat, complain regularly every year about it, and believe that it is instrumental in keeping ] tho anti-Semetic spirit alive. It is curious that no refrain in either Nationalist or Communistic in spirit, has ever aroused so much strong feeling as this ridiculous reference to curly hair, flat feet, and hook noses.