Information Issued by the Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain

Vol. XVIII No. 4 April, 1963 INFORMATION ISSUED BY THE ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH REFUGEES IN GREAT BRITAIN g FAIRFAX MANSIONS, FINCHLEY RD, (corner Fairfax Rd.). London, N,W,3 Offiet and Consulting Hours: Telephone : MAIda Vale 909E/7 (General OIkce and Welfare for the Aged) Monday to Thursday 10 a.m.—1 p.m. 3—6 p.m. MAIda Vale 4449 (Employment Agency, annuallv licensed by thc L,C,C., and Social Services Dept.) fridaf 10 a.m.-l p.m. Robert Weltsch foreign governments received from their ambassadors very outspoken reports and that German ambassadors reported to Berlin THE FIRST OF APRIL desperately about the catastrophic impression made by the boycott. All this contributed to Thirty Years After the decision to confine the boycott to one day. After that, everything seemed to return to th ^''^^' °^ April is a memorable date in and the persecuted were the moral victors. " normal", Many Jews, to their own the history of German Jewry, For the first It is undeniable that determination to detriment, again inclined to illusions. That was time German Jews, as a collective, experienced moral resistance awoke at that time in the understandable, as it was by no means certain their complete helplessness before a ruthless Jews. The sensation created by the leader that the government would be able to continue toe who was out to destroy them physically in the Jiidische Rundschau —" Wear it its course. Nobody expected the Great Powers and morally. On this day. thirty years ago. with pride, the Yellow Badge "—was a proof to remain silent in face of all the provocations. the effect was not yet as final and destructive of the changed attitude. Then began that Nobody was aware of the tendencies towards ?s what was to happen later, but the mean remarkable period of Jewish activity, which unconventional appeasement, now again intention of the attackers was the complete lasted for five years. Jewish youth poured impressively and frightfully described in the humiliation of the Jews. into the Jewish evening colleges, Jewish recent book by two young British historians— For the German Jews the entire long- schools were started that not only spread born in 1936 and 1938!—who are accusing established scale of values in which they knowledge of Judaism and Jewry, but, like their own parents, the generation of the believed was shattered overnight. In retrospect solitary islands in the sea of Nazi barbarism, 'thirties, for yielding to the Nazi horror.* As 't seems to us that they should not have been were rooted in the idea of Humanity. A spirit far as the Jews were concerned, there was a taken so much by surprise. What could they of solidarity and brotherliness arose, such as pause in the persecutions, but the Nazi move expect from a National Socialist Government? exists only in the hour of danger. Jews ment did not renounce its inveterate attitude. ' he party had never concealed its rabid anti- recognised each other on the street or in the Tlie time could be used for organisation of ^mitism and it was clear that, in spite of underground railway, smiled at each other; emigration. "indenburg and in spite of the comparatively many even demonstratively unfolded Jewish moderate conservative partners in the Govern- newspap>ers in public, to show that they were Constructive Response of Gemian Jewry ftj^nt. something would be done to satisfy the Jews, though not yet marked by the Yellow Badge. Jâzi followers. Yet the majority of German The activity at that time of the Reichs Jews had expected that the Nazis would stop In retrospect we have some reservations to vertretung and the big Jewish organisations Short of overt attack. Now the Jews had been has not yet been sufficiently appreciated. abandoned to the henchmen of Julius make. The Yellow Badge could be worn with pride as long as it was no more than a Above all, the German Jews had an advantage ^treicher. The appeal published by the over those in countries later occupied in that fO-called " Zentralkomitee zur Abwehr der symbol connoting Jews, and in this way also officially and unequivocally distinguished us they were able to eflfect their emigration in judischen Greuel—und Boykotthetze" with an orderly fashion. A great number of Jews the apparent approval of the Government was from the Nazi barbarians. Even some non- Jews envied us at that time that we could were rescued, who found a place of work and a document of disgrace, such as had been a home in various countries of resettlement, relieved impossible in a civilised state in the dissociate ourselves from Nazism without recrimination. Ten years later, alas, this Badge especially Palestine, the U.K. and the United twentieth century. And in spite of all