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The 1930s Economic Boycott of Germany - Prelude By Udo Walendy Simultaneous with Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany, an international boycott was organized with the intention of destroying the National Socialists and keeping Germany subservient to the Treaty of Versailles. One reads of the "violation of Jewish rights" in Germany in 1933 in the context of the international boycott orchestrated against that beleaguered nation. For a historian, however, this approach is not satisfactory, because events must be seen in the light of the fact that "the others, too"- in this case the Germans - had the same right to fight for their existence. If one wishes to be objective, it just will not do to speak only about Jewish rights having been violated without mentioning in this context that the whole German nation had been deprived of its rights by the Treaty of Versailles. Countless Germans were unemployed, many had their property expropriated or were otherwise economically ruined; in fact, between 1919 and 1933, poverty, civil war and chaos reigned, with little hope of survival for many. Nor can it be passed over in silence that the conditions prevailing in Germany during that period had been largely influenced by victorious political and economic forces abroad, in particular those who took advantage of multi-national citizenship and who exploited their contacts with international authorities. Germany's surrender in 1918, the subsequent economic blockade, occupation of the Ruhr, the payment of massive reparations and its consequences (inflation and large-scale unemployment), the communist riots etc. all enabled these forces to bring about terrible conditions either from outside of Germany or from within by way of immigration, naturalization and financing with hard foreign currencies (predominantly dollars). Instituted concurrently was a management policy for essential political, judicial, economic and journalistic positions which favored primarily not German, but internationally interwoven interests. They were, of course, not always Jewish. But it can't be ignored that at least one of these pressure groups identified itself either as a coherent race, an internationally dispersed people, or a religious community of one stock and family, and that this group had common obligations and targets, from which it was considered treason to deviate. Dr. Nahum Goldmann, for many years president of the World Jewish Congress and the World Zionist Organization, wrote: "As president of the largest Jewish organization, I disposed of budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars; I directed thousands of employees, and all this, I emphasize again, not for one particular state, but within the framework of international Jewry." [1] And was German Jewry suffering as the propaganda in the United States and Great Britain suggested? Here's Goldmann again: "German Jewry, which found its temporary end during the Nazi period, was one of the most interesting and, for modern Jewish history, most influential centers of European Jewry. During the era of emancipation, i.e., in the second half of the 19th and in the early 20th century, it had experienced a meteoric rise . . . It had fully participated in the rapid industrial rise of Imperial Germany, made a substantial contribution to it and acquired a renowned position in German economic life. Seen from the economic point of view, no Jewish minority in any other country, not even that in America, could possibly compete with the German Jews. "They were involved in large-scale banking, a situation unparalleled elsewhere, and, by way of high finance, they had also penetrated German industry. A considerable portion of the wholesale trade was Jewish. They controlled even such branches of industry which is in general not in Jewish hands. Examples are shipping or the electrical industry, and names such as Ballin and Rathenau confirm this statement. I hardly know of any other branch of emancipated Jewry in Europe or the American continent that was as deeply rooted in the general economy as was German Jewry. American Jews of today are absolutely as well off as or relatively richer than the German Jews were at the time, it is true, but even in America with its unlimited possibilities the Jews have not succeeded in penetrating into the central spheres of industry (steel, iron, heavy industry, high finance, shipping) as was the case in Germany." Goldmann goes on to point out that the position of Jews in the intellectual life of the country was unique. In literature, they were represented by illustrious names. The theater was largely in their hands. The daily press, above all its internationally influential sector, was essentially owned by Jews or controlled by them. As paradoxical as this may sound today, after the Hitler era, Goldmann says: "I have no hesitation to say that hardly any section of the Jewish people has made such extensive use of the emancipation offered to them in the nineteenth century as the German Jews. In short, the history of the Jews in Germany from 1870 to 1933 is probably the most