GERMAN CONDITIONS

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 September 1938, Page 8

GERMAN CONDITIONS

FAMILY LIFE BROKEN SYDNEY, xlugust 2ffi_ Cathechism of small German schoolchildren is often the cause of their parents’ arrest. Mrs. Linda Littlejohn, president of the United Association, gave examples of this during a talk on her .three years abroad at an association meeting. Questions such as, “Did your mother put up a flag yesterday?" or “Did she tell what the day was?” are put to | the children, said Mrs. Littlejohn. The reply, “No, mummy didn’t,” will immediately make the parents ( suspect. “The feeling of fear hangs over everybody. “Dictaphones are put under carpets when people are out, to hear what they say later. « “Because nobody knows who his oilier denouncer may be, friendship is ruined and family life broken. “In Russia, executions are advertised, but in Germany you may get the ashes of your best friend without intimation,” said Mrs. Littlejohn. ‘‘l have seen Jews beaten up in cafes in Germany. I know a Jewish millionaire who became a pauper overnight.” This statement was made by an Australian woman who has lived in Germany for many years. She arrived in Sydney early in June of this year.

The woman was replying to a statement by Mrs. Walger Goetzel, who reached Sydney in the Otranto. Mrs. Goetzel stated that “reports of Jewbaiting and atrocities committed against Jews in Germany are entirely false.” “I am too frightened to give my name,” said the Australian woman. “1 know there are hundreds of Nazi spies in Sydney. If my name was known, my relatives in Germany would suffer.”