States, endeavours to prevent its implementation, the became a label for those to be despatched to the gas chambers. In view of this develop Thus April 1st, intended as a mortal blow ment one has an uneasy feeling about the for the Jews, was in reality a saving factor "hat happened on this day was an exhortation to the victims—though at an for many. It united the German Jews, inde "eredible. uncanny spectacle without pre- earlier and ostensibly innocuous stage—to pendent of party adherence, in a companion ^^dent. At that time, remember, we knew wear it with pride. ship of fate, and made them capable of nothing of Auschwitz, nothing of what actually standing up for themselves in a unique and ^^ in store for the whole of European Jewry, In 1933 the First of April still seemed a hazardous situation. •he outrageous events of the First of April kind of battle won. The boycott, originally The Yellow Badge which was then stuck on eemed already an unsurpassable climax of planned and announced as a permanent the Jews had its effect. It was a shock for trutality. institution, was officially cancelled after a the Jews, but it had a lesson for them and has Never shall I forget the taxi-ride I had that single day. The harm done to Germany's called into being a new selfconsciousness in ây v/ith Kurt Blumenfeld through the town prestige was enormous, and at that time the Jews all over the world. They have ceased entre of Berlin, past the big depots and shops Government had still to reckon with public to conceal that they are Jews, or to act as here S.A, troops stood on guard, often opinion. Even inside Germany public opinion if they did not know that the other man was tirrounded by curious spectators who could was to a large extent opposed to the boycott. a Jew. To be ashamed of Jewishness is so far earcely believe what they saw and frequently Some non-Jews—among them high Army away that we can scarcely imagine it now. °^ê rein to their Berlin humour, for it all officers in uniform and decorations—exposed When the non-Jewish world says of someone eemed farcical. The Jews were helpless, themselves courageously on the boycott day that he is a Jew. no discredit attaches to the ^nprotected. Then for the first time we under by demonstratively entering Jewish shops, statement. Today Jews acknowledge their stood literally what it meant to be without pro- scorning the warnings of the S.A. pickets. Jewishness as a matter of course—this is ^9''on or rights, abandoned and outlawed, Jewish institutions and newspapers received reflected, too, in modern literature, especiaUy J, 'th no authority to appeal to and no defence, hundreds of letters from non-Jewish sym in England and America. or only the other side was armed. The brown- pathisers. I can only speak of the Jiidische Rundschau which was swamped with letters of For the younger generation, 40 years old ^niformed rabble traversed the street with and under, the happenings of April 1st, 1933. th"^ of whitewash and brushes, daubing congratulation after the article "Tragt ihn mit Stolz, den Gelben Fleck!" had appeared. are already a sort of legend, TTiey can Pl^ shop-windows with gigantic caricatures and There came so many orders that thousands of scarcely imagine the shattering experience of 'thy insults next to the word " Jew " and the copies of the paper had to be reprinted to that day. The First of April has become one tar of David. It all seemed dreamlike and meet the demand, and many non-Jews were of the historical days of remembrance of the nreal. But strangely and surprisingly, what among the readers. Jewish people. Today it seems to us a pro Woke in the heart of the spectator was not logue to the total destruction. But it was also "'y anxiety and revolt, but also an inexplic- Abroad, the events of the First of April a turning-point in Jewish consciousness. hle feeling of superiority. The perpetrators in caused an upheaval of indignation against • Martin Gilbert and Richard Gott : Tbc Appcucrt. heir fury revealed themselves as inferior beings German rowdyism. We know today that the Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, Page 2 AJR INFORMATION April, 1963 Herbert Freeden moral collapse on a gigantic scale. To prevent this the Central Jewish institutions and organisa tions, the Jewish communities and the Jewish A DAY THAT SHOOK THE WORLD Press—in 1937 there were stiHl 65 Jewish periodi cals in Germany, with a total circulation of over 350,000—embarked on a two-pronged policy : to —OR DIDN'T IT? prepare for and help in an organised and orderly emigration, and to preserve the dignity, pride and " It is war—of a sort", wrote " The Times " have become part of that community and wish three days after the Nazis staged their " boycott" to remain so".

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