glorious rise that has ever been achieved by any branch of the Jewish people." [2] He goes on to say: "The majority of the German Jews were never fully assimilated and were much more Jewish than the Jews in other West European countries." [3] Unfortunately, Goldmann did not mention the real influences of Jews in Germany's political life and administration during the Weimar Republic period. With the $40 to $70 sent to him every month by his American uncle, Goldmann considered himself during the runaway inflation "one of the highest-earning persons in Germany." [4] Nor was he the only one. This is the starting point to keep in mind if one wants to understand the situation in Germany at the time. It was a real shambles for the German people - including the German Jews - in the early 1930s. May it be noted in this connection that the state of Israel, after its founding in 1948, never granted equal rights of co-determination or even equal nationality rights to foreigners, certainly not to Germans, living in Israel. But the 70-million nation of Germans which, in 1933, was fighting for its bare existence, its survival, its right of self-determination, was also entitled to think of its own strength, to bring about a change of leadership and, in doing so, to eliminate those people from decisive positions who, Germans believed, were responsible or co-responsible for the nationwide chaos. The severity of the Kampfzeit (period of struggle) and the memory of a condition which approached that of a civil war during the last years of the Weimar Republic, tended also to intensify the reactions after the take-over in 1933, particularly in cases where those who did not respect majority decisions continued to incite from abroad after having left the country. Who had felt sorry for the disenfranchised, expropriated, expelled and slaughtered Germans - in 1919, 1932 or 1945? History must not be judged by double standards. It simply will not do, as was done at the 18th Zionist Congress in Prague in August 1933, to just read off the statistics of jobless Jews, creating an atmosphere of slogans, such as "Never forget, never forgive," without pointing at the general world-wide depression, which was particularly severe in Germany, with 6 million on the dole, the vast majority of whom were Germans. The fighting slogans proclaimed by Stephen Wise, president of the American Jewish Congress, at the Second Preparative World Jewish Conference on September 5, 1933 in Geneva, was neither consistent with the facts, nor with a policy to maintain peace. He spoke of a "common enemy of mankind having no other aim than to conquer and destroy." He added: "We stand in the front line, in the first row of trenches." Wise did not even refer to Hitler personally, but to the German nation as a whole when he - contrary to the truth - continued: "Put even more simply: Shall Jews have any relations whatever, industrial and commercial, with a nation that has declared war . . . against the Jewish people anywhere?" [5] Compare that kind of dialectic on
the part of Wise with the report by Goldmann about his
friend Dr. Ernst Jackh. When Hitler came to power, Jackh was
director the Akademie für Diplomatie in Berlin.
Offered a good position in London, Jackh resigned, and was
called to Hitler's office. Hitler asked him to reconsider
bis resignation, and Jackh replied, as reported by Goldmann:
"As you see, mein Führer, I am smoothly shaved. If I
did not resign from my post I could no longer shave
myself." "In order to shave, I must stand before a mirror. If I fired my Jewish colleagues, but remained in office myself, then I would be ashamed to look at my own face. This is why I have to resign." Hitler asked what he could do and Jackh replied that he had decided to accept a good position in England; he asked Hitler, however, to allow bis Jewish colleagues, who were about to be dismissed, a good compensation. Hitler replied: "Send me a list with the names of those men and indicate the amount of money that should be paid to each. I shall see to it that this will be done." And it was done. [6] The internationally experienced diplomat and later under-secretary of state in the German Foreign Office, Ernst von Weizsäcker, wrote of the period: "We were successfully trying to keep Jewish civil servants who wanted to stay, in our office. But in cases where the files showed hostility toward National Socialism, nothing could be done. [7] What most historians don't bother to mention is that the Committee of Jewish Delegations, composed of a large number of Jewish organizations, as well as the Zionist World Organization and the B'nai B'rith participated in the Versailles Peace Conference [8] which had brought on the disastrous economic conditions which Germany faced in 1933 and which had a direct connection to the rise to power of the National Socialists. The Jewish organizations participating at Versailles represented over 10 million Jews from a large number of countries. One of their targets, "crowned with success," was "not to allow any absolute national sovereignty." Obviously, they had in mind the sovereignty of Germany. The primary object of the peace