A number of Jews lost their lives in Germany during the bloody week-end when Hitler, with sadistic bravado, exterminated some of his old enemies and several of his depraved Nazi comrades who had helped him rise to power. Hitler attempted to wipe out all traces of his crimes by killing his closest accomplices. In his hysteria and desperation, he established a unique record of personal butchery such as no other ruler or dictator in modern times has. He has done more than any other dictator to discredit and disgrace the institution of dictatorship. He has also tightened the noose around his own neck.
The recent Hitler blood bath, by which he endeavored to cleanse Nazi Germany and save himself, served to reveal the monster in all his cruelty and dementia. If von Papen, the Vice Chancellor and close friend of President von Hindenburg, could not be slain by Hitler, von Papen’s aide, the ghostwriter of his now famous Marburg speech, Jung, was murdered by order of the frenzied Adolf. General von Schleicher and his wife and others on the Right, Colonel Roehm and other storm troop leaders on the Left, Catholic leaders, and educators were put to death. Some people were killed by mistake, according to Nazi reports.
The Jews did not figure in the alleged “mutiny.” It was a purely “Aryan” affair of blood-letting. And yet, as was to be expected, the Nazi Jew-baiters did make a clumsy attempt to blame the Jews even in this instance.
And a number of Jews were murdered in Silesia and elsewhere, under the old pretext that they were shot “while trying to escape.”
The shocking brutalities committed by Hitler and his clique have filled civilized people everywhere with abhorrence and disgust.
THE OUTRAGE IN TURKEY
The Turkish government of Mustapha Kemal Pasha has dealt drastically with the officials responsible for the expulsions and inhuman treatment of the Jews of Eastern Thrace. Sixty of these officials have been thrown into prison and the governor has been removed, after their attacks on the Jews had been established.
The Jewish refugees had been plundered and tortured. Most of them are in Istanbul, suffering great need, fearing to return to their homes notwithstanding the assurances of the central authorities that they will no longer be molested.
The central government, or rather Mustapha Kemal, adopted disciplinary measures against the local authorities only after numerous protests had reached him from abroad as well as from foreign representatives in Angora.
THE NEW DEAN’S UTTERANCE
Dr. Matthews, the new Dean of St. Paul’s, London, in his first public utterance, declared:
“It has distressed me deeply to read of the treatment of the Jews at the hands of prosecutors in Germany. Such persecution, we know, would not be tolerated in Britain for one single moment, but it is not here that our duty ends. It is my sincere belief that the great German nation will of its own accord realize the wrongs it is inflicting on people of the Jewish faith in their community. But should this not be the case, it is conceivable that active protests by Christians of other nationalities might bring home to them the gross injustice of it all.”
This is a truly Christian declaration, which should rekindle the spirit of indignation in all right-thinking people against the Hitler outrages, for the Nazi cruelties are directed almost as much against Christianity as against Judaism.
The Dean’s utterance was made before the latest Hitler butchery. We are sure that his condemnation of the Nazi crimes now would be even more vigorous and stirring.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.