POGROMS IN GERMANY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23690, 23 December 1938, Page 5

POGROMS IN GERMANY

BRITISH REACTION commons* “ Profound CONCERN” M.P.’S BITTER SPEECH (From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, Nov. 24. An indication of British reaction to the pogroms in Germany was the unanimous adoption in the House of Commons of a motion deploring the treatment of minorities in Europe. It was moved by Mr Noel Baker, M.P., and accepted by the Home Secretary, Sir Samuel Hoare, who said that joint action by 32 States was hoped for to solve the problem of refugees from Germany. • . ' , Mr Noel Baker’s motion read: That this House notes with profound concern the deplorable treatment suffered by certain racial, religious, and political minorities in Europe, and in view of the growing gravity of the refugee problem would welcome an immediate concerted effort among the nations, Sicluding the United Stales, to secure a common policy. Mr Noel Baker said that no one would dispute that the act of the young Polish Jew, Grynszpan, in shooting Herr von Rath was a detestable crime, but there were people who, when they heard the name of von Rath would recall the names o f . Ralhenau, Erzberger, and Dollfuss. He could give details of what followed in Germany from the accounts given in newspapers, and others details which he could guarantee were facts. A boarding school near Potsdam was utterly demolished at 2 a.m., and the children were, driven without any adult protection into the night. The only Jewish home for consumptives in Germany was sacked, and th 6 patients driven away with, nothing on except the shirts in which they slept.' Hospital Inmates’ Parade At Nuremberg all the inmates of the Jewish Hospital were forced to line up on parade. • Some had just had serious operations, and one of them dropped dead. At Ems an asylum for aged Jews was raided, and the old people driven out. A paralysed old man was unable to leave his bed, and his wife refused to leave his side. She was assaulted with an axe, and her crippled husband was dragged away. Jewish boys in camp were summoned to parade, and a few were missing. A Storm Trooper with a pistol asked a young Jew if he knew where they were. The lad was either afraid to answer or he knew nothing abput it; and was shot dead immediately. As he lay on the ground the Storm Trooper kicked him with his heel. Dr Goebbels stated that these attacks wqre ? spontaneous outburst of national anger. That would be no justification if it were true, but there was all too much evidence that the attacks were organised in advance. If these attacks had been the spontaneous excesses of the mob, the German Government might have been expected to condemn them and punish the offender. Children Refused Milk Dr Goebbels (proceeded Mr Baker) would like people to think that nothing had happened to Jews before Grynszpan fired his fatal shot. For five years Jewish children had been compelled to ask for milk so that the milk could be refused. In those five years we had been so hardened to horrors that we had forgotten here what a concentration camp was like. “ This martyrdom of the Jews in Germany is not a national vengeance on a disloyal race. However it started, it has become a part of the Nazi party plan to disrupt and to dominate the world.

“I think that it is quite plain what Dr Goebbels means to do. He is not condemning Jews to death—he . is making it impossible for them to live.

He means to rob them of all their worldly possessions, first, for party funds, and; second, for the bankrupt Budget of the State. i ~ . ■; . “For years he has ,• been stirring up anti-Semitism in other countries to increase the forces:of disorder in the world, and now he is planning to drive out the Jews -with one suit and, a handbag, to use his own picturesque phrase, and to leave them to the charity of the democratic world;”, Cordial Relations? If Dr Goebbels completed his programme, and if Poland and Rumania joined in, what were we, going to do? The outside world must have a programme also, and it must have' it how. Britain and other. Governments, such as the United States, could make it clear in Berlin that there could be no cordial relations between, the German Government and the British people while the martyrdom of the Jews, the Socialists, the Protestants,, and the Catholics went on. It was , hypocrisy to suggest that in the present conditions the policy of confidence and trust could be pursued. Dr Goebbels had expressed the view that this matter would soon be forgotten. It would not. It would ,go down in history as' a living memory of shame. Let there also go down alongside, this in history a memory of what other nations did to wipe out this shame of Germany.

Home Secretary’s Answer

Sir Samuel Hoare accepted Mr Baker’s motion, and said that although a believer in Anglo-German friendship and a staunch supporter. of the Munich policy, he could not conceal deep feeling on the suffering of thousands for a crime with which they had no connection. Measures taken against the Jews in Germany could not be an exclusively . domestic question. Scores of thousands were made destitute and driven to seek admission to other countries.

The problem must remain international. No single country could hope to solve it. Amid general applause he announced that the Evian Committee, representing 32 States, would meet shortly. Mr , Myron Taylor, the United States representative, was now on his’ way here. Inquiries already made among the 32 Governments as to how many refugees they could receive had prdved useful, and they hoped that action would be t§ken in the immediate future. Although the problem was not insoluble, international effort, with the active co-operation in. effective organisations of all nations, was needed. Britain accepted the responsibility which fell on her as possessors of a great part of the world and large resources to do her share. The dominions would speak for themselves. Their Governments had given the matter urgent attention and already admitted a substantial number of refugees.