conference had been the distribution of the spoils of war. Germany had been forced to accept conditions limiting its sovereignty. [9] Who was it then who first started to meddle in foreign affairs? In the German empire, the Jews had fared very well. There had been no complaints, but rather, according to Goldmann, a phenomenal rise of German Jewry. In 1919, Germany was defenseless. Mainstream historians do not examine the conditions under which Hitler took over the heavy burden of political responsibility and what really happened to the Jews. Allegations, taken from the foreign Jewish press, are occasionally quoted, but remain unchallenged. Jews of the world living outside of Germany proclaimed a war against Hitler; as the London Daily Express (March 24, 1933) headlined it: "Declaration of War of World Jewry Against Hitler," and no national Jewish group has ever disassociated itself from this declaration. All these activities and organizations operating across the borders provided a real background for using such an effective power politically on a world-wide basis at a time when Hitler was not even master in his own house. Only the internal disputes regarding policies separated the leaders of different international Jewish organizations from one another and prevented a central engagement of the combined forces of Jewry against Germany from becoming fully effective. But a boycott was launched, particularly in the United States and Great Britain. Gloria R. Mosesson in her The Jewish War Veterans Story, confirms the boycott-war, starting in 1933, in the United States and illustrates with the following episode: In 1937, J.W.V. effected an important breakthrough in community cooperation on the boycott. The influential Jewish labor leader, Sidney Hillman, was prevailed upon by a J.W.V. member to approach [American labor leader] John L. Lewis at the National C.I.O. Convention. He detailed to him the dangers of Nazism to the American way of life. Lewis was impressed by the accuracy and scope of J.W.V. research, which Hillman quoted, and he promised to put the C.I.O. into the fight. True to his word, he got the C.I.O. membership involved in the boycott, and from this, the non-Jewish community, as well as those Jews who were still apathetic, finally became part of the campaign. In Pittsburgh alone, the C.I.O. locals sent out 100,000 circulars urging community action on the boycott. Despite what propagandists would have the world believe, due to the chaotic political situation prevailing in Germany at the time and because of her almost total isolation, in terms of foreign affairs, imposed by the Versailles world powers, Hitler was hardly in a position, throughout 1933, to pursue a policy of expansion. Until the death of President Paul von Hindenburg in August 1934, he was not even the supreme commander of the armed forces. To antagonize the foreign press by German politics or to cause prejudice with other countries in their economic relations with Germany was therefore the last thing Hitler wanted. The victors and co-victors of Versailles - and these included a number of private financial, economic and journalistic associations which often surpassed the diplomacy of their respective countries in dexterity and represented "the pressure of public opinion" - were indeed using all necessary means of power in their hands to impose almost any condition on Germany. The different governments seemed to be largely content with this situation and - with the exception of Poland, which aspired to exploit the change of power in Berlin for a military invasion into Germany to annex East Prussia, Silesia and Pomerania - endeavored to maintain peace in Central Europe. In their assessment of the political situation in Germany, Hitler's downfall (rather than his conquest of the world) was generally expected, and this, they thought was only a matter of time, of a few months at most. But under the protection of these governments, the said private pressure groups with their worldwide ramifications were responsible for the gradual escalation of a policy of confrontation on an international basis. One of the leaders of these pressure groups was Samuel Untermyer (sometimes spelled Untermeyer), one of the most powerful and influential Jewish leaders in America and a most successful attorney, government advisor and president of the non-sectarian Anti-Nazi League. From 1933 to 1939 (he died in 1940), Untermyer devoted all his time and energy to a world-wide boycott of German goods, insisting on rigorous and immediate implementation, wherever and however this could be done. He began his efforts immediately after Hitler's assumption of power and without any mandate from German Jews. Wise, founder of the American Jewish Congress, made similar efforts to get this boycott going, but he preferred to have it coordinated with government measures and full powers being given to him by a board of international Jewry operating on a worldwide basis. As a platform for his agitation, he preferred the preparative World Jewish Conferences convening in Geneva, at which he "appealed to all those who have joined the fight for freedom and justice for all races, religions and peoples to carry out this boycott with all their energy. "[10] Edwin Black, in his The Transfer Agreement - The Untold Story of the Secret Pact Between the Third Reich and Jewish Palestine, says: "On March 12, the American Jewish Congress leadership convened a three-hour session and voted to commence a national program of highly visible protests, parades and demonstrations. The focal point of the protests would be a giant anti-Nazi rally March 27 at Madison Square Garden. . ." A veterans' protest march organized by the J.W.V. on March 23, 1933, in which the vice-president of the A.J.C., W.W. Cohen, participated as a parade marshal, unfolded under the banners and placards declaring economic war on Germany. [11] The American Federation of Labor pledged its 3 million members to fight Nazism "here and in Germany." British unionists and Labor Party leaders offered to speak for this boycott movement directed against Germany. Hitler, meanwhile, in his Reichstag speech of March 23, was stressing the necessity of good relationships with foreign countries, and his program concerning foreign politics had even been approved by the Social Democrats. Reich leaders realized that boycott agitation was accelerating, especially in Great Britain and the U.S. Placards proclaiming "Boycott German Goods" spread infectiously through London and New York City, and by late March, 1933 were in the windows of stores. Automobiles with boycott banners and placards slowly cruised through the retail districts alerting shoppers. Everywhere store signs warned German salesmen not to enter. British Catholics had been urged by the archbishop of Liverpool to join the protest. London's Daily Herald carried an interview with a prominent Jewish leader who admitted, "The [Jewish] leaders are hanging back, but the Jewish people are 'foreing its leaders on.' Already the boycott had damaged 'hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of German trade." The Herald also reported
that: "Fifty-five thousand were gathered on March 27, 1933
in and around Madison Square Garden, supportive rallies were
at that moment waiting in Chicago, Washington, San
Francisco, Houston and about seven other American cities. At
each supportive rally, thousands huddled around loudspeakers
waiting for the Garden event, which would be broadcast live
via radio relay to 200 additional cities across the country.
At least 1 million Jews were participating nationwide.
Perhaps another million Americans of non-Jewish heritage
stood with them." Turning to Jewish leaders in Germany and their advocates in America, Wise disqualified their pleas for an end to the protest as "panic and terror" from those who had failed to fight Nazism before the NSDAP came to power. He vowed the anti-Hitler protest would escalate, even if "pseudo-ameliorations" appeared. "Even if life and human rights are to be safeguarded, there must not be a substitution of the status of helotry (serfdom) for violence. Such substitution will not satisfy us" - the throng interrupted with cheers of encouragement -" nor satisfy the aroused conscience of humankind." The crowd offered their own punctuation as Wise declared, "Every form of economic discrimination is a form of violence. Every racial exclusion is violence. To say that there will be no pogroms is not enough. A dry and bloodless economic pogrom remains violence and force." New York Catholic Bishop Francis T. McConnell, who joined Wise at Madison Square Garden, added that anti-Nazi rallies and protest actions must continue even if persecutions in Germany temporarily ceased, until the Nazis were out of power. As the Nazis saw it, Jewish propaganda was again disabling Germany before she could achieve success, as in World War I. Meanwhile, in Poland, the three most important Warsaw Jewish commercial organizations - the Central Association of Small Tradesmen, the Central Association of Merchants and the Central Association of Jewish Artisans - passed binding resolutions to "use the most radical means of defense by boycotting German imports." To counteract these increasing boycott measures, intensified by atrocity propaganda reports, Hitler insisted that a boycott of Jewish stores be organized by the NSDAP for one day - April 1, 1933 - as he felt that otherwise protests might break out which would be difficult to curb. But this one day of boycott was only ammunition for further boycott measures against Germany as well as for further spiteful and unilateral comments of "German terrorism." The German leadership was not only concerned about economic setbacks, but also about the worldwide public feeling favoring military intervention against Germany. Plans for "democratic operations" of this kind were seriously considered above all in Poland and even in Czecho-Slovakia. The stage had been set for Germany's economic destruction. The worst was yet to come. --- [Continue ...] References:
Source: The Barnes Review, April 1996 Udo Walendy is a German author and publisher with an expertise in exposing the errors of propaganda photos. His areas of interest focus on establishment history versus truth in this